Does a verbal contract concerning real estate hold up when a will is present

Question

My sister took care of my father the last year of his life and he told her that because of that he wanted to give her his house. He drew up papers to do that but never signed them because he wanted to talk with me about it. He never talked to me and never signed the paper. She is now contesting the will for the house. What are her chances of winning.

Rachel Lea Hunter · Answer

Zero to very slim, although I don't know all the evidence.  She is going to have some problems.  First, if your father intended for her to have the house, he could have either given it to her while he was alive or made a will giving it to her when he was dead.  Wills are not expensive things nowadays.  I am very skeptical of promises like this that are never executed.  Your sister has an even bigger of proof.  Will caveats are easy to file.   However,  a will caveat here is not going to result in your sister getting the entire house.  a will caveat challenges the validity of any will.  If the caveat is successful, the whole will is thrown out and your father's property would pass under the intestacy laws to you, your sister and any other siblings.
Will caveats are limited - a caveator like your sister has to show that your father lacked testamentary capacity to make a will (the bar is pretty low for testamentary capacity - all that has to be shown is that the testator knew what he owned and who would be the heirs).  A will caveat can also be brought on the grounds of fraud or undue influence or if the testator suffered from something like dementia or Alzheimer's and could not have made a valid will.  Caveats may be useful though in getting a bigger settlement.  Depending on what assets are in the estate, a personal representative has the discretion to reach a family settlement agreement rather than have estate assets squandered on litigation.
If your sister is trying to argue that your father gave the property to her during his lifetime, then she has an even bigger hurdle.  I don;t know where the estate for your father is pending, but some states have what are called "dead man's" statutes.  These basically preclude someone from trying to state that the donee had a conversation with the deceased about the gift.  If the state has one of these, then your sister cannot testify to something like "dad said that he wanted me to have the property ..."  Rather, the conversation would have to be witnessed by a neutral third party in order for it to be admitted.

Q: Does a verbal contract concerning real estate hold up when a will is present