I bought a sub sale house on last year, S&P sign on late October 2019. It's almost a year and the transfer process still not complete yet due to multiple factors:
1. House was joint name and one of the owner is deceased
2. Strata title still under developer
3. Delay due to MCO

Long story short, I keep pushing my lawyer to settle this because I waited for almost a year. While I can cancel my purchase and get back my money but the process is troublesome, and I like the house. So my lawyer offer me two choices whether to keep waiting or they can do an early VP agreement while waiting for the transfer process to complete.

Under early VP agreement, seller still own the house legally. My lawyer told me the T&C of Early VP can be negotiated to protect myself such as:
1. No need to pay any rental, only need to pay utility bill.
2. I can change all the locks of the house, and seller have no rights to enter the house.
3. I can do some renovation up to a certain amount of $, if seller suddenly don't want to sell I can get back the money.

Anything else I should be concern of? This early VP is a new concepts to me and I am not sure if any T&C still can be added to protect myself. Anyone had done early VP before maybe can share some advice?

Will involve lots of trouble and time  . If possible want to settle this peacefully

To cancel the S&P and deal with bank with loan problem, not sure if will affect my insurance or not etc. Not to mention the efforts to find a new house. It's not a trouble but more like hassle to start over again.

You are right about its no difference than renting, that's why I ask my lawyer that if any additional T&C can be added to the agreement to at least let me do minor renovation first.