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: what happens to your share when an unmarried partner dies and the family says everything is theirs.
Your share was yours before your partner died, and death doesn’t take it away. If you were in a committed intimate relationship, you had a one-half interest in the property the two of you acquired during the relationship. That’s true even if it was all in your partner’s name. That interest doesn’t pass to your partner’s heirs, because it was never your partner’s to leave. What you don’t get is what a spouse would get: you can’t inherit as a surviving spouse, and you have no claim to your partner’s separate property. And you make the claim in the probate case, on the probate timeline, which moves faster than most people expect.
What the family is right about
You’re not a surviving spouse. Washington’s intestacy statute gives the estate of someone who dies without a will to a spouse or registered domestic partner and then to relatives. An unmarried partner isn’t on the list. The Supreme Court held so in Peffley-Warner v. Bowen, 113 Wn.2d 243, 251-53 (1989): the CIR doctrine “did not expand the rights of a surviving partner” to the deceased partner’s own property, and a partner isn’t a “spouse” for inheritance. So if your partner died without a will, their separate property, and their half of what you built together, goes to their children, parents, or siblings. If there’s a will that leaves you nothing, that holds too, as to your partner’s own property.
What the family is wrong about
They’re wrong that the house is theirs just because it was in your partner’s name. In a CIR, each partner holds “an undivided interest in the couple’s jointly acquired property, even though it was titled in” one partner’s name. Olver v. Fowler, 161 Wn.2d 655, 670-71 (2007). And “the death of one or both partners does not extinguish that right.” The deceased partner’s estate “merely steps into” the partner’s shoes and takes only what the partner could have taken: half.
When only one partner dies
Olver involved two partners who died together, but the Court of Appeals applied the same rule when only one partner died. In In re Estate of Langeland, 195 Wn. App. 74, 85-86 (2016), the estate argued that the partner’s death converted his share of the joint property into separate property beyond the court’s reach. Division I rejected that. The court may award the surviving partner part of the joint property in equity, whichever partner acquired it or held title.
The newest decision goes furthest. In In re Estate of Franks (Wash. Ct. App. Div. II, Feb. 3, 2026), a published opinion, the court held that the surviving partner’s one-half interest in community-like property “do[es] not spring to life only at the moment when a judge declares a committed intimate relationship existed.” It arose when the property was acquired, during the relationship. So the survivor’s half was never part of the deceased partner’s estate at all, and the estate owed no estate tax on it. The case was about tax, but the principle is exactly the one you need: your half was yours all along.
What you can claim when an unmarried partner dies, and what you can’t
You can claim your half of community-like property. Everything acquired during the relationship, from either partner’s earnings, no matter whose name is on it: the house if you bought it during the relationship, the accounts you funded from wages during the relationship, the business you started while you were together. The same presumption that applies in a breakup applies here. Connell v. Francisco, 127 Wn.2d 339, 351 (1995).
You can’t claim your partner’s separate property. Anything your partner owned before the relationship or received by gift or inheritance stays in the estate and passes under the will or to the heirs. “[T]he trial court may not distribute a partner’s separate property.” Langeland, 195 Wn. App. at 85. If the house was your partner’s before you moved in, your claim is for reimbursement of what the community put into it, and you’ll need the records to prove it.
You can’t claim a spouse’s share of anything. No intestate share, no spousal allowance, no right to take against the will.
Agreements matter. If the two of you signed a document saying who owned what, the court will look at it. Franks notes that partners may define community-like and separate property by agreement. An oral understanding is much weaker; the court requires clear and convincing evidence that the agreement existed and that both partners followed it throughout the relationship. In re Parentage of G.W.-F., 170 Wn. App. 631, 638 (2012).
How the claim gets made
This is where surviving partners get hurt, because the procedure is different from a breakup. There’s no lawsuit against your former partner. The family or the person named in the will opens a probate case, and you make your claim inside it. The usual vehicle is a petition under the Trust and Estate Dispute Resolution Act, chapter 11.96A RCW, asking the court to determine that a CIR existed. The petition asks the court to confirm that half of the community-like property belongs to you rather than the estate. That’s how the survivor did it in Franks. It’s also how it went in an unpublished 2025 Division III decision, In re Estate of Hurd. There, a surviving partner of 20 years who’d contributed to the down payment on a home in the decedent’s name brought CIR, constructive trust, and unjust enrichment claims by petition, and had the closed estate reopened to do it.
The will fight is a different fight
Your CIR claim is separate from any fight over the will itself. In an unpublished 2026 Division I decision, In re Estate of Wall, a surviving partner lost her challenge to a personal representative’s deed. But the trial court expressly preserved her CIR claim, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Losing on the will doesn’t mean losing on your half.
Fees work differently here too. The usual rule in a CIR case is that each side pays their own lawyer. In probate, the court has discretion to award fees to either side under RCW 11.96A.150, and in Franks it awarded them to the estate. That cuts both ways.
The deadlines when an unmarried partner dies
Two clocks may be running.
The first is the CIR deadline. You must bring a claim to divide CIR property within three years of the end of the relationship. In re Kelly, 170 Wn. App. 722, 737 (2012). If you and your partner were still together when they died, the relationship ended at death and the three years runs from then. If you’d separated before the death, the clock started at the separation, and the estate will raise it. The heirs did exactly that in Hurd, though the Court of Appeals decided the appeal on other grounds.
The second is probate’s own schedule. Once the probate opens and the estate notifies creditors, the time to present claims against the estate is short, measured in months. The estate’s lawyer will argue those deadlines apply to you. Whether a CIR claim to your own half is a “claim against the estate” in that sense isn’t settled, and you shouldn’t wait to find out. If your partner has died, see a lawyer before the probate gets ahead of you.
Two things you can do now
Find out whether anyone has opened a probate, and where. Probate cases are in the superior court, usually in the county where your partner lived. The clerk can tell you if a case exists. If the family has already opened one, the clock is running.
Gather proof of the relationship and the property. The same records that prove a CIR in a breakup: leases, deeds, loan applications, insurance and benefit forms naming you, bank statements, and any wills or powers of attorney the two of you signed. Then the records of what the two of you bought during the relationship and with what money. The estate has your partner’s documents. You need your own.
Common questions
Do I inherit from my partner if we were never married in Washington? Not as a spouse. An unmarried partner has no intestate share and can’t take against a will. What you keep is your own one-half interest in the property acquired during the relationship, which was never your partner’s to leave.
The house is in my deceased partner’s name. Can the family take it? Not all of it, if it was bought during a committed intimate relationship. You hold an undivided one-half interest regardless of title, and the estate steps into your partner’s shoes for the other half. If your partner owned the house before the relationship, it’s separate property and your claim is limited to reimbursement.
How do I make a committed intimate relationship claim after my partner dies? By petition in the probate case, usually under the Trust and Estate Dispute Resolution Act, asking the court to find the CIR existed and to confirm your half of the community-like property. Probate deadlines are short, so act quickly.
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 what property gets divided when a CIR ends and the deadline to file.
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 your partner has died and you were never married, talk to an attorney before the probate moves ahead without you.
