Getting back a holding deposit (renting)

Innys

Piggles12345 wrote: »

But I'm not withdrawing my commitment- I am postponing my move date. I still want the property, but I don't want it straight away.

Yes, but are you going to pay the rent while the property is not occupied by you? If so, there's no problem.

If you ask for your deposit back, you are saying "I don't want this property now". I would say they are within their rights to withhold the deposit as you have withdrawn the commitment to rent it now.

chewmylegoff

well i guess that if they manage to rent it to someone else at the same price with the same moving in date then you could probably legitimately ask for it back. in practice you probably haven't got a chance of getting it back although if you could prove that they had not suffered financial loss as a result of your actions you might have a chance of getting the money back via the small claims court, i dunno.

but if they can't then their perfectly reasonable argument will be "you made us take the property off the market, we could have rented it to someone else, the landlord has now lost money, therefore we are keeping this to cover the loss caused by your actions. goodbye."