Return of booking deposit

Decided not to go ahead with property purchase due to potential rennovation costs. No contracts signed. Have asked several times for return of booking deposit from EA, with no success. Any suggestions, or has anyone else had this problem before.

Another case. Have heard of many in the past six months. First thing, did you get a receipt when you paid the deposit ? Are they a large firm of EAs. Basically do you think they are financially sound ? Next question refers to the developers. The industry is in a bit of a state at the moment so I would hurry if I were you. Have you asked your solicitors to write an immediate letter to the EA and the Developer. If you haven't first thing Tuesday morning get working on it.

Thanks, merman for your reply. The estate agent is one of the most well known, with offices everywhere. Your post has alarmed me a bit. Do you think I will get the booking deposit back? I didn't realise this type of thing was happening on a large scale. I will get onto my solicitor, first thing Tuesday. Is there any point in contacting the EA's head office, or in contacting the Association of Auctioneers and Valuers. I sent the cheque in by post, and never got a receipt for same.

Before going to your solicitor and having to pay their costs, try one more thing........
If this is one of the largest estate agents out there, then their repuation is very important to them.
Tell them (their head office) on Tuesday morning that legaly booking deposits are fully refundable before contracts have been signed and unless they give you a cheque back today (tuesday), you intend to make this as public possible with the local and national newspapers. Mention that this seems to be a common problem with this agency and you have evidence of this (white lie). Let them know also that your solicitor is now involved (or will be shortly). The last thing they need in this currenct climate is potential purchasers concerned that agents are not refunding booking deposits. Good luck....

Every time you call the EA, send an email to the EA to confirm the conversation took place. CC the email to yourself and your Solicitor to document the correspondence. But at this point you should be contacting the EA through your Solicitor.

Hopefully you will get your deposit back soon, good luck

elainem, What date did you first request the return of the deposit ?

Threaten to report the theft of you deposit to the Gardai, that'll light a fire under them

No it won't, The Guards won't become involved in a civil matter. The OP gave the deposit voluntarily and the problem is that it won't be returned.

At the very least it's fraud.

Thanks everyone for the replies. It's three weeks since I asked for the return of the deposit - so I suppose it's not that long really. Just a bit concerned because initially it was being processed, then it didn't catch the post, and then whoever does the posting was off sick. Just wondered if I'm getting the run around or are these genuine mishaps - bit concerned when Merman says this is happening a lot recently, and don't want the hassle of having to get stroppy about it. Also need the booking deposit to possibly put towards another property that I'm currently bidding on.

I'd be very surprised if it was a matter of 'cash-flow' problems for the agent. Deposit monies are lodged in a client account separate from the business account of the agent. Call the agent and advise them that you will save them the cost of a stamp and that you will collect in person a valid cheque for the amount outstanding. Shouldn't be a problem.

3 weeks?? I think thats alot. Would expect return of deposit within few days. Call into office and refuse to leave until you have cheque. For every day they have it, they are earning interest on it in some bank.

AmIok said:

At the very least it's fraud.

Click to expand...

How is it fraud?

Fraud would be to pretend to be an EA, pretend a house is for sale and then run off with the money.

Hi
I pulled out of a house that I had paid a deposit on last Summer. It took me approx 5 weeks to get it back. There was never an issue in getting the money back, just think the EA was keeping me waiting to try and prove some sort of point.
Just keep on ringing them every day

mcb. We are now in different economic times. Without knowing names etc., it is common knowledge that there are quite a few developers / house builders in serious financial trouble, coupled with assuming the fact that there must be quite a few EAs suffering from lack of income. At this point in time, I think it important that the OP does everything possible to receive her deposit back ASAP. There is no point in crying over this matter when it s to late.

A few years ago it took an estate agent a few weeks to return a deposit to me. Their excuse was that cheques on the client account were only issued by head office, which I suppose is a good thing. I would still chase up the estate agent though.

Also, remember that in some smaller branch offices they may only visit the bank once a week (no security issue as EAs rarely have cash) and that once lodged the cheque may take 5 days to clear. No EA will issue a deposit until a cheque has cleared. So there's potentially 2 weeks of "delay" already.

In relation to developers in trouble etc. the EA should in no circumstances have passed on any deposits to a developer at this stage.

you might have tried this already but could you cancel the cheque? It may not yet have been processed......worth a try

Still no sign of deposit. Solicitor sent letter today by fax. Any suggestions, where I go next?