(Not really relevant, but I would worry about the speed at which that Lidl was built, tbh
)
We bought a shared ownership place, where there was no estate agent involved to bug even, so had to deal directly with the vendors to view. They didn't respond to messages to start with, then did and she claimed she'd been ill. Obvs I took her at her word there - no probs, very sorry to hear it - so we viewed for 15 minutes (after turning up on time and them arriving back late) and then, when I was accepted by the HA and asked to view again, to take measurements etc, she put all sorts of barriers up (most of them being around OMG! I HAVE A THREE YEAR OLD AND A JOB, I CAN'T POSSIBLY FIT IT IN!
) so I just gave in in the end. We didn't have a choice anyway.
I DID quite carefully research the conveyancing solicitor I chose though and paid more to go with an independent one (not one who has any kick backs to estate agents) and it served us well, even though the process dragged and some of that was about her being very thorough in her searches and questions.
We were in a very difficult situation because I had to put my son on the mortgage and he was doing an apprenticeship. He had to have done 12 months but the apprenticeship only ran for 18 months - so we literally had to ask his employer
not to tell him if it had extended into a permanent job, which was stressful all round, obvs.
From the HA agreeing our application (essentially, the offer being accepted - someone else had bid, too) it was five months until we got in.
My son didn't then get taken on permanently (although his employers very kindly extended the apprenticeship by a further three months)
so a whole new stress - but thankfully he managed to get a new job.
That job started a week before our block of flats then burnt down, five months after we moved in.
We have been in temp accomodation now for 20 months and I promise you, I TOTALLY get the feeling of wanting to move on and
settle. What we still have left is in storage so we're living in a house which is FINE but is not anything close to
home - I HATE it and I am sick of waiting.
What I wanted to say, though - two things, really - is that when we had similar hold ups, with all the 'It's not us, it's them!' (coming from the HA, the vendors conveyancers AND the vendors themselves - I mean they were ALL crap)
my conveyancing solicitor (who I literally DID cry to - because we were on the cusp of being absolutely fucked if it didn't happen then) sent me quite a lot of copies of her communication with theirs (and it would have been comical had I not been so fucking stressed - pretty much 'WE DON'T HAVE TO DO THAT/HAVE DONE THAT'... 'YES YOU DO/NO YOU HAVEN'T' on and on and on) so perhaps you could ask for that to happen, just so you
know who and what is holding it up?
Iirc, the final hold up was actually the HA, so it may be stuff from the council and nowt at all to do with anything else.
But also, as a consequence of the fire, it has become very clear what a difference a good conveyancer can make and ALSO that it IS important that
everything is correctly checked and crossed off.
Leaseholds
are complicated and I would actively worry about a conveyancer that rushed everything through.
So many estate agents have a sort of factory farmed base of conveyancers that they pass buyers
and vendors on to. I'm sure I would have gone with the EA's choice, had there been an EA involved, but like I say, there has been an opportunity to compare what was actually DONE later, between myself and other people and it was far from the same.
It's extremely stressful - quite apart from the huge sums of money involved in actually paying for it (whatever you have to put down and/or a mortgage) it does just feel like you are leaking money and that it just keeps mounting up. But realistically, if you can afford it, don't stress about next months rent - if you have to do it, do it (although perhaps you could also ask the LL whether you can pay on a weekly basis now, with an agreement that you will ofcourse let them know as soon as you have an actual date).
Just
breathe. You WILL be in soon, it will be ok. The end does come very suddenly and you are nearly there!