Holding Deposit

carpet1

Hi all. Im looking for some advice regarding a holding deposit/reservation that I payed for a flat yesterday. I paid £200 yesterday as a holding deposit, intending to pay the remainder in the.coming days. I was given a receipt which, upon checking, states that it is non-refundable. Turns out I will have to delay my move until the new year now. Today, I called the estate agent to inform him that I would have to cancel my reservation. I haven't signed anything. Have I just given away £200 for nothing? Or am I entitled to this money back? It seems really unfair if he is allowed to keep my money. Thanks.

flappy_mcwarbucks

carpet1 wrote: »

Hi all. Im looking for some advice regarding a holding deposit/reservation that I payed for a flat yesterday. I paid £200 yesterday as a holding deposit, intending to pay the remainder in the.coming days. I was given a receipt which, upon checking, states that it is non-refundable. Turns out I will have to delay my move unril the ne year now. I called the estate agent to inform him that I would have to cancel my reservation today. I haven't signed anything. Have I just given away £200 for nothing? Or am I entitled to.this money back? Thanks.

This is one of the reasons i hate Estate Agents.

It sounds like you have lost your money O/P. Although i hope someone on here may prove me wrong.

Last time i let a flat via an agent, i had to pay £300 retention, £150 per person credit check, 2 months rent and a month and a half deposit.

Since then, i have never gone with a letting agent ever again.

G_M

Why unfair?
You told him you wanted the property.

He took it off the market and kept it for you.
He (quite possibly) turned down other interested applicants.
He may have started referencing credit vetting proceedures (you don't say) which cost money.
He may have submitted his weekly advert to the local press, dliberately excluding this property.

The whole point of a holding deposit is that the finacial commitment you make gives the landlord/agent the certainty that you are serious. Which you were not.

carpet1

I was serious. I wouldn't have parted with £200 for a joke you know - unforeseen circumstances dictated that my move must now be put off until the.new year. No administration occured. All he had was my name. He was waiting for me to send him a copy of some photo ID - which I never did - so that he could obviously start the checks. And I would doubt that they would submit the.following weeks ads on a wednesday - still with 2 working days left in the week. Its apparent that you are an estate agent yourself. He wasnt forced out of his way at all. I viewed it, stated my interest with money, an then cancelled it he.next day.

pinkshoes

If you cancelled within such a short time period, then I'd either ask for the money to be refunded, as it's not like they would have incurred any costs, or ask them to hold the property until the new year.

It is, after all, a holding deposit, and if you didn't sign anything agreeing when you'd move in, then you could argue that you're still interested, but would like a moving in date of January 2012.

carpet1

Thanks for the replies. Is anyone aware of the law around such things? I appreciate that we all have opinions on what is morally righteous, but what does the law say and where can I find it? Thanks.

chappers

In England and Wales the law around holding deposits is very grey. You could challenge the contract on the grounds of fairness by way of the fact that the Agent/LL hasn't incurred any costs due to your not taking up the tenancy or that you should get some of your money back as they have not incurred £200 pounds worth of expenses.
It has also been challenged that an agent can't take a holding deposit as they have no right to grant a tenancy as that is up to the LL.
But the general concensus including CAB is that if it says non-refundable then that is what it is

Mrs_Z

Given that you changed your mind so quickly, within 24hrs, I think you should get most, if not all of it back. Try telling that to the Letting Agent though!

Holding deposit is paid as an indication that you are serious about the rental, and kept as compensation for lost viewings if you then change your mind. However, given that you changed yours within a day, I doubt that the Agent would have lost m(any) other viewings, and therefore it should be refunded.

Don't you just hate them!!!

sp1987

Were you told it was non refundable before the receipt was given? If not, surely you gave it based on it being refundable (although you didn't think you would need the refund part). You seem like your receipt told you something your brain hadn't agreed to?

I would argue that non-refundable cannot become part of the verbal agreement after it has been agreed. A receipt should be proof of what was agreed, not introduce new terms.

http://www.landlordzone.co.uk/deposits.htm

If you did agree non-refundable, I think your only option is to argue it isn't £200 of loss, try to argue £50 or £60 as a deduction maybe. After all, these deposits are meant to last for the period it takes to reference you and get you signed up, which could be say 2 weeks+.

carpet1

Hey, you made an excellent point - the receipt WAS used to introduce new terms. That was an excellent point you made. No, it was never mentioned verbally.

Thanks.

sp1987

carpet1 wrote: »

Hey, you made an excellent point - the receipt WAS used to introduce new terms. That was an excellent point you made. No, it was never mentioned verbally.

Thanks.

Then you didn't agree to have a non-refundable deposit when you agreed. How you will prove this if they don't agree, I'm unsure (landlordzone mentions needing a holding agreement, I'm guessing you didn't have that which may help). I guess plead in the alternative about limited losses in 24 hours if it goes to small claims and they don't believe it was agreed as refundable (or rather, silent on the point).

Morally I'd say £50 but if they are trying to pull the wool over people (I had an agent try this with me, though with end of tenancy deposit deductions) then it should be handled legally. I had a 9 month old inventory (9 months before I moved in, before a previous tenant) state that the property was dirty in places but the oven was clean. Basically the facts resolved on no inventory but I went on further into how wrong they were regardless, because I wanted them to have to read what I thought. When I moved in the oven and the property were dirty in different places to the inventory (which you would expect having had someone different live there 6 months prior), despite being told they would be cleaned. When I left the oven was half dirty and the property was spotless (because that's how I chose to live, not because I deliberately improved things for their benefit, should have let it deteriorate in the weeks before I left to arrival standard, looking back, lol). Somebody got betterment and had the cheek to try and take £50 for an oven clean. I sent in a bundle of documents to this poor arbitrator, all over £50. I didn't even really care about £50 I was just peed off somebody claimed I had left something in a poor condition when I had improved it (but you can only do so much aside from why should I be their cleaner):rotfl: