written contract with a dead guy

i have a written ,signed agreement between me and my deceased l.l. i've lived in this house for 10 yrs. about 5+ - yrs ago he agred to sell me the place on a lease option kinda deal he at that time my current rent was 700mo he said pay him 800mo and he'd give me a credit of 200mo. toward the down.and when i was ready to go to the bank the price of purchase would be the appraisal price. well he recently died and his wife is attempting to evict me is this written contract between me and him valid? if so what are my legal options?

You are going to need to see an attorney. You have several problems here. The contract is 5 years old to buy the house. Real estate contracts do not normally extend purchase agreements for that long. It may have long since expired since you have not exercised your right to purchase in all that period. Your other problem is that the owner who signed the contract is gone. He no longer owns that house. His wife is now the owner and you had no contract with her. Whether a court would force her to honor a contract not signed by her, and signed at least 5 years ago, is questionable.

One other question, why is the wife trying to evict you? Is your rent not paid? Have you violated your agreement? Or has she merely asked you to vacate within the next 30 days (not an eviction!). Any lease you had with the LL (I'm not talking purchase option here) has long since expired. I seriously doubt that any state allows a residential lease to be that long. Most states don't allow a lease for longer than 2 years. That means you are a month to month tenant and she can ask you to vacate.

If a local RE attorney says that you purchase option has expired, maybe you can negotiate with her to get the down payment money back. It's a real long shot since you never exercized your option to buy, but you could try.