Trust me, it could be worse. When we bought our house, the living room fan was hardwired with no switch. Literally you could only control it directly and hope it did what you asked it to do, there was no way to turn it off without turning off the entire circuit.

I suspect this is a code violation, but considering part of the lighting wiring in the basement had been done with speaker wire and automotive cabling, I don't think compliance was on the top of the previous owner's list.