My question involves real estate located in the State of: North Carolina

My father and my uncle inherited a property together in 2001. My father has no money, but the property is very important to him on a sentimental level. My uncle has been eager to sell this entire time, but has withheld any actions to do so while the home was rented for a long period of time. During this time, my uncle has managed the income portion, as my father is terrible with money and acquiesces easily to his brother, and actually kept a lot more than 50% (by his own admission, $13,000 extra). Now the tenant has moved out, and my uncle is again talking of forcing a sale. A few questions:

1) My understanding is that my uncle can force a sale, is this correct?
1a)Would that be an auction type situation or something else?
1b) How much trouble would it be for him?

2) If the house were to go to auction, would my father need to produce the entire selling price, or only half, since he is co-owner?

We may be able to scrape together half. Then you may ask, why not just buy him out? The answer is that my uncle is very fickle, and likes to play games. I think this whole thing has been more about exerting power over my father than money itself. He has offered to sell for 25% of the appraisal value, as he was planning on leaving 1/2 of his 1/2 to my father in his will. However my fear is that when we actually make an offer and try to make things happen that he will backtrack, change the deal, stonewall, etc. I want to know worse case scenario (he forces a sale) what our options would be for keeping the house in the family, so that we can feel secure even in that situation, and take his power away so he has to negotiate like an adult.

I know this sounds pretty dramatic, but this is the most accurately I can describe things, so thank you for barring with me and any advice.