Pre Common Law resources

[proactive]

We're having trouble finding resources and clear advice for couples newly moving in together. Common law occurs after three years of continous cohabitation. We want to understand our rights in the interim period to determine to what extent we need to draft a written agreement to protect our personal assests and respective interests in a co-owned property in case of separation. We are interested in hiring lawyers to help with this process, but would first be interested in collecting enough information to be able to draft something ourselves. A template that is explicitly not a marriage or cohabitation contract would be an ideal starting point. Does anyone know of any good online forums resources that focus on helping couples who are planning to move in together?

[Denisem]

I have a cohabitation agreement that was drafted by my lawyer and my common law partner took this agreement to his lawyer. The cost for this was very low. Fee from my lawyer to draft the agreement was $250.00 and partners lawyer was $150.00. We both sat down with my lawyer to draft agreement. It is a great idea to have one....we all need to protect ourselves.