Years of living together create no property rights in Georgia. What each partner walks away with depends on the deed and on whatever the two of them wrote down.
A Written Agreement Between Partners Is Enforceable
In Crooke v. Gilden, 262 Ga. 122 (1992), two partners signed a written agreement to contribute toward improving a house and to share expenses and assets. When they split up, one argued the agreement was void because their relationship was an unspoken part of the consideration for it.
The Supreme Court of Georgia rejected that. “Nothing in the contract casts upon either of the parties the responsibility to perform any illegal activity,” and the relationship “was at most incidental to the contract rather than required by it.” The agreement was supported by legal consideration and was enforced.
How the Agreement Is Written Matters
Abrams v. Massell, 262 Ga. App. 761 (2003), involved a couple who lived together for years and signed a contract not to change the gifts they had made to each other by will. The Court of Appeals held it enforceable as a matter of law, noting that the contract “does not describe their relationship as romantic or sexual, require that they share a bedroom, or require that they live together as husband and wife.”
It called the parties friends, recited shared expenses and a release of claims against each other’s property, and said nothing about the relationship itself. That is the drafting lesson.
Joint Title Is a Remedy on Its Own
Crooke also let the same partner proceed with an equitable partition of the jointly owned real estate under OCGA 44-6-160, separately from the contract claim. Putting a house in both names opens that route whether or not the couple ever signed anything.
Without title or a signed agreement, you are left arguing about an oral one.
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This post is a quick overview of the law and is not intended as legal advice. Please feel free to contact our office for a consultation if you have questions about this or any other legal aspects regarding your case!