Deposit for apartment

HI All

I had a small problem and I am hoping that somebody can help me out here.

One of my friend was planned to move to Ireland and was looking for a place to stay and asked me to look around and I found a nice appt and paid deposit for him to an estate agent.

1. I paid deposit on 24th July 2008 stating that person will take apartment on 1st August
2. Later my friend had some problem so we postponed starting date from 1st august to 15th August to which estate agent agreed.

Now my friend has decided that he will not be moving to Ireland so I went back to estate egent on 12th Aug and told him that we will not be taking the appt. Estate agent are now refusing to give my money back. I am wondering what are my legal rights in this case ? ( My friend has told me that he will pay deposit to me in case estate agent does not refund the money )

I would like to know what are my rights in this case ?

Thanks a million

Re: Deposit for appartment

Don't think this is the right forum but the mods will probably move it soon anyway if that's the case.

Basically I think you're out of luck. If you had reserved the apartment by paying a deposit, the landlord will have stopped viewings on the apartment on the basis that your friend would be moving in and paying rent from the start of August. Your friend is now not moving in so the landlord will be out of pocket for the 2 weeks of the month already gone and from now until the apartment is let to someone else.

So you have no rights to this money back from the agent, sorry!

Re: Deposit for appartment

You could try negotiating with the agent that you get a proportion of the rent back but i would not rate your chances highely as the agent will consider this deposit as rent for two and a half weeks (24/07 - 12/08) and additional cost of re-advertising. Don't forget that the person who owns this property has a mortgage to pay and is unlikely to be able to afford to leave it lying idle for over two weeks.

Re: Deposit for appartment

DeeFox said:

You could try negotiating with the agent that you get a proportion of the rent back but i would not rate your chances highely as the agent will consider this deposit as rent for two and a half weeks (24/07 - 12/08) and additional cost of re-advertising. Don't forget that the person who owns this property has a mortgage to pay and is unlikely to be able to afford to leave it lying idle for over two weeks.

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I agree with every word. A deposit is a commitment. It is only refunded when the Lease has expired and all rent is paid up to date.

I hope your friend pays you back.