Holding Deposit - £1,000

cogpiece

Hi,

Our estate agents wanted a £1,000 holding deposit for the property, and gave us an offer form to fill in with details of the holding deposit. The offer form said this property was furnished. This was signed.

The next day the property was negotiated over the phone after they had got our bank details and it was agreed to proceed unfurnished (the landlord did not want to provide a furnished apartment as in the original offer form). Two to three hours later we cancelled this. We did not receive any confirmation of payment from us to the estate agent until over 24 hours later. We thought no money had left our account when we cancelled.

The estate agents are refusing to pay any of the £1,000 holding deposit back. Their terms also state that they can keep the holding deposit if the landlord does not approve of the references - this seems unfair. They have also incorrectly sent us somone else's invoice.

Please suggest what we can do to get this money back.

anselld

Complain to the branch manager and then if necessary to the redress scheme. All agents must be members of one of the three approved redress schemes.

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/private_renting/problems_with_renting/letting_agent_redress_schemes

However, in future do not part with "holding deposit" unless you are happy with the terms and conditions and you are sure you won't be changing your mind!

cogpiece

Thanks - we have made an error on this!

We had not thought we had paid the estate agent when we cancelled and had no confirmation of any payment to the the estate agents until roughly 24 hours after we cancelled. Part of this lease was also verbal.

Do we have a binding contract?

anselld

cogpiece wrote: »

Do we have a binding contract?

A contract is made at the point of offer and acceptance.

The question is who can prove what. If the EA can prove that an offer was made (i.e. to hold the property), that the contract terms were fair and that you accepted those terms, then yes it is binding. The timing of payment is not relevant.

cogpiece

Thanks again.

I think I will go down the unfair terms and charging route, as no information was sent to us on the details of the holding deposit after we signed. The holding deposit was not properly explained before we signed (it was signed on the car outside the property).

Secondly, the first offer was not valid as the landlord did not want to give us a furnished apartment. For the unfurnished offer, they have charged us £1,000 for 2-3 hours before we cancelled, which does not seem anywhere close to a fair charge.

Thanks again for your help.

Guest101

U made an offer, landlord didn't accept, u are definitely entitled to your money back, threat of court should secure this.