Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

First, partnerships can indeed be formed by oral ("verbal") agreement. Do any of the supposed partners dispute that there is a partnership? That would have to be resolved by negotiation or litigation first. The next possible (or likely?) bone of contention might be what the terms of the oral partnership agreement really are ..... i.e., is it a 1/3 - 1/3 - 1/3 deal as to everything, or is the partner who holds title entitled to a larger share of the proceeds or profit, or to reimbursement of some specific sum? Finally, the parties will need to negotiate or litigate as to whether their partnership agreement includes any explicit or implied agreement as to allocation of tax liability and if so, whether the agreed distribution was within the limits of tax law. I'm not an expert on tax law, but I believe partners are given considerable latitude to distribute tax benefits and burdens among themselves, so long as all taxable gains get reported on someone's return. So, in short, the answer probably depends upon what the three of you can prove was your initial agreement, express or implied.