UK Landlord Forum / Life

I agreed a tenancy with an individual to start on 10 May x confirmed by several messages and an email . He also paid a holding deposit: and was going to sign the AST when he moved in.  2 days before he was due to move in he told me that his employer had moved him to another part of the country - so didn't want the tenancy - this turned out to be a lie.  In the meantime I had cancelled 2 or 3 good prospects

Have I got any claim against him? Was there a contract? and is it enforceable?

They haven't sign the tenancy agreement, let it go.

Assuming it's not too late, inform him in writing within 7 days of him informing you that he's no longer going ahead that you will be keeping the holding deposit as a result of him changing his mind. Otherwise, you have to give back the holding deposit.

This has been mentioned before.What is the point of a holding deposit if they can demand it back? Is this really laid down in law?

Yes, it's in Schedule 2 of the Tenant Fees Act 2019. It includes the reasons where the landlord can keep the deposit, the timeline and procedure for doing so.

Really appreciating the sophisticated use of embedded links there... what next, pictures?

Thanks for the helpful replies.

In this case the guy accepted the loss of his holding deposit and I had found another tenant by the end of the week so it worked out much better than I expected.  .
I will check out the issue about a  holding deposit but in a world where we need good tenants who will stay a reasonable length of time is it worth forcing the issue any way?