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: for unmarried parents, how the property case and the parenting case fit together.
They’re two different cases with two different sets of rules, and they usually start as two separate filings. The parenting plan and child support come from Washington’s parentage statutes and exist whether or not you were ever in a committed intimate relationship. Unmarried parents have the same parenting rights and child support obligations as married ones. The property claim is a separate civil action under the CIR doctrine, with its own deadline and its own limits. Courts often combine the two cases once both are on file, but getting the first filing right matters, because a mistake at the start can undo the orders you got.
For unmarried parents, the parenting case doesn’t depend on a CIR
Whether you were roommates or partners for 20 years, your rights and duties as a parent are the same either way. Parents establish parentage under chapter 26.26A RCW, Washington’s version of the Uniform Parentage Act, usually by the acknowledgment both parents signed at the hospital or by court order. After that, the court enters a parenting plan and a child support order in a parentage action under chapter 26.26B RCW, using the same parenting plan standards and the same child support schedule (chapter 26.19 RCW) that apply in a divorce. There are mandatory court forms for this. The petition, the parenting plan, and the child support worksheets are all pattern forms from the Washington courts.
Nothing about that requires proving a committed intimate relationship. A court will never deny you a parenting plan because you and the other parent weren’t a “real” couple. The Connell factors have nothing to do with it.
The property case is separate
Dividing the house, the accounts, and the retirement savings is a different matter. That requires proving a CIR existed, characterizing the property, and dividing what’s community-like. There are no pattern forms for it. It’s a civil complaint your lawyer drafts, and it has a three-year deadline from the end of the relationship. In re Kelly, 170 Wn. App. 722, 737 (2012). The parenting case has no such deadline. Parents who split up years ago can still ask for a parenting plan; a partner who split up years ago may have lost the property claim.
In our practice we usually file the two separately and combine them later. The parentage petition goes in on the mandatory forms, often first, because the children’s schedule and support can’t wait. The CIR complaint follows once the property picture is clear. Once both are pending, either side can ask the court to consolidate them so one judge hears everything. Courts have approved that. In an unpublished 2024 Division I decision, De Simone v. Smith, the court held the trial court properly consolidated the parentage and parenting plan action with the CIR action under CR 42(a). In another unpublished 2024 Division I decision, Cox v. Fulmer, a parenting petition and a CIR property complaint ran together, with a temporary parenting plan entered at the outset and parenting plan restrictions decided at trial.
Get the first filing right
The caption matters more than it does in a divorce. Never-married parents sometimes file a “legal separation” or “dissolution” petition because those are the forms they can find. The court has no authority to hear either one for a couple that was never married. In an unpublished 2026 Division III decision, Adams v. Adams, never-married parents filed a legal separation petition. The court dismissed it for lack of authority and stayed the case until the parents filed a proper CIR and parenting petition. When the stay lifted, the temporary parenting plan from the mis-captioned case didn’t survive. The Court of Appeals also reversed a contempt finding against one parent for violating it, because there was no valid order to violate. File the parentage petition as a parentage petition.
What the automatic order does when there are children
In Snohomish and Island Counties, the court issues an automatic temporary order the day you file a parentage petition or a CIR case. SCLSPR 94.04(b); Island County LSPR 94(a), (b). When there are minor children, the Snohomish order also bars either parent from changing the children’s residence without agreement or a court order, gives each parent access to the children’s school and medical records, and bars negative comments about the other parent in front of the children. That’s protection you get on day one of the parenting case, without a hearing. King County’s rule, LFLR 4(h), issues its automatic order only in divorce, legal separation, and invalidity cases.
Temporary orders exist on the parenting side
The CIR case has no temporary support hearing. The parenting case does. A parent can ask for a temporary parenting plan and temporary child support at the start of the parentage action, and in Cox the trial court entered a temporary plan with equal residential time at the outset. So the “no temporary orders in a CIR case” rule doesn’t leave parents without interim relief. It means the interim relief comes through the parenting case, for the children, and not through the property case, for the adults.
Fees are available on the parenting side
The divorce fee statute doesn’t apply to a CIR property claim, so each partner pays their own lawyer for that part of the case. The parentage statute is different. RCW 26.26B.060 lets the court award fees in a parentage action. Your lawyer will keep the time spent on the parenting plan and support separate from the time spent on the property claim and ask for fees on the parenting side only. Even if the court consolidates the cases, that bookkeeping still has to happen. Our post on maintenance and attorney fees when a CIR ends covers the rest of the fee picture.
Don’t trade child support for property
A parent can’t waive child support, and a property payment can’t stand in for it. In an unpublished 2024 Division III decision, In re Parenting and Support of J.L.G., after 22 years of unmarried cohabitation, one parent argued that a $58,000 payment in the CIR property division was supposed to cover child support. The trial court excluded the evidence, and the Court of Appeals agreed: parents can’t waive child support, and any arrangement in its place has to be a reasonable substitute approved by the court. Settle the property case on its merits and let the support order be the support order.
Two things you can do now
Get the parenting case filed on the right forms. If there’s no parenting plan and no support order, that’s the first filing, on the mandatory parentage forms, in the county where the children live. The property claim can follow.
Calendar the CIR deadline separately. The parenting case can wait if it has to. The property claim can’t. Three years from the end of the relationship, and treat the earliest plausible end date as the real one.
Common questions
Do unmarried parents in Washington have the same custody rights as married parents? Yes. Once parentage is established, the parenting plan and child support are decided under the same standards a divorce court uses. Whether the parents were in a committed intimate relationship doesn’t affect it.
Can the property case and the parenting case be combined? Yes. They usually start as separate filings and can be consolidated so one judge hears both. The parenting case is filed on mandatory forms; the CIR property claim is a separately drafted civil complaint with a three-year deadline.
Can we agree that a property payment covers child support? No. Parents can’t waive child support, and a court won’t treat a CIR property payment as a substitute for it unless the court has approved the arrangement as reasonable.
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 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 you have children with a partner you never married and you’re separating, talk to an attorney.
