A bond delay that repeats is the bank pricing in doubt.

Each extra document a bank asks for during a bond application adds time, and that time is paid mostly by the seller, who usually cannot accept another buyer while the suspensive condition runs. The first request for another payslip or a fresh bank statement is routine. The second and third mean the credit assessor keeps finding something that does not add up, such as income that comes partly from commission or a large deposit on a statement that nobody has explained. Nothing has been declined, and nothing has been approved. The bank is pricing its own doubt in weeks.

The offer to purchase sets a date by which the bond must be approved. If that date passes without approval and without a written extension signed by both sides, the sale normally falls away, and the seller has spent the waiting period off the market while other buyers moved on. When approval does come after a long string of requests, it often comes with strings of its own, a smaller loan than the buyer applied for or a demand for a bigger deposit. The delay was the bank writing those terms slowly.