Best ring Richard 1st thing in the morning then for a chat as it would appear he's local. This may save a day or 2 as he could collect the documents required. He'll be able to advise you if your in a position to proceed (no good stressing over something that isn't possible). If you are in fact in a position, get Richard to get an application in fast. I mean FAST. As he mentioned, there aren't 2 many about doing 95% and I suspect there will be none shortly unless you have existing lending with them. Their processing times are terrible at present due to volumes so you need to ensure all documentation is provided at time of application and be aware that any finance clause will most likely need to be extended. Solicitors and agents should be aware of this as it's getting more frequent. On the other hand I wouldn't be mentioning it to the agent at time of offer.
agents and sol's would know about longer finance and settlement timeframes by now anyway. We tell people 3 weeks for finance and 42-60 days to settle.
It almost seems to be the norm to some extent - with banks taking 8 working days to assess intially, then 4 days to get the valuation done. add weekends in on top...