Legal Real Estate question on holding deposits? | Real Property ...

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Question by richest4u: Legal Real Estate question on holding deposits?
Forgive me for giving so much detail, but here goes:

Basically I?m a student as is my other 2 flatmate friends, and put down a holding deposit on a house that we wanted to rent in early august. We have never have any experience in house hunting before at all.
A couple days after paying the deposit, we phoned the estate agent to find out when the deadline was to sort everything out, including papers and documents. The estate agent told me that there WAS NOT a deadline, and that everything had to be sorted by the move in date, which was mid September. He the got his colleague to send me an email of the papers that will be required. The email also did not mention a deadline.

I then received a call on the 25th of August stating that we have lost the house due to us not giving papers in on time. After a long argument with the estate agent, he told me that there was a 1 week deadline for the papers but everything else could be sorted out by the move in date. He then told me that I would receive my money back if I sent them an email with my account details.
However I have not received my money and it has been 12 days.

In between paying the deposit and the phone call telling me we had lost the house I had phoned the agent at least three times. Twice was to specifically ask him if there was a deadline, and one was to enquire about the move in date, which was done 3 days before I received the lost house phone call.
Not at any point was I told of the deadline, reminded of the deadline in any form, nor did I receive an email in reply to the one where I provided my account details for the refund. The estate agents also knew very well that we were students and first time renters.

If I have to take this to court I will, as the deposit paid amounted to ?770, which is an astonishing amount for a student. My main point is that I was POSITIVELY TOLD by the agent that there WAS NOT a deadline, and not just simply not told of it. I was doomed in some respects to default the deposit, as I followed information which the reasonable person believed true.

Can the agent legally keep my money?

And is there a body that investigates complaints with real estate agents such as Trading Standards?

Any answer to my second question would be appreciated, though I would much prefer an answer to the first.

Thanks in advance.
I am in England and I found out theres a something like a register for estate agents to which you can post complaints to so that kind of takes care of question two, though any answers to Q1 would still greatly be appreciated.

Best answer:

Answer by Flower
Your question is on the U.S. board but if you are in England I cannot answer. Every state here has different laws.

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