Doing a refi will not fix the issue.

At foreclosure auction, no other bidders met the full credit bid the lender required and the property "reverted" to the lender.Said lender now owns the property on its books, which was formerly a mortgage asset, it used to be termed OREO ("other real estate owned") by bank auditors because these were not assets intended as buildings used by banks for retail offices, etc.A lender that (now) owns a property inherits all the senior liens, if any, as well as property taxes (both current and delinquent) as well as the ongoing issues with possession and maintenance. 

in NYC some owners are known to rent out their semi basement which is on a grey side. so during inspection would that cause any issue?

So this is why this strategy is coming up so much one because of why you want to do it taking over low interest loans and when markets start to have issues and owners have financial issues.the KEY is finding sub too ANY EQUITY a lot of folks doing sub too will over pay just to land the mortgage to me thats not a good bizz model every deal we did could be flipped day one for a nice profit. other wise we passed. 

The code enforcement officer said he mentioned these issues to the sellers and the sellers' agent.

So legally, you can say 'no' to many of the issues that are brought up during an inspection.

Does anyone see any issues with doing it this way?

Overall, he did a good job, but there are issues that will show up on an inspection that aren't necessarily liabilities.  

The issue you are going to run into if your lender hasn't told you already having the 3.5% is only part of the equation.  

Technical professional working full-time ready to return to real estate investing.