2005 Washington Revised Code RCW 26.16.030: Community property defined — Management and control.

Property not acquired or owned, as prescribed in RCW 26.16.010 and 26.16.020, acquired after marriage by either husband or wife or both, is community property. Either spouse, acting alone, may manage and control community property, with a like power of disposition as the acting spouse has over his or her separate property, except:

(1) Neither spouse shall devise or bequeath by will more than one-half of the community property.

(2) Neither spouse shall give community property without the express or implied consent of the other.

(3) Neither spouse shall sell, convey, or encumber the community real property without the other spouse joining in the execution of the deed or other instrument by which the real estate is sold, conveyed, or encumbered, and such deed or other instrument must be acknowledged by both spouses.

(4) Neither spouse shall purchase or contract to purchase community real property without the other spouse joining in the transaction of purchase or in the execution of the contract to purchase.

(5) Neither spouse shall create a security interest other than a purchase money security interest as defined in *RCW 62A.9-107 in, or sell, community household goods, furnishings, or appliances, or a community mobile home unless the other spouse joins in executing the security agreement or bill of sale, if any.

(6) Neither spouse shall acquire, purchase, sell, convey, or encumber the assets, including real estate, or the good will of a business where both spouses participate in its management without the consent of the other: PROVIDED, That where only one spouse participates in such management the participating spouse may, in the ordinary course of such business, acquire, purchase, sell, convey or encumber the assets, including real estate, or the good will of the business without the consent of the nonparticipating spouse.

[1981 c 304 § 1; 1972 ex.s. c 108 § 3; Code 1881 § 2409; RRS § 6892.]

*Reviser's note: Article 62A.9 RCW was repealed in its entirety by 2000 c 250 § 9A-901, effective July 1, 2001. For later enactment, see Article 62A.9A RCW.      Severability -- 1981 c 304: "If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected." [1981 c 304 § 46.] Community property -- Homestead selection: RCW 6.13.020. Descent and distribution of community property: RCW 11.04.015. Quasi-community property defined: RCW 26.16.220. Simultaneous death, uniform act: Chapter 11.05 RCW.