Husband’s Use of Separate Property Funds to Buy House He Titled in His and Wife’s Name was a Gift
Husband’s Use of Separate Property Funds to Buy House He Titled in His and Wife’s Name was a Gift
A gift involves a voluntary transfer of property made gratuitously and without consideration. The recipient can prove a gift was made by showing an intent to make the gift, delivery of the property, and its acceptance. The main issue in this proof requirement is intent.
Husband in this divorce case had used his inheritance or separate property from his deceased parents to buy a home. He placed title to the home in both his and Wife’s names, which created a rebuttable presumption that he intended to make a gift to Wife of an undivided half interest in the home. Husband could rebut that presumption by evidence that clearly established no intention to make a gift. His denial that he intended to make a gift was insufficient to rebut the gift presumption.
Husband and Wife were reuniting at the time the house was purchased. At that time, he also bought Wife a car and titled it in her name, added her to accounts she had previously been excluded from. He testified he did that because he wanted to “make things right.” He said he was not going to leave Wife and their son without a home, that she deserved the home, and he was happy that they were finally going to be a family.
This evidence was enough to permit the trial judge to conclude that Husband intended to make a gift to wife at the time he bought the house.
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