Q: Am I able to get a holding deposit back for an apartment, if I did not sign anything yet?
I gave a holding deposit for an apartment so it would be off the market. I did not sign any paper work for it yet. The landlord renting did not state that the deposit was nonrefundable, and it was not in her receipt that it was nonrefundable. I gave the notice I could not rent the place the next day because of circumstances. She still had a month and a half to find new tenants for the place, and she also had people living in there for the month of September.
A: Security deposits are not nonrefundable. Landlords can only deduct from them for, basically, 4 reasons none of which apply here. It's not clear to me whether your "holding deposit" qualifies as a security deposit. Your holding deposit may be interpreted as a deposit to take the unit off the market and not a security deposit for rental. In other words, you paid for the option of having the unit unavailable to others. I'd expect that your holding deposit should be approximately equal to the rent for the time it was off market. The landlord shouldn't come out ahead because of it.
A: There is no such thing as a non-refundable deposit. It is either a fee, or a deposit. If it is a deposit, and you cancelled within a reasonable time of making your decision which was within a reasonable time after you made the deposit, she must refund your deposit.
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