HOME HUNTING PART 13: WAIT FOR IT

'Hi, you're through to the voicemail of your estate agent on [today's date]. Unfortunately I'm out of the office on viewings and other appointments and won't be returning until approximately the year 2017. If you'd like to talk to a colleague, please press 1 and someone who doesn't know anything about your situation or indeed much at all about the dark and somewhat mysterious art of buying and selling houses and will therefore be about as much use as a handbrake on a canoe... will be happy to help.'

Believe it or not it's been three weeks now since I made an offer and had it accepted. Not a lot has happened, thanks to a tedious problem which has threatened to scupper the whole thing. What is most frustrating about it, is that I reckon it could be solved in five minutes by two, maybe three, well-chosen telephone calls between various people.

At this rate, the miracle might be just getting an answer to a straightforward question.

The problem is this: the property is a shared freehold. That means that some time ago, the owners clubbed together with the people who live underneath and bought the freehold. Normally, this means that both are sort of responsible for the building and own the land upon which it sits. You'd expect then that there'd be some legal agreement between the owners, wouldn't you?

Well so would the mortgage company. And without it, I'm back to Square 1, kicked off the merry-go-round and flung into the woods. Only it's worse than Square 1, it's Square -1. It's counters back in the box, dice in the tub and board folded up.

While that would be depressing, it might just be better than waiting. I've often thought that there is nothing worse than not knowing the outcome. Those moments between taking the test and getting the results, or asking a big question and not receiving an answer, they're awful aren't they? It doesn't take long before you long for news, even bad news, just so that you can get a bit of closure and stop panicking about the whole thing.

On the other hand, you could argue that these sleepless nights are excellent for building patience.

While the smooth-talking estate agents are out selling houses of course, houses, flats and maisonettes are still getting more and more expensive. If this does turn out to be the end of the road for this attempt, I'm not sure I've got enough energy, finance or willpower to keep going.

Maybe that will be the miracle - just getting enough strength together to keep moving.

Either that or an estate agent actually gets back to me with an answer.