Community Property Rights and Obligations in Arizona

All property acquired by either husband or wife during the marriage is the community property of the husband and wife. (A.R.S. § 25-211) A spouse's real and personal property that is owned by that spouse before marriage and that is acquired by that spouse during the marriage by gift, devise or descent, and the increase, rents, issues and profits of that property, is the separate property of that spouse. (A.R.S. § 25-213) Each spouse has the sole management, control and disposition rights of each spouse's separate property. The spouses have equal management, control and disposition rights over their community property and have equal power to bind the community. Either spouse separately may acquire, manage, control or dispose of community property or bind the community. (A.R.S. § 25-214) Marital rights in property which is acquired in this state during marriage by persons married without the state who move into the state shall be controlled by the laws of the state. (A.R.S. § 25-217) Either husband or wife may authorize the other by power of attorney, executed and acknowledged in the manner conveyances of real property are executed and acknowledged, to execute, acknowledge and deliver, in his or her name and behalf, any conveyance, mortgage or other instrument affecting the separate or community property or any interest therein of the spouse executing the power of attorney. (A.R.S. § 33-454)

In transactions regarding guaranty, indemnity or suretyship issues, Arizona is almost unique among community property jurisdictions in that it requires the joinder of both spouses to bind the marital community in any transaction of these types. In order to avoid problems under the federal Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), the sole and separate property belonging to the non-principal spouse in a transaction should not be bound and should be excluded. Sole and separate property belonging to the principal spouse in the transaction may be bound together with the entire marital community. In transactions concerning personal property, either spouse may separately bind the marital community, but the joinder of both spouses is required in agreements regarding real property in order to bind or encumber community property.