Can landlord keep our deposit? ?

Question

My fiance and I recently found a condo we liked. We went to the property management and gave him a $1100.00 deposit to "take it off the market". He said he would have it cleaned(it was in poor shape) and the we could do a walk through, then sign a lease. We changed our minds on the condo and called the Landlord back within 24 hours. He says he doesn't have t give us back the money because he took it off the market. We offered to give him the money to replace the newspaper add and he said " We weren't getting off that easy". Help! What are our rights?

Answer 1

The deposit is not refundable.   You had him take it off of the market, he did.

You can still move in, but you are not entitled to a refund if you do not.

Answer 2

Yes. Because he can. You may be able to sue him but good luck with that. It is very hard to get people to pay you money if they don't want to. Also even if you win the suit and get a judgment there is little you can do to enforce it. Try working with him some more.If that doesn't work you learned a valuable life lesson.

Answer 3

you are not entitled to the refund of your deposit.

Answer 4

DId you sign anything when you handed him the money? If you just handed him a check, you just lost $1100.

If you have anything in writing, read it carefully. If there's anything in there about giving it back if either party decides not to sign a lease, you'll probably have to take this guy to court.

I've never given a deposit yet where I didn't sign something that said "deposit is non-refundable".

Answer 5

It is the landlord's duty to immediately place the unit back on market and do his best efforts to find a new tenant.

You are responsible only for the lost rent from the day you asked landlord to take it off the market to the day he rents it, or $1100.00, whichever is lower.

Answer 6

In 24 hours, he can't claim he lost anything. If it were a week or so, I would say you were in trouble, but 24 hours...not a chance in ____ is a judge going to say that is reasonable.

You didn't sign a lease.

If you sue him, you WILL win.

PS:  Sue him for triple damages...chances are you will get it b/c what he is doing is illegal.

Answer 7

What does the receipt state? If it says non-refundable then out of luck, if the landlord failed to write non-refundable then you may have a small claims complaint

Answer 8

Once a deposit is given a landlord is under no obligation to return it just because you changed your mind.