Can I get my holding deposit back?

ERB20

Hi all,

I've been trying to research if holding deposits are refundable but none of the answers seem to fit my situation so I thought I'd ask here as I may get a more specific response.

My boyfriend and I are in a bit of a rush to find somewhere new to live as our current tenancy ends soon. The reason for not finding somewhere sooner was that I was made redundant not so long ago and this hindered our reference checks. I am now employed so we started to look again but now we have much less time before our move.

I finally found a place near where I work which looked lovely in the photos and was advertised as 'available now'. I know photos lie (I was an accommodation photographer myself) so I was willing to take this risk to make sure we had a roof over our heads. I phoned the agent and requested a viewing. They seemed reluctant as they already had 7 viewings booked for the next day so I asked whether we were able to put an offer in without viewing. They said yes. They then said I needed to pay a holding deposit of £400 to secure it. I stupidly agreed just to make sure we weren't left homeless. We then arranged to view the property the following day.

On arriving at the property it smelled damp and there were a few mould issues around the windows. I'm sure with a good clean it could be presentable again but it wasn't anywhere near the condition the photographs showed. I was then told we couldn't move in until the 5th March despite the advert saying available Feb. This isn't good for us as we have to be out of our place by the 26th Feb.

Over 24hrs later the agents finally sent me an email confirmation of my holding deposit which states that it's non-refundable which was not made clear to me before paying the deposit (everything was conducted over the phone). I don't know what to do now as our current landlord is being difficult about us moving out later and we can't afford to store our stuff and find alternative accommodation until the new landlord will let us in. Plus the house wasn't in the condition you would expect from the photos and I was never made explicitly aware that the holding deposit was non-refundable. Additionally the receipt for the deposit (with all the Ts &Cs attached) was sent through a day after the money was taken out of my account.

Am I able to turn down this tenancy and still stand a chance of getting the deposit back? I did make it clear the the agent that we needed to move asap.

(as a side note, fortunately my boss knows someone who lets and he has a property available now which solves our moving dates problem and we'd much rather take that tenancy).

Any advice/help would be much appreciated

G_M

If you paid a holding deposit on the basis that th property would be available on xx date, and the landlord/agnt has changed that availability date to yy, then your depoit should be returned o you in full.

Write making this clear, and requesting the funds be returned within 5 woking days.

You may wish to discuss this (and hopefully resolve!) face to face, but have a letter ready to hand deliver at same time.

ERB20

Thanks G_M.

I have just gone back to the advert for this property on RightMove and it's actually quite contradictory, I don't know whether I'm at fault for not reading it properly or what but anyway:

At the top of the page it says under letting info available from the 01/03 but in the main body of text describing the property and availability it says **Move in Feb £100 off** and then 'Available early Feb' in either case these dates are before the one I've now been given.

Does this change anything?

G_M

It is hard to determine the legal basis on which you paid the deposit.

This will be a combination of
* the wording on any receipt provided
* the wording on any other document (T&C etc)
* any oral undertaking (legally valid but harder to prove!)
* any wording (such as you quote) on the advertisements, on which you relied

Where the above are unclear, ambiguous, or contradictory, then clearly it is a matter for negotiation/agreement, or failing that, interpretation by a court.

ERB20

So, until I received the email through confirming that I'd secured the property (which came through a day after they took the deposit and two days after talking to them on the phone about securing the property) everything was done verbally over the phone.

These are the relevant conditions in the email:
1. Application forms must be completed and returned within 48 hours, failure to do so will result in the property being re-listed and you would loose [sic] your holding fee.

7. Please note your holding fee is non refundable, however if the landlord cancels you will get a full refund.

I haven't seen any other documents apart from this email confirmation

And then, yeah, what I've quoted already from the property listing.

I feel this is ambiguous as I'm not sure what happens now, we're really going to struggle to try and meet the dates even though I told the agent that we needed to move in Feb.

G_M

Terms and conditions advised to you after agreement to place the property on hold (and after payment), can not be relied on by the LL/agent.

That would be like booking and paying for a summer holiday and then receiving tickets for a trip in December.