If there was no signed agreement between your dad and his brother, the brother's descendants may be the ones who now control half the property. In your state, there's probably a default way that property passes between relatives when one of them dies, and I assume that kids come before brothers and sisters. But I wouldn't be surprised if this varies state by state. Anyway, do _not_ assume that full ownership goes to your dad simply because he already owns half.
What I would do is just head down to your local library and ask the reference librarian to help you look up what the default inheritance rights are in your state.
Didn't your uncle's estate go through some sort of probate, even without a will? Seems like this is the sort of thing that gets raised then. And if it wasn't raised then, it'll be probably be raised if/when your dad officially tries to transfer the property and the title people/county assessors realize that one of the title owners is dead. And at _that_ point, all your cousins are going to have to figure out if they all want a slice of the house, if they just want the one cousin to own it, if they want -him- to pay them rent, and so on. Could be a real squabble, but it's _their_ squabble.
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