Holding deposit, refundable?

Gavin83

Hello everyone. This morning we placed a holding deposit of £500 on a flat in London. Due to a change in circumstances we no longer wish to go through with this tenancy. Now, it's my understanding that companies are allowed to recover their out of pocket expenses from a deposit but essentially not profit from the situation so they can't just keep the entire deposit without reason. However of course the holding deposit is listed as non refundable on some paperwork we received afterwards, although we haven't yet signed. Some points:

1) Given that it's been 24 hours since the agreements was made, the property is still on their website and they'll almost certainly fill the flat, I'd assume their out of pocket expenses will be minimal.

2) Despite being asked to hand over £500 for the holding deposit the paperwork states the holding deposit is actually £75. The rest appears to be made up of admin fees and reference checks.

3) Given the short period the reference checks haven't yet been completed, especially given we've provided no personal details.

4) I fully respect this is entirely my decision and the letting agent haven't broken any contract terms.

Now I have no intention of leaving the letting agent out of pocket but I'm very much expecting them to refuse the return of any of the £500. So based on the above what refund would we be entitled to?

cooltt

£425 less anything else they'll lie about doing, credit check etc.

Never ever give these people more than you need to ever! They are liars and thieves.

Gavin83

cooltt wrote: »

£425 less anything else they'll lie about doing, credit check etc.

£425 was my inclination too. I don't see how they can claim to have conducted credit/reference checks, the only information they have about us is my fianc!'s name and email address. They have emailed us forms to complete asking for more detailed information but as of yet these haven't been completed.