Builders contractual obligations?

We put a holding deposit of €5000 on a brand new house in January. The contract was sent to our solicitor, we signed it and returned it to the builders solicitor together with the remainder of the deposit. Two weeks later the builder contacted us to say that it had
been decided not to sell the house. We had signed the contract but he hadnt. He returned the 5000 euro and we only received the remaining deposit yesterday. It seems that he had lodged the money into his account and it had been with him for almost 2 weeks after he contacted us to say he wasnt selling. Does the fact that we signed a contact drafted by his company and supplied the deposit (which he accepted) give us any legal rights? Its hard to believe that we have no comeback in this situation as he has had our money for so long.

In short, AFAIK providing the builder did not sign their side of the contracts you have no come back.

Perhaps as they lodged your cheque you could request the interest for the period of 2 weeks but that would be it. Many builders & developers would immediately lodge cheques on receipt for safekeeping so that they are not held in an office/site situation anyway.

Sorry about that, it was a very rotten thing for them to do.

What does your solicitor say?