In reply to kipper12:
a) It's probably been redecorated to hide the damp if it does have it.
b) rendered is good as it prevents penetrating damp
c) it's almost certainly been painted with emulsion which traps damp in the walls.
d) retrospectively curing 'rising' damp is virtually impossible. Electro-osmotic courses don't work (I have one), grout injection is never going to create a completely impermeable barrier, and cutting out and inserting a proper DPC is going to cost mega money.
e) damp isn't the end of the world if your lifestyle / funishing preferences can work with it.
f) unless the advert specifically states it has damp you can now go back to the vendor and say your survey has found damp and they need to reduce the price by the amount it will cost to fix it.
g) is it cavity built?
h) does it have a damp proof course, and if so what is it?
i) does it have solid concrete floors, or suspended timber floors?
j) if the latter can you get into them to see the state of them?
k) a moisture meter is about £80, get one and do your own checks
l) there's lots of stuff about damp online
m) does rising damp exist? Bricks are like sponges, but as anyone knows a sponge can only suck water up a certain distance above the source (damp ground). Capilliary uptake like this is balanced out by evaporation, the faster water can evaporate from the bricks the lower the damp will appear to rise to. Hence why painting everything is bad unless you use permeable paint like Keim paint. The other mechanism believed to be responsible for 'rising' damp is condensation, and this is simply moisture condensing in cold walls near the ground. so, the best thing for rising damp is to lower ground levels where possible, keep the walls warm by insulating outside not inside, and allowing them to breathe.
More to come when I've had some feedback
I've an 1895 house with suspended floors, rubble walls and no DPCs which gets a lake forming in the voids under the floors in winter because the water table is so high....