My husband gave a security deposit to a landlord for an apartment we thought we were going to rent. A few days later we received the lease in the mail that stated we needed to give first and last month's rent PLUS the security deposit. The wrong date was on the lease and it stated that we paid the first month rent, not the security deposit. We have not signed anything yet but the landlord is refusing to give us our money back even though we have decided not to rent from him.

How can we get our money back?

Hello kimberly:

You can't. He took his property off the market because you said you were going to rent it, and he took a deposit to insure that you would. You didn't, and he kept the deposit. That's as it should be. Your decision not to rent would cost the landlord money through no fault of his own. That's why he gets to keep your money.

I know, there were clerical details that needed to be ironed out, but that didn't void the lease.

excon

Your deposit was not a security deposit, it simply held the property for you. You might win in small claims if you claim the terms of the lease were not the terms verbally given to you at the time of your deposit.

I agree with ballenger here. You have a chance of recovering this money. But you will have to sue the landlord to get it. Your posititon is that the money was a deposit, pending execution of the lease. But the terms of the lease were not what you were led to believe they would be, so you decided to back out.