Can I move my personal property before I get a divorce?

In California each spouse has equal management and control of community property. You can take whatever you want but you will be required to account for everything you take. If you receive more in value than your spouse, you will have to pay to your spouse one-half the value of whatever you receive.

Have either of you served the other with a summons and complaint for dissolution? If so, there are what are known as automatic temporary restraining orders (ATRO)s that would prevent you from disposing or selling community property without mutual consent or Order of the Court. Otherwise, if you are both owners of the storage unit, and you did not take anything that you know to be hers or that is even arguably both of yours, you would seem to have a right to access your personal possessions.

This advice does not create an attorney/client relationship, which may only be created by a written agreement between the two of us. If the property you speak of is separate (owned before marriage, purchased with separate property, a gift or through a will) you may take it. If you take something that was purchased with your earnings or is community property, you are liable to the community for half the value. If you take things that are community, but not really associated with you, it will not look good to the court. If the divorce has not been filed, you may really do what you want, subject to reimbursement and the ill will of the court. Good luck.

You don't have to wait. I suggest that you meet at the storage, you remove what you are taking and she remove what she is taking, or she can put it back and keep the storage. If she won't do that, just take what is yours and leave what is hers and damage nothing. Send her the keys and tell her that whatever is still there she may have. Smart people make complete inventories and what was taken and what remained and also take many, many pictures. Smart people also bring trustworthy witnesses who can later testify that, no, you did not steal the non-existent Louis XIV chair. One more thing. When you say "mine" or "hers", be careful. Everything acquired during the time you were married and living together is presumed to be community property. That includes things that she wouldn't even know what they were.

On the summons there are TRO's read them. No you cant transfer but that means like a sale or giving away to a third party. You can transfer from one location to another but keep a log.

If you can get into the storage unit and remove only those items that are yours, you can do so at any time but maintain a list and be ready to defend that the items are yours. If you can not get into the unit without the cooperation of your wife, you should seek an early court order to be able to do so. Normally, such divisions are done early in the process and are not left until the dissolution is final.

Until a court decides who should get what property it is jointly owned and both you and your wife have equal rights to the property. If no action is pending, the worst that will happen if you take you property is that you will be foreced to repay her one half the value of the property. If an action is pending you cannot sell or give away items without her agreement or court order.