Marital Property Laws
by State

Why Marital Property Law Defines Your Enforcement Strategy

Whether you are a creditor’s attorney, debt collector, process server, landlord, or private investigator, understanding marital property law is the single most important variable in post-judgment enforcement. The same $150,000 judgment against a married debtor can produce dramatically different outcomes depending entirely on which state the debtor lives in, what type of property they own, and how title is held.

In Texas — a community property state — a single-spouse judgment creditor can reach the community property estate, giving access to both spouses’ earnings from the entirety of the marriage. In Florida — a common law state with strong tenancy by the entirety — the same judgment against one spouse may be entirely blocked from reaching the family’s jointly held real estate. In Pennsylvania, there is no homestead exemption at all, meaning a $2M Philadelphia suburban home held individually has $2M of accessible equity. In North Carolina, consumer wage garnishment is completely prohibited. These are not minor procedural differences — they are the difference between collecting and collecting nothing.

This hub compiles comprehensive enforcement guides for every US jurisdiction. Each state page provides detailed analysis of TBE rules, homestead caps, wage garnishment statutes, major employers, judgment lien duration, and step-by-step enforcement strategy tailored to that state’s specific legal environment.

Nine states follow the community property system: Arizona, California, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin. In these states, most property acquired during marriage is owned equally by both spouses as community property. For creditors, this cuts both ways: community debts (those benefiting the marriage) can reach community property of both spouses, but separate property may be insulated. The enforcement implications differ significantly state by state within the community property framework.

Opt-In Community Property States — 5 Jurisdictions

Five common law states allow married couples to voluntarily convert assets to community property via written agreement: Alaska, Florida, Kentucky, South Dakota, and Tennessee. These states primarily offer estate planning and tax benefits rather than creditor-facing community property rules. For enforcement purposes, treat these as common law states unless a specific community property agreement has been executed.

The remaining 36 states, plus Washington DC, follow common law property rules, in which each spouse owns property titled in their name individually. The critical enforcement variables in common law states are: (1) whether the state recognizes tenancy by the entirety for jointly held marital real estate, and (2) the size of the homestead exemption protecting primary residence equity. These two factors, combined with wage garnishment rules, define the enforcement landscape in each state.

Special Jurisdictions: Washington DC & Puerto Rico

Understanding where each state falls on the key enforcement variables — TBE, homestead, and wage garnishment — allows creditors to quickly prioritize enforcement actions when debtors have assets in multiple states, or to calibrate expectations when a debtor lives in a single jurisdiction.

States With No Homestead Exemption — Every Dollar of RE Accessible

Four jurisdictions provide no meaningful homestead exemption for unsecured judgment creditors. In these jurisdictions, individually titled primary residences have their full equity accessible from dollar one — making them exceptional real property enforcement environments despite any TBE protection on jointly held homes.

States Banning Consumer Wage Garnishment

Four states prohibit consumer wage garnishment for standard judgment creditors: North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Texas. In these states, enforcement strategy must pivot to real property liens on individually titled or above-homestead properties, bank levies timed after payroll deposits (wages deposited to a bank account lose their exemption status), and vehicle execution. Knowing this upfront shapes every enforcement decision in these states.

Longest Judgment Lien Durations

Judgment lien duration directly affects passive enforcement strategy. A 20-year lien filed once and maintained until the debtor sells or refinances is fundamentally different from a 5-year lien that must be actively renewed or it lapses. For creditors pursuing long-term passive enforcement on high-value real estate, states with long lien durations offer exceptional value.

1. New Jersey & Rhode Island — 20 years. Among the longest in the nation. File once, collect passively for two decades.
2. Virginia & New York — 20 years. Virginia’s unique 133-jurisdiction structure requires comprehensive filing, but each 20-year lien is a durable enforcement tool.
3. Oregon — 10 years. Reasonable duration for the Pacific Northwest’s highest-value enforcement market.
4. Utah, Vermont, Wyoming — 8 years. Moderate; calendar 7.5-year renewal alerts for Wyoming’s 5-year sub-limit.
5. Pennsylvania, Ohio, Oklahoma — 5 years. Short duration requires proactive renewal or lien priority is lost. Set 4.5-year alerts immediately on filing.

Regardless of which state you are enforcing in, an effective post-judgment enforcement strategy follows a consistent analytical framework. Apply this framework to every state, then layer in the state-specific rules from each jurisdiction’s guide.

The Four Enforcement Profiles

Profile A — Maximum Enforcement States: No TBE (or TBE destroyable via joint liability) + modest homestead + standard wage garnishment + strong employer base. Examples: Oregon (no TBE, $40,000 homestead, Nike/Intel wages), Utah (no TBE, $42,075 homestead, Adobe/Goldman SLC wages), Georgia (no TBE, $21,500 homestead, Delta/Coca-Cola/UPS/Home Depot wages), Illinois (no TBE, $15,000 homestead, Chicago financial sector wages). These states offer the most direct path to full enforcement.

Profile B — Real Property Enforcement States: Strong TBE on joint primary residences but individually titled investment and vacation properties fully exposed, or extreme above-homestead equity on high-value primary residences. Examples: Virginia ($25,000 homestead leaves most individually titled VA homes almost fully exposed), New Jersey (no homestead at all — every dollar of individually titled NJ real estate accessible), Washington DC (no homestead — Georgetown and DuPont Circle properties fully exposed). In these states, the real property lien is more powerful than garnishment, but combined with 25% wage garnishment on BigLaw/finance/federal contractor wages, they become exceptionally productive enforcement environments.

Profile C — Bank Levy States: Consumer wage garnishment banned, requiring enforcement pivots to bank account levies timed after payroll deposits. Examples: Pennsylvania (TBE + no homestead + wage ban → Comcast/Vanguard/PNC post-deposit bank levies), South Carolina (no TBE + $58,255 homestead + wage ban → BMW/Boeing timed bank levies), Texas (community property + unlimited homestead + wage ban → post-deposit levies from oil/tech/healthcare sectors). The key insight: wages deposited to a bank account lose their wage protection in all states including those with wage garnishment bans. Timing is everything.

Profile D — Specialized Asset States: Distinctive enforcement opportunities beyond the standard real property + wage garnishment framework. West Virginia and Wyoming (Marcellus Shale / Powder River Basin mineral royalties — NOT wages, fully reachable via bank levy), Oklahoma (oil/gas royalties — same analysis), Texas (vast ranch and investment real estate accessible above unlimited homestead’s acreage cap), Louisiana (civil law community property requiring specialized civil procedure), Puerto Rico (civil code conjugal partnership requiring local licensed counsel and judgment domestication).

Destroying TBE: The Joint Liability Strategy

In all states that recognize TBE, the protection applies only to single-spouse creditors. When both spouses are jointly liable for the debt, TBE is destroyed and the judgment lien attaches to the marital home. The primary vehicle for establishing joint spousal liability when only one spouse originally incurred the debt is the doctrine of necessaries, which imposes mutual liability on both spouses for debts incurred for family necessities including medical care, household expenses, food, and shelter. Most TBE states have a version of this doctrine codified in statute. Medical debts are the most commonly litigated necessaries claims. If your debtor’s spouse received the medical services or the services were for the family, pursue joint liability arguments aggressively.

The Post-Deposit Bank Levy Strategy

In the four states that ban consumer wage garnishment (NC, SC, PA, TX) and in any state where wage garnishment is temporarily frustrated, wages deposited to a bank account lose their protected status as wages. Once in the bank account, they become fungible bank funds reachable by standard bank levy. The strategy: (1) conduct a debtor examination to identify the debtor’s bank, account numbers, and payroll schedule; (2) identify the employer’s payroll processing dates (biweekly, semi-monthly, or monthly); (3) serve the writ of execution on the debtor’s bank the day after the scheduled direct deposit. The timing precision matters — a levy served a week after payday may find an account drained by living expenses. A levy served 24 hours after direct deposit captures the full paycheck before any is spent.

Mineral Royalty Enforcement — The Overlooked Opportunity

In energy-producing states — Oklahoma, West Virginia, Wyoming, Texas, North Dakota, Louisiana, New Mexico, Montana, and Colorado — thousands of landowners receive monthly oil, natural gas, and coal royalty payments directly deposited to bank accounts. These royalty payments are not wages and receive no wage exemption protection in any state. They are fully reachable via bank levy timed after monthly operator deposits. The WOGCC (Wyoming), WV DEP, Oklahoma Corporation Commission, and Texas RRC maintain online well databases that identify producing wells by location and operator — use these to identify royalty-paying properties before pursuing bank levies. Mineral rights are also real property interests in all US states, enabling judgment liens in counties where producing mineral interests are located.

Domesticating Foreign Judgments

When you obtain a judgment in one state and need to enforce it against assets in another, you must domesticate (register) the judgment in the target state before local enforcement mechanisms become available. The Uniform Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act (UEFJA), adopted in most states, provides a streamlined procedure for filing a certified copy of the foreign judgment with the target state’s court. However, some states have non-uniform procedures, and Puerto Rico requires a full recognition proceeding before its Court of First Instance. File the domesticated judgment promptly — in states with short lien durations (Pennsylvania’s 5 years, Wyoming’s 5 years, Ohio’s 5 years), clock starts running from the domestication date.

Comparing Community Property and Common Law States for Creditors

Community property states are sometimes assumed to be more creditor-favorable because both spouses’ income during marriage is community property. This is only true for community debts — those incurred for the benefit of the marital community. For separate debts (debts incurred by one spouse before marriage, or debts that did not benefit the community), the reach against community property is limited to the debtor-spouse’s share. In practice, the analysis in community property states often parallels the common law analysis: the key questions are whether the debt is a community debt reachable against community property, whether the property is separately or jointly titled, and what exemptions protect it.

People Locator Skip Tracing has provided professional investigative services to debt collectors, creditors’ attorneys, process servers, and judgment enforcement specialists since 2004. Our investigators are licensed and insured, covering all 52 jurisdictions in this guide — all 50 states, Washington DC, and Puerto Rico.

Our clients include collection attorneys, debt collection agencies, process servers, private investigators, landlords, small business creditors, and banks. We understand that judgment enforcement is a time-sensitive business — every month without collection is a month of interest accruing and assets potentially being transferred. Our 24-hour turnaround is a core commitment.