We live in Vermont a landlord agreed to rent to us we gave him a deposit to hold the house Now 4 days later he call and told me he got a lot of responses to his add and he now is going to rent to a family friend.Can he do that after he told us we had the rental and put down a hold deposit.thank you for you help.

The answer is no. Unless the hold expired, he committed the apartment to you. Bottomline though, do you really want to force him to rent to you? As long as he returns the deposit, I would be happy. If you incur any loses due to his rescinding the commitment, you could sue him for those.

Hello debra:

You gave him money. He gave you something. What does it say? I'll bet it says enough for you to be able to force him to rent to you...

However, as Scott says, it's going to be an adversarial relationship from the get go, and I'm not sure you want to have that.

On the other hand, if the price was cheap, and/or rentals are very hard to find, and/or your wife fell in love with the place, and/or you don't mind having an adversarial relationship with your landlord, then I'd force the issue.

You could do that by writing him a letter indicating that you are going to hold him to his promise, and sue him if he doesn't adhere. HAND deliver a copy to him, and mail another copy certified, return receipt requested.

excon