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Washington Community Property
Pillar GuideWashington20 min read

Washington Community Property

Washington splits marital property in half. RCW 11.02.070 confirms one half to the survivor, so only the decedent's half passes by will or intestacy.

By Settled Editorial

Washington is a community property state. Property a married couple or a state registered domestic partnership builds during the relationship belongs to both people in equal halves. When one of them dies, RCW 11.02.070 confirms one half of that community property to the survivor and leaves only the other half to pass by will or by intestate succession.

That one rule reshapes almost every answer a Washington family needs after a death. It decides what a will can reach, what the intestate shares apply to, what counts toward the small estate affidavit limit, what a Medicaid recovery claim can follow, and what tax basis an heir takes. Content written for a separate property state gets Washington wrong in its first sentence. Every rule below was read at the Revised Code of Washington on August 8, 2026, and each section is linked. Once you know which half you are looking at, how Washington probate works covers the court steps that follow.

Washington Sorts Property Into Two Kinds

Start with the two lists. Everything a Washington couple owns sits on one of them.

Separate property. RCW 26.16.010 covers a spouse and RCW 26.16.020 covers a state registered domestic partner, in near identical words. Separate property is what a person owned before the marriage or before the partnership was registered, plus anything acquired afterward "by gift, bequest, devise, descent, or inheritance," along with the rents, issues and profits that property produces. An inheritance a wife receives during the marriage is hers alone, and so is the interest it earns.

Community property. RCW 26.16.030 defines it by subtraction. "Property not acquired or owned, as prescribed in RCW 26.16.010 and 26.16.020, acquired after marriage or after registration of a state registered domestic partnership by either domestic partner or either husband or wife or both, is community property." Wages earned during the marriage land here, because earnings appear on neither separate list. So does the house bought with those wages, the retirement account funded from them, and the car titled in one name.

Two rules narrow the picture:

  • Living apart changes the answer. RCW 26.16.140 says that when spouses or domestic partners live separate and apart, their respective earnings and accumulations are the separate property of each.
  • Deals between spouses carry a burden. RCW 26.16.210 puts the burden of proving good faith on the party asserting it whenever a question arises about a transaction between spouses or between domestic partners, directly or through a third person.

Chapter 26.16 RCW names state registered domestic partners in every operative section, so the halves work identically for them. One limit is worth knowing before you assume a couple could register: RCW 26.60.030 requires both people to be at least 18 and at least one of them to be 62 or older.

Whose name is on the paper does not settle it

Character follows how and when property was acquired. A deed in one spouse's name alone does not make a house separate, and a joint account does not make an inheritance community. Washington does supply a way to convert real property by agreement: RCW 26.16.050 lets one spouse or partner grant their community interest in community real property to the other, and that deed divests the land of "any or every claim or demand as community property" and vests it "in the grantee as separate property." The same section protects existing creditors of the grantor from the transfer.

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What Each Half Does At Death

Here is the sentence that governs. RCW 11.02.070 reads: "upon the death of a decedent, a one-half share of the community property shall be confirmed to the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner, and the other one-half share shall be subject to testamentary disposition by the decedent, or shall descend as provided in chapter 11.04 RCW."

The will side says the same thing from the other direction. RCW 26.16.030(1) states that neither person "shall devise or bequeath by will more than one-half of the community property." A Washington will that purports to give away the whole house cannot reach the survivor's half.

What it isWhere it goes when one spouse or partner dies
Community propertyThe survivor keeps their own one-half outright under RCW 11.02.070. The decedent's one-half passes by will, or under RCW 11.04.015 if there is no will.
The decedent's separate propertyPasses in full by will, or under RCW 11.04.015 if there is no will.
The survivor's separate propertyStays with the survivor. It is not part of the estate.

Washington gives a surviving spouse no elective or forced share, and no chapter of Title 11 RCW creates one. The confirmed half is the protection, and a court award under chapter 11.54 RCW sits on top of it. That difference trips up families and advisers arriving from separate property states, and what a Washington surviving spouse can claim covers the claims layer in full.

With no will, the halves behave very differently

RCW 11.04.015 gives the surviving spouse or state registered domestic partner all of the decedent's share of the net community estate in every intestate case. The fractions people remember apply only to the separate estate: one half if the decedent left issue, three quarters if there is no issue but a parent or a parent's issue survives, and the whole separate estate if none of those survive.

Take a couple married thirty years who own a home, two cars and a joint brokerage account, all bought with wages. Everything is community property. One spouse dies without a will, leaving two children of the marriage. The survivor keeps their own confirmed half under RCW 11.02.070 and takes the decedent's half under RCW 11.04.015(1)(a). The children inherit nothing by intestacy, because there is no separate estate for them to share. Who inherits the other half walks the full ladder, including what changes when the decedent owned separate property.

Why That Shrinks A Washington Probate

The clearest proof sits in the small estate statute. RCW 11.62.010 lets a successor collect personal property by affidavit 40 days after a death, and subsection (2)(c) sets the limit at "the value of the decedent's entire estate subject to probate, not including the surviving spouse's or surviving domestic partner's community property interest in any assets which are subject to probate in the decedent's estate, wherever located, less liens and encumbrances," capped at one hundred thousand dollars. The survivor's half comes off the top before you measure. A couple with $180,000 of community personal property and nothing else can be inside a $100,000 limit, because the count starts at $90,000.

Now read the rest of RCW 11.02.070 before you tell a family the survivor's half is out of reach. The same section continues: "The whole of the community property shall be subject to probate administration for all purposes of this title, including the payment of obligations and debts of the community, the award in lieu of homestead, the allowance for family support, and any other matter for which the community property would be responsible or liable if the decedent were living." Confirming the half settles ownership. It does not wall that half off from community creditors while the estate is open.

Real estate has its own path when no probate is opened. RCW 82.45.197(1)(f) lets a surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner claim the inheritance exemption from real estate excise tax on the decedent's community property interest with a certified death certificate and a signed lack of probate affidavit affirming that they are the sole and rightful heir. The documents go to the county treasurer.

Property You Brought From Another State

Couples who spent their working years in Ohio or Georgia and retired to Washington own property that was never community property when they bought it. Washington answers that with a separate label.

RCW 26.16.220 defines quasi-community property as all personal property wherever situated, plus real property described in the section, that is not community property and that the decedent acquired while domiciled elsewhere and that "would have been the community property of the decedent and of the decedent's surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner had the decedent been domiciled in this state at the time of its acquisition." Property taken in exchange for such property counts too.

RCW 26.16.230 then treats it like community property at death: "one-half of any quasi-community property shall belong to the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner and the other one-half of such property shall be subject to disposition at death by the decedent," descending like community property if there is no will.

Three limits ride along with it:

  • The label works only at death. RCW 26.16.250 makes the characterization effective solely for determining disposition at the time of a death, and says it does not affect the rights of the decedent's creditors. For every other purpose the property keeps its ordinary character.
  • Both people can waive it. The same section lets spouses or domestic partners waive, modify or relinquish any quasi-community property right by signed written agreement, wherever executed, naming community property agreements and prenuptial and postnuptial agreements among the instruments that do it.
  • Lifetime giveaways get a three-year look back. RCW 26.16.240 lets a surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner require a transferee to restore one half of a quasi-community property interest transferred to someone else within three years of death, if the decedent kept possession, income, a power to revoke or consume, or survivorship rights. The claim runs within the time for filing claims against the estate. Transfers for adequate consideration, transfers the survivor consented to, and good faith purchases are outside it.

Community Property Agreements

The community property agreement is the instrument Washington couples reach for most often, and the one outside sources describe least carefully.

RCW 26.16.120 is short. Nothing in the chapter or in any law of the state "shall prevent both spouses or both domestic partners from jointly entering into any agreement concerning the status or disposition of the whole or any portion of the community property, then owned by them or afterwards to be acquired, to take effect upon the death of either."

The formalities come next in the same section. Both people sign. The instrument is "in writing under their hands and seals," and it must be "witnessed, acknowledged and certified in the same manner as deeds to real estate are required to be" in Washington. RCW 64.04.020 sets that standard: in writing, signed by the party bound, and acknowledged before a person authorized to take acknowledgments of deeds. Changes follow the same route, since the section lets the agreement be "altered or amended in the same manner."

What makes it powerful is where the property lands. RCW 11.02.005(14) lists a community property agreement as a nonprobate asset, so property passing under one moves outside the will and outside the probate court. Two places in Washington law spell out what that looks like at the counter:

  • Real estate. RCW 82.45.197(1)(a) tells the county treasurer what to accept when property passes under a community property agreement: "a copy of the recorded agreement and a certified copy of the death certificate." Recording is not what makes the agreement valid. It is what the excise tax exemption asks for, so record the agreement when land is involved.
  • Vehicles. WAC 308-56A-335, the Department of Licensing rule headed "Owner deceased.", takes a copy of the death certificate and a copy of the community property agreement for a community property transfer. No probate, no letters, no affidavit of inheritance.

A will does not get to override it. Chapter 11.11 RCW normally lets a will redirect a nonprobate asset that names a different beneficiary, and RCW 11.11.010(7)(a)(iv) removes "a right or interest passing under a community property agreement" from that chapter entirely. RCW 11.11.020(1) is written "subject to community property rights" as well. Signing an agreement and later writing a will that leaves the same property to someone else sets up a conflict that chapter 11.11 RCW gives the will no route to win. Take both documents to a Washington attorney.

Couples comparing instruments should read a Washington revocable living trust beside this. The agreement is cheaper and does less: it moves property to one person, on one event, with no ongoing management and no answer for what happens when the survivor dies. Ways to keep assets out of Washington probate sets both against transfer on death deeds, survivorship title and beneficiary forms.

What A Community Property Agreement Does Not Do

RCW 26.16.120 carries its own limits, and three of them are in the statute's last sentence. The agreement "shall not derogate from the right of creditors." It cannot "be construed to curtail the powers of the superior court to set aside or cancel such agreement for fraud or under some other recognized head of equity jurisdiction, at the suit of either party." And it does not prevent the application of the laws governing community property and inheritance rights of slayers or abusers under chapter 11.84 RCW.

Four more limits come from outside the section:

  • Medicaid estate recovery follows it. RCW 43.20B.080 directs the state to seek adjustment or recovery from a deceased recipient's estate "and from nonprobate assets of the individual as defined by RCW 11.02.005." A community property agreement is on that list, so it does not put property beyond a recovery claim.
  • Children from an earlier relationship get nothing under it. The agreement sends community property to the surviving spouse or partner. What the survivor later does with that property is governed by the survivor's own will. Blended families who want a fixed result for the first spouse's children need a different instrument.
  • Divorce does not clearly undo it. RCW 11.07.010 revokes provisions in favor of a former spouse or former domestic partner after a dissolution, and subsection (5)(a) defines which instruments that section reaches, listing payable on death provisions, survivorship accounts, revocable trusts, transfer on death securities and deeds, and contracts affected by death. A community property agreement is not on that list. Anyone dissolving a Washington marriage should ask the attorney handling the dissolution to deal with the agreement directly.
  • It answers one death, not two. The agreement takes effect on the first death. The survivor then owns everything outright and needs their own plan for what happens next.

The Basis Answer Washington Families Miss

Community property carries a federal tax advantage that separate property states cannot offer, and it shows up when an heir sells.

26 U.S.C. 1014(a) gives property acquired from a decedent a basis equal to its fair market value at the date of death. Subsection (b)(6) then treats "property which represents the surviving spouse's one-half share of community property held by the decedent and the surviving spouse under the community property laws of any State" as property acquired from the decedent, so long as at least one half of the whole community interest was includible in the decedent's gross estate.

Where that condition is met, both halves of a Washington community asset are revalued at the first death, not just the decedent's half. A rental house bought for $150,000 and worth $700,000 at the death gives the surviving spouse a $700,000 basis on the whole property. The same house held as separate property in a separate property state would revalue only the decedent's half. Your basis in community property works through the arithmetic and the records you need to prove it, and a CPA or tax attorney should confirm the treatment of any asset you plan to sell.

Sorting Your Own Assets

Work asset by asset. For each one, answer four questions in order.

  1. When was it acquired? Before the marriage or the partnership registration, it starts as separate property under RCW 26.16.010 or RCW 26.16.020. After, RCW 26.16.030 starts it as community property.
  2. How was it acquired? Gift, bequest, devise, descent or inheritance keeps it separate whenever it arrived. Wages, and anything bought with wages, do not.
  3. Where did the couple live at the time? Property acquired while domiciled outside Washington may be quasi-community property under RCW 26.16.220 rather than community property, and RCW 26.16.230 splits it the same way at death.
  4. Did the couple sign anything? A community property agreement under RCW 26.16.120, an interspousal deed under RCW 26.16.050, or a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement can change the answer the first three questions give.

Gather the deed, the account opening documents, the beneficiary designation and any gift or inheritance paperwork before you decide. Where wages and an inheritance funded the same account, or where a couple moved between states more than once, the sorting stops being a paperwork exercise and a Washington probate attorney should take the file.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Washington a community property state?

Yes. IRS Publication 555 lists Washington among the nine community property states, alongside Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Wisconsin. The Washington rule sits at RCW 26.16.030, which defines community property as everything acquired after a marriage or after registration of a state registered domestic partnership that is not separate property under RCW 26.16.010 or RCW 26.16.020.

Who owns community property after one spouse dies in Washington?

RCW 11.02.070 confirms a one-half share of the community property to the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner. The other one-half share is subject to testamentary disposition by the decedent, or descends under chapter 11.04 RCW. RCW 26.16.030(1) says the same thing from the other side: neither person may devise or bequeath by will more than one-half of the community property.

Does community property avoid probate in Washington?

It shrinks what a probate has to move, and it can remove the need for one. RCW 11.62.010(2)(c) counts the estate against the $100,000 small estate affidavit limit without the surviving spouse's or surviving domestic partner's community property interest. Read the rest of RCW 11.02.070 before assuming the survivor's half is untouchable, because the whole of the community property stays subject to probate administration for community debts, the award in lieu of homestead and the family support allowance.

What is a Washington community property agreement?

RCW 26.16.120 lets both spouses or both domestic partners jointly agree on the status or disposition of the whole or any portion of their community property, then owned or afterwards acquired, to take effect on the death of either. The agreement must be in writing, signed by both, witnessed, acknowledged and certified the same way a deed to real estate is under RCW 64.04.020, and it can be altered or amended the same way.

Can a will override a Washington community property agreement?

Chapter 11.11 RCW lets a will redirect many nonprobate assets, and RCW 11.11.010(7)(a)(iv) takes a right or interest passing under a community property agreement out of that chapter. RCW 11.11.020(1) is also written subject to community property rights. Anyone who signs a community property agreement and later writes a will leaving assets elsewhere should have a Washington attorney look at both documents together.

What happens to property we bought before moving to Washington?

RCW 26.16.220 calls it quasi-community property: property acquired by the decedent while domiciled elsewhere that would have been community property had the couple lived in Washington at the time. RCW 26.16.230 splits it the same way at death, one half to the surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner and one half subject to the decedent's disposition. RCW 26.16.250 limits that label to disposition at death and says it does not affect the rights of the decedent's creditors.

Sources:

It is not legal advice.

Information current as of August 8, 2026

Settled Estate is not a law firm, and this content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Probate laws and procedures in Washington can change. Consult with a qualified attorney for advice specific to your situation. Full disclaimer.

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