When a married couple divorces, there is a large body of Arizona law governing how the couple’s assets and debts should be divided and allocated between them. This law consists of certain statutes as well as numerous court decisions interpreting the statutes and dictating how the statutes are to be applied in various situations.<\/p>\n
But when an unmarried couple without a written\u00a0cohabitation agreement\u00a0splits up, what law governs the division of the assets and debts they acquired during their cohabitation? Assets acquired and\/or paid for during a period of unmarried cohabitation are not community property because the assets are not acquired during marriage.<\/strong> The marital and domestic relations statutes, therefore, do not apply.<\/p>\n In the case of jointly titled real estate, A.R.S. Section 12-1211 allows either owner\/claimant to file a civil action for partition<\/em> of the real estate. Bank accounts, personal property and other assets, however, must be divided via civil court action based on various partnership theories.\u00a0 These theories include breach of contract<\/em> and unjust enrichment.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n Arizona’s Supreme Court has held that when unmarried cohabitants agree by word or conduct to pool their resources and equally divide their assets, that agreement can and should be enforced.\u00a0 See Cook v. Cook<\/em>, 691 P.2d 664, 142 Ariz. 573 (Ariz. 1984).\u00a0 The Arizona Supreme Court later expanded the ruling in Cook<\/em>, finding that even contributions of marital services rather than money could be sufficient to support a claim by the non-wage-earning cohabitant for a share of the assets acquired \/ paid for during the period of cohabitation.\u00a0 See Carroll v. Lee, <\/em>712 P.2d 923, 148 Ariz. 10 (Ariz. 1986).<\/p>\n In short, although the body of governing law is small compared to the law governing the division of assets in a divorce context,\u00a0Arizona law provides that an\u00a0unmarried cohabitant\u00a0does have\u00a0the right to seek court enforcement of a valid agreement,\u00a0written or otherwise, between her and her ex-partner to contribute funds or services to the relationship and to divide assets acquired and\/or paid for during the relationship.<\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2011, 2021 by Scoresby Family Law \u2013 J. Kyle Scoresby, P.C. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When a married couple divorces, there is a large body of Arizona law governing how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[29,34],"class_list":["post-1068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-post-decree-division-of-assets","tag-assets-and-debts","tag-cohabitation"],"yoast_head":"\n