Just been to look at a house, which was really nice, plenty of stuff
that needs doing! But I noticed one of the chimney breasts has been
removed , so I had a look in the roof space. At first what I saw looked
pretty bad, though I couldn't get close enough to really see. It seemed
like they had not taken the chimney away, so most of the chimney breast
remained in the loft. the bottom few feet above the rafters had been
partially removed, then about 8 courses up it was full width and seemed
to be supported by a large red steel bracket on either side, bolted into
the wall, with some kind of shelf acting like a lintel. The partial bit
at the bottom seemed to be resting on a couple of lengths of angle iron
propped on bricks on the rafters.

Assuming I've got this right, this is really bad isn't it? The presence
of the steelwork makes it look like a proper job was done, but the lower
bit on the makeshift supports makes me think otherwise. I really like
the house, but is there any way to proceed with a purchase?

ASCII drawing attempt:

###################
###################
###################
################### Full width chimney breast
###################
###################
###################
###################
###################
][===================][ Steel things
][ ########## ][
][ ######### ][
######### Partial chimney breast
##########
o o Couple of bars on the rafters