Is a co-habitation agreement a safety net or a relationship killer?

When two people decide to move in together, there are any number of things that come up along the way. What will they do with the duplicates of dishes? Will he like living with her cats? What will happen when he wants her to sign a prenuptial agreement? 

That's the situation Trevor and Christy found themselves in when he suggested they sign a co-habitation agreement to protect their individual assets, should they split up. 

"Both of us are products of statistics. I've been married, I'm divorced, she's been married, she's been divorced," he said. "So even though we go into these relationships with the best intentions and the best future vision of how we're going to spend the rest of our lives together, there is an unfortunate chance that it might not work out. So best to get all the stuff on the table, and put it on paper."

While Christy was pursuing her masters degree, Trevor was working for the government and had a few rental properties that provided additional income.

"His perspective was that he had a lot of risk involved because if I decided to go nuts and take him to the cleaners, you know, that he had a lot to lose. Whereas I could be laissez-fair about the situation because I had nothing to lose," said Christy.

If you want to file a co-habitation agreement, you have three years from the time you move in together to sign on the dotted line. Not surprisingly, the encroaching deadline caused stress in their relationship.

"Yeah, it felt really bad, I'm not going to lie. It felt like there was a lack of trust, and just that there was a general lack of softness around the understanding of relationships," Christy explained.

While the two approach money in relationships differently, they were able to come to an understanding. But, in a twist, they actually aren't living together anymore. 

Click the listen button above to hear the whole story, and find out what happened.