I would make sure they are both up-to-date on repairs and mechanicals before investing in a third asset that could have repairs come due all at the same time as your others.

I have had failures in real estate when I was younger and those lesions are worth more to me then gold.

I wish we had this mechanism up here in the NW It would allow many more projects to get built.

None of these reasons are sufficient to justify a failure of fiduciary responsibility. 

The most likely scenario is that you refuse to pay him, or make him an offer he doesn’t accept, and he files a mechanics lien on the property. 

That's a tough gig too, but failure rate is only going to be like 88% vs the 99.9% failure rate of your current plan.Or...Save some coin and do a house hack.

I'm in the Reno, NV area and while it's not a high fire risk in many areas insurance companies are looking very closely at the mechanicals of buildings before insuring properties or before writing a policy.

I think podcasts are a great vetting mechanism.

Current building code requirements and local amendments should be considered forrebuilding the fire-damaged portion of the residence.The Engineer shall have no liability to the Owners, or to others for the acts or omissions of theContractor or any other Persons performing work on the project, or failure of the Contractor tocarry out the work in accordance with this letter, except where specifically inspected andapproved by the engineer and discovery of defect is possible within the normal ability or standardof care for the industry.This report is based on a diligent visual inspection of the referenced areas.

If he failed to pay, it could be construed to be a failure of consideration so the deed fails and she's still in title with him and all he can convey is his half.