Does my fathers house get split 50/50 between his wife My Mother, and his 3 kids?
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Does my fathers house get split 50/50 between his wife My Mother, and his 3 kids?
My father passed away in 2017.
He was married to my mother at the time of
death, but in the process of getting divorced.
He had no will.
They were married when he got the loan for the
house.
We live in Texas.
My question is How does the property get split
up?
Asked on July 11, 2019 under Real Estate Law, Texas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 4 years ago | Contributor
"In the process of getting divorced" is irrelevant: either you are married or you are not married. If the divorce was not final yet, he was still married. Since there was no will, his estate, including the house, passes by "intestate succession"--the rules for who gets what when there is no will. Texas is a community property state as you note. To oversimplify, anything acquired or earned during marriage other than an inheritance is community property, anything owned pre-marriage is separate property, as is any inheritance. You write that they were married when "he got the loan for house": we assume that means he bought the house while married. If so, it is community property. His wife (your mother) keeps her 1/2 interest in the house (her 1/2 interest in community property). The other 1/2 interest is split or divided among his children. The wife (your mother) also, however, gets a "life estate" in the home--that is, regardless of ownership, the right to use it (live in it) for the remainder of her life. After she passes away, then the children get their rights to it.
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