Also known as: writing requirements · written requirement
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A statutory or common-law rule requiring that certain agreements or transfers be evidenced by a signed writing to be enforceable. The rule applies to categories such as leases exceeding one year, conveyances of land interests, and specific parentage arrangements in assisted reproduction. Compliance supplies the evidentiary foundation that prevents enforcement of oral promises within the covered classes.
Walter Washington and a recipient signed only clinic intake forms that labeled him a sperm donor. No separate written agreement preserved any parental rights. After the child was born, Walter sought to establish paternity. The court held that the absence of the required writing left him without legal parent status under the governing statute.
Wren Wright orally promised to convey a parcel to Winston West after West completed renovations on an adjacent structure. West performed the work and took possession, but no signed writing ever memorialized the conveyance. When Wright later refused to deliver a deed, West sued for specific performance. The court applied the writing requirement and refused enforcement of the oral land-transfer promise.
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The requirement applies only when the agreed term exceeds one year. Leases for one year or less may be created orally and remain fully enforceable. Courts treat occupancy plus monthly payments under an oral lease exceeding one year as creating at most a periodic month-to-month tenancy.
Part performance may support equitable enforcement in some jurisdictions when the acts unequivocally refer to the contract, but it does not automatically remove the agreement from the statute. Courts still examine whether the writings or conduct supply the necessary evidentiary reliability.
A signed writing that expressly preserves the donor's paternity rights is required. Clinic forms labeling the individual a donor without more do not satisfy the statute. Absent that writing the donor holds no parental status.
Even a signed lease fails if the signer lacked authority under the trust instrument. The writing requirement addresses form. Separate capacity rules govern whether the purported landlord could bind the property at all.
…the Realm 839 (1819), which was enacted by Parliament in 1677. N.J. Law Revision Comm’n, Report and Recommendations Relating to Writing Requirements for Real Estate Transactions, Brokerage Agreements, and Suretyship Agreements 1 (1991). The original English statute provided, “That from and after [June 24, 1677] noe action shall be…