Palimony in Florida is not a recognized legal right. No Florida statute lets an unmarried partner ask a court for support after a breakup, no matter how long the couple lived together or how much they shared. What Florida does allow is contract enforcement: if you and your partner signed a written agreement about financial support or property, you can sue to enforce it in civil court. When there’s no written agreement, equitable claims like constructive trusts and partition actions can still recover money or property you put into the relationship. The options are narrower than what a divorcing spouse gets, but they exist.
Why Florida Does Not Award Palimony Automatically
Florida abolished common-law marriage for any relationship entered after January 1, 1968.1Florida Legislature. Florida Code 741.211 – Common-Law Marriages Void Cohabitation, joint finances, and holding yourselves out as a couple do not add up to a marriage. That matters because Florida’s alimony statute applies only in a proceeding for dissolution of marriage.2Florida Legislature. Florida Code 61.08 – Alimony Without a marriage license, family court has no power to order temporary or permanent support between you.
The same barrier applies to property. Equitable distribution, the fairness-based division judges use in divorces, is not available to unmarried couples. A court will not split shared belongings or bank accounts just because the relationship lasted a long time. A handful of Florida cities and counties keep domestic partnership registries that grant limited local rights such as hospital visitation and healthcare decision-making, but those registries do not create any financial support obligation or property right between partners.
Written Agreements Between Unmarried Partners
The leading Florida case is Posik v. Layton, a 1997 appellate decision. The court held that although “no legal rights or obligations flow as a matter of law from a non-marital relationship,” there is “no impediment to the parties to such a relationship agreeing between themselves to provide certain rights and obligations.”3FindLaw. Posik v. Layton You can contract privately about your money and property even though the state won’t grant you spousal protections automatically.
The Posik court imposed one firm requirement: the agreement must be in writing, “because of the potential abuse in marital-type relationships.” Florida’s Statute of Frauds separately requires a signed writing for any contract involving real property or any obligation lasting more than one year.4Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 725 – Unenforceable Contracts A spoken promise to “take care of you” will not carry the day.
A strong agreement names both partners, spells out the support or property arrangement, states dollar amounts and payment schedules, and describes what triggers or ends the obligation. The Posik court upheld a $2,500-per-month payment upon termination of the relationship, treating it as a reasonable liquidated damages provision rather than a penalty. The more your agreement reads like a real contract and the less like a romantic gesture, the more likely a court will enforce it.
What Counts as Lawful Consideration
Every enforceable contract needs consideration, the value each side gives up or provides. Florida voids any agreement “inseparably based upon illicit consideration of sexual services.”3FindLaw. Posik v. Layton If a court concludes the contract was essentially payment for a sexual relationship, the whole thing collapses.
Anchor the agreement in non-sexual contributions with clear economic value: managing household finances, maintaining the home, career sacrifices made to support the other partner’s work, and financial contributions to shared expenses or property. Specifics matter. A one-line reference to “companionship and homemaking” is thin. A detailed accounting of who does what, what career decisions each partner is making, and what money each is putting in gives the agreement the substance courts look for.
Claims When There Is No Written Agreement
Many relationships never produce a signed contract, and by the time things fall apart one partner may have put significant money or labor into property titled in the other’s name alone. Florida courts have left room for those situations, but the remedy is equitable rather than contractual.
In Evans v. Wall (1989), a Florida appellate court held that an unmarried partner could pursue a constructive trust over property when they contributed money, labor, or materials to it, so long as that consideration was separate from any sexual relationship. A constructive trust is a court’s declaration that one person holds property that in fairness belongs, in whole or in part, to another. The court recognized that an equitable lien “may be declared out of general consideration of right and justice as applied to the relationship of the parties and the circumstances of their dealings.”
In Dietrich v. Winters (2001), the court found that a woman who contributed substantially to the purchase and mortgage of a home titled in her partner’s name could recover her investment through a constructive trust or equitable lien, even without a written agreement and even though she could not seek partition without being on the deed. These cases are harder than breach-of-contract suits because you have to prove your contributions in detail. Bank statements, canceled checks, closing documents, and receipts become the case.
Splitting a Jointly Owned Home
When both names are on the deed, partition is the tool. Under Florida Statutes Chapter 64, any co-owner can file a partition action without the other owner’s consent.5Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes Chapter 64 – Partition of Property The right to partition is nearly absolute. An ex who refuses to cooperate or refuses to sell cannot block it.
The court determines each owner’s interest, then orders partition. If the property cannot be physically divided fairly, which is the usual outcome with a house, the court orders a sale and splits the proceeds proportionally.
The part that matters most for former partners is contribution credit. If you paid more than your ownership share toward the mortgage, property taxes, insurance, or necessary repairs like a new roof or plumbing, you can seek credit for those overpayments out of the other owner’s share of the sale proceeds. Cosmetic upgrades usually do not qualify. Keep the bank statements, receipts, and closing documents. If your co-owner locked you out, an ouster credit for roughly half the fair market rental value during the period of exclusion may also be available; texts and emails showing the lockout help prove it. Partition typically takes six to twelve months from filing to sale.
Suing to Enforce a Support Agreement
Breach of a written support agreement is enforced through a civil lawsuit in circuit court, not through family court. You file a complaint setting out the agreement’s terms, the breach, and the damages you want.
Circuit court filing fees depend on the amount in controversy: $395 for claims of $50,000 or less, $900 for claims between $50,000 and $250,000, and $1,900 for claims of $250,000 or more.6Florida Legislature. Florida Code 28.241 – Filing Fees Service of process usually adds $50 to $150. Attorney fees can climb quickly.
Watch the statute of limitations. A written contract gives you five years from the date of the breach. An oral or implied contract gives you four.7Florida Legislature. Florida Code 95.11 – Limitations Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property The clock runs from the breach itself, not from when you noticed it or when you figured out the amount you lost. People who wait to see whether the relationship recovers often wait too long.
If you win, the court enters a judgment for the promised payments or property interests. Because Posik approved a specific monthly payment as enforceable liquidated damages, agreements with clear dollar figures tend to produce cleaner rulings than open-ended promises the court has to translate into numbers.
If Your Partner Dies
The gap between married and unmarried couples is widest here. Florida’s intestate succession statute directs a deceased person’s assets to the surviving spouse and descendants.8Florida Legislature. Florida Code 732.102 – Spouse’s Share of Intestate Estate An unmarried partner is not in the inheritance line at all. If your partner dies without a will, you inherit nothing under Florida law regardless of how long you were together.
A will, a revocable living trust naming you as beneficiary, or beneficiary designations on financial accounts are the reliable protections. If you already have a cohabitation or support agreement, your estate plan needs to match it. A promise of lifetime support means little if the obligated partner dies and the estate passes to relatives who owe you nothing.
Putting a Cohabitation Agreement in Writing
The through-line of everything above is the same: put it in writing before you need it. A cohabitation agreement is a contract between unmarried partners covering financial responsibilities, property ownership, and support obligations during the relationship and after a breakup.
To be enforceable in Florida, the agreement has to be written and signed by both partners, in line with Posik and the Statute of Frauds.4Florida Legislature. Florida Statutes 725 – Unenforceable Contracts It has to rest on lawful consideration beyond the relationship itself. And it has to be specific. Vague terms invite disputes.
Common provisions cover how shared living expenses are divided, who owns property acquired during the relationship, what happens to a jointly owned home if the partners split, and whether either partner receives support after a separation. The agreement cannot control child custody or child support; Florida courts decide those independently based on the child’s best interests. Coordinating the agreement with a will, trust, and beneficiary designations keeps the financial plan intact if one partner dies.