Advice on poss Structural problems in a house for sale

Mornin all

Recently viewed a property for sale, approx early 1900's Victorian Semi, a big 5 bed place on 3 floors, has had a recent loft conversion + a general refurb (all done from Sept 07 to April). Couple of red flags came up in the inital viewing that i would appreciate some advice on pls:

- Visible damp above an external wall window, the window is in a bedroom on the first floor. Have been told that a chimney brest was removed from that wall during the refurb + that damp got into the exposed area over the winter + is now drying out. Not sure if that's a plausible explination, also upon consideration the external photo's + neighbours place don't show that a chimney would have been in that location.

- Had a partition wall removed between the Kitchen + Dining Area, now open plan. Therefore a Steel Beam has been brought in, but there are 1 or 2 cracks (not minor plasterboard cracks) adjacent to the new beam + also on the roof of the partition wall above the beam (on the 1st floor). The sellers say the builder didn't initially prop the upper wall enough...........hence the cracks. But they say it's cosmetic + is structurally sound. You can see where they have attempted to fill it...........To my knowledge this is a standard procedure - u alco prop a partition + insert the beam with sufficeint end bearing as per struc engineers recommendation + get your bldg control approvals etc etc.

The building control approval should hopefully cover not only the loft conversion but also the new beam, so i will check the docs on the 2nd visit. But I'm dissapointed with there expilinations..........or am ijust being paranoid?

Any advice most appreciated

Better safe than sorry..
Very unlikely to have a chimney breast above a window! Chances are its either condensation or loose tiles
If the cracks have previously been repaired and are showing through still then its not likely to be due to poor temporary propping. Definitely ask for structural eng info and BC. Might be the beam is inadequate and has deflected too much.
Any structural work is subject to building control submission (this includes chimney breast removal and load bearing walls)

probably leave well alone.

your certainly not paranoid.

on the face of it the work sounds like a complete bodge.

the only reason to go near this is if u are getting a very good price. u would also need to get a full survey and be prepared to use this to get a further reduction in the price.

it's sounds like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. the automatic thing is to walk away and in most cases this is best. everything in building has it's price and if u can extract value for yourself and be prepared then to pay (from the money saved) to get the defects fixed then u may end up with a top notch house.

Stick to your guns it’s a buyers market and aim very very low on any offer.