My girlfriend purchased her house 3 years ago. Within those 3 years her house has been flooded by 2 hurricanes. The last 1 being hurricane sandy.
We are in the process of building up the house (which fema will be providing a grant to do) & constructing a new house; which will mean adding the new cost onto the pre-existing mortage; which is solely in her name. She initially put down $50,000 on the house at the time of purchase.
I am paying for the "new" engineering contracting, appliances, as well as putting $10,000 towards the cost of building the new home; as well will be paying towards the mortgage once the house is completed.
We aren't married yet but are moving towards that direction. While I am very excited about starting our new life together I am a bit concerned about not having my name on the mortgage & what would be my rights if things do not work out; as I do not want to chance one day not having a place to live & lost any money that I have & would be investing in this home.
How do I protect myself?
What would be my rights?
What documents would I need to protect myself & my investment?

Your rights are to move out anytime she gives you a 30 day notice. So the 30 day notice is your rights.

If you want, make her sign a note to pay you back for the money and show it as a loan. But paying her bills and giving her gifts to fix her house gives you no rights what so ever

Giving her the money to repair the house and contributing to the monthly mortgage payments will not automatically give you any rights. The only way that you can protect your investment is to have a written agreement of some type with her.

Your options concerning a written agreement can include a contract, a promissory note, a mortgage, or even a deed.

First you have to discuss with her exactly what the both of you intend should happen if (1) you get married, or (2) you break up. Will you become co-owners of the property? Will she pay you back for the money you put towards improvements? The two of you need to reach an agreement on these issues.

Once the two of you determine how you intend these issues to be addressed in the future we can tell you how to go about achieving it.

Hello M:

Or, you can get married. That'll PROTECT your interests..

excon

Not necessarily, Excon. It depends on the state.

Hello again, Lisa:

The state of matrimony doesn't do it, huh? Then I won't get married.

excon

Not necessarily, Excon. It depends on the state.

Given that the main damage is from Hurricane Sandy I would suspect the house is either on Long Island (NY) or the Jersey shore.

They don't have community property in that part of the country. So if it's her property now, marriage probably won't change that.

But NJ is Lisa's neck of the woods. So she might be thinking about other aspects I don't know about.

I had side contracts for real estate over the course of about 15 years, with either family or my boyfriend-later-husband-later ex husband. They worked out OK, but there was never any animosity. Had there been, I think my paper trail was good.