Hi, while I’m inquiring a property the open rent website suggested me to do the holding deposit, if I am able to do that and landlord already signed the contract, should I get the holding deposit refund back?
I assume you mean the Rent Now option. If so then you will see an icon alongside the Rent Now button which (if you click it) will tell you not to use this option unless you have agreed it with the landlord. So the situation you describe should not occur if you follow these instructions
This topic causes landlords a lot of problems with prospective tenants who are “desperate” to find a new rental home using Rent Now before they have even viewed it let alone before they have been selected by the landlord as a prospective tenant. In our adverts on OR we explicitly ask applicants not to do this until they are selected.
The answer to your query (however) is that the holding deposit will obviously be returned to you.
Just dont do it.
Ignore OR “suggestion”. If and when LL decides they want to proceed eg with referencing, they will ask you to put down the holding deposit. If you do anything else you are simply not taking the trouble to communicate properly with the LL and presuming. If a prospective tenant behave that way with me it’s an instant rejection.
If the LL advertising a deposit needed then when someone else paid it the advert is taken offline to 'hold" the property whilst they proceed with referencing and signing a tenancy agreement/contract. So if the advert is live, they likely havent signed a contract.
They could only have signed a contract if done outside Openrent and in that case shouldnt be accepting a holding deposit from you. If they did and dont proceed to sign a contract with you because they withdraw, yes you will get the holding deposit back. If you withdrew they could keep it
Source: OpenRent https://share.google/E8vapknZ1CNOfKJW9
Good luck