Washington doesn’t have common law marriage. What it has instead is a court-made rule called the committed intimate relationship, or CIR, which lets a judge divide the property an unmarried couple built together. This post is part of a series on how that rule works. It answers one question: how CIR property division works, meaning what the court can divide when the relationship ends (community-like property) and what it can’t touch.
The court can divide what the two of you acquired during the relationship, no matter whose name is on it. That’s called community-like property, and it’s presumed to belong to both of you. The court can’t divide anything either of you owned before the relationship or received by gift or inheritance. That’s separate property, and unlike a divorce court, a CIR court has no power to reach it. Most of the disagreement is over which category an asset falls in, and the start date of the relationship decides more of that than anything else.
The three steps in CIR property division
First, did a CIR exist? Second, which property is community-like, meaning it would have been community property if you’d been married? Third, how should the court divide that property fairly? In re Marriage of Pennington, 142 Wn.2d 592, 602 (2000). This post is about steps two and three. Our post on the Connell factors covers step one.
What counts as community-like property
“All property acquired during a meretricious relationship is presumed to be owned by both parties.” Connell v. Francisco, 127 Wn.2d 339, 351 (1995). (The older cases use “meretricious” for what courts now call a CIR.) Wages either of you earned. A house bought during the relationship. Retirement contributions made during the relationship. A business one of you started while you were together. Title doesn’t matter. Each partner has “an undivided interest in the couple’s jointly acquired property, even though it was titled in” one name. Olver v. Fowler, 161 Wn.2d 655, 670-71 (2007).
Either partner can rebut the presumption. The usual way is tracing: showing that one partner bought the asset with money they had before the relationship, or with a gift or inheritance. In an unpublished 2026 Division III decision, In re Committed Intimate Relationship of Hammond and Kinnick, a house bought during the CIR was held separate because the down payment traced to one partner’s separate funds and the other partner couldn’t show that community money paid the mortgage or that his work increased the value.
What’s off the table
Separate property. Property either of you owned before the relationship “should not be before the court for distribution.” Connell, 127 Wn.2d at 349-50. “If there is no community-like property, then there is nothing to justly and equitably distribute.” Soltero v. Wimer, 159 Wn.2d 428, 434 (2007). Dividing pre-relationship property is an abuse of discretion. In re Marriage of Byerley, 183 Wn. App. 677, 685 (2014).
This is the sharpest difference from a divorce. In a divorce, the judge can award one spouse’s separate property to the other if that’s what a fair result requires. In a CIR case, the judge can’t. If your partner came into the relationship owning the house and kept it in their name, the house is theirs. Your claim, if you have one, is to reimbursement for what the community put into it.
Why the start date matters so much
Because “during the relationship” is the test, the day the relationship began decides what’s divisible. In Byerley, the couple signed a purchase agreement in July 1996 and moved in together in September 1996. The Court of Appeals held the house was acquired in July, before the CIR could begin, so it was separate property. Two months moved a house from one column to the other. Expect both sides to litigate the start date for exactly this reason.
The hard cases
The house your partner already owned
That house stays separate. Your argument is reimbursement: the community paid the mortgage, paid for a remodel, or did the work that increased the value. Courts hear that argument but demand proof, and the law presumes the appreciation of separate property is separate too, so you carry the burden of showing that community contributions, not the market, caused the increase. In an unpublished 2024 Division I decision, In re Marriage of Lomasney and Newby, the court reversed an award of 55 percent of a home’s appreciation because the claiming partner hadn’t shown community contributions caused it. In an unpublished 2026 decision, In re Domestic Partnership of Cartwright and Peters, a partner who’d made monthly payments for years got nothing from the house because she couldn’t show the payments were contributions to equity rather than rent. Keep the records of what you paid and what work you did. Without them there’s no claim.
Your unpaid work in your partner’s business
Labor during the relationship is a community-like asset, and earnings belong to the community. Koher v. Morgan, 93 Wn. App. 398, 402 (1998). If you worked in your partner’s separately owned business for little or no pay, the court can compensate the community for that work. The measure is usually the value of the labor, not a share of the business. In an unpublished 2024 Division III decision, In re Committed Intimate Relationship of Wolfe, the court affirmed an award of half the value of one partner’s uncompensated full-time work for the other’s business. In an unpublished 2026 Division II decision, Webley v. Seney, the court affirmed a wage-based award for years of work on the other partner’s ranch rather than a share of the ranch’s growth.
Retirement accounts
Contributions made during the relationship are community-like, and the court accounts for them. The problem is mechanics. Dividing an employer plan by court order (a QDRO) is a federal process written for spouses, former spouses, children, and dependents. A former partner who was never married to the account holder usually doesn’t fit, and plan administrators usually reject a QDRO from a CIR case. One federal appeals decision in 2009 allowed it where the partner qualified as a dependent, but that ruling is narrow and no Washington court has specifically applied it. In practice the court gives the non-account partner other assets to offset the retirement. Don’t sign a settlement that assumes a QDRO will work without confirming it with the plan first. Social Security is simpler: there’s no benefit on a former partner’s earnings record without a marriage.
Debts
The court can allocate debts too. In Gormley v. Robertson, 120 Wn. App. 31 (2004), the court affirmed a finding that a debt the couple incurred together should be shared by both, with a credit to the partner who had paid it. If one of you kept paying a joint loan after the split, that’s a common subject of the accounting.
Agreements between partners
Couples can agree in writing about what’s shared and what’s separate, and the Court of Appeals has noted that CIR partners may define community-like and separate property by agreement. In re Estate of Franks (Wash. Ct. App. Div. II, Feb. 3, 2026).
An oral agreement to keep things separate is possible but much harder. The partner relying on it has to prove “with clear and convincing evidence both (1) the existence of the agreement and (2) that the parties mutually observed the terms of the agreement throughout” the relationship. In re Parentage of G.W.-F., 170 Wn. App. 631, 638 (2012) (quoting In re Marriage of Mueller, 140 Wn. App. 498, 504-05 (2007)). In G.W.-F., two psychologists who’d kept separate accounts for 25 years and split household costs proved theirs. In unpublished 2024 and 2025 decisions, Walsh v. Reynolds and Allston v. Pollock, the partners couldn’t. If you want your property kept separate, put it in writing and then actually keep it separate.
How the court decides the property division
Once the court identifies the community-like property, it divides it in a way that’s “just and equitable,” the same standard a divorce court uses for community property. Equal is common. Equal isn’t required. In Muridan v. Redl, 3 Wn. App. 2d 44 (2018), the Court of Appeals affirmed a 50/50 split after a six-year relationship. A court can also weigh conduct in the case. In an unpublished 2025 Division I decision, Gonzales v. Camp, the court affirmed an even split of retirement accounts based on a negative inference from one partner’s failure to produce records in discovery. Hiding the ball costs you.
Two things you can do now
Make two lists. Everything acquired during the relationship, and everything either of you had before it. For each item, note whose name it’s in and where the money came from. That’s the characterization fight in one page.
Trace the down payments. For any house or major purchase, find the closing statement and the bank records showing where the down payment came from. Whoever can trace wins that argument.
Common questions
Can a court divide my partner’s separate property in a committed intimate relationship case? No. Only property acquired during the relationship is divisible. Property either partner owned before the relationship or received by gift or inheritance stays with that partner, though the community may be reimbursed for contributions to it.
The house is only in my partner’s name. Do I have a claim? If it was bought during the relationship, yes. Property acquired during a CIR is presumed to belong to both partners regardless of title. If your partner owned it before the relationship, your claim is limited to reimbursement for what the community put into it, and you have to prove it.
Is the property split 50/50 when a committed intimate relationship ends? Not automatically. The court divides community-like property in a way it finds just and equitable. Equal splits are common, but the court can divide unequally based on the facts.
This post is part of our series on committed intimate relationships in Washington. Start with the main guide, What is a committed intimate relationship in Washington, and what happens when it ends?, or read about maintenance and attorney fees when a CIR ends and how a business gets valued.
Last updated September 2026.
Law Offices of Daniel Ehrlich, Everett. Family law in Snohomish, Island, King, and Skagit Counties. (425) 954-5578.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Every case is different. If you’re separating from a partner you never married and there’s property between you, talk to an attorney.
