We viewed a property in early March 2024, completed the application and paid the holding deposit 30/3/24. By 17/4 the online application status remained at 50% and we contacted the estate agent to get an update as the had already issued an invoice and moving in date 24/5/24 but not confirmed we have successfully passed the application criteria yet. We chased the agent again at the end of april 2024 and still no response. Moving forward to 20/5/24 the agent still had not formally approved or refused our application or updated the online status checker too 100% 4 days prior to the proposed moving in date 24/5/2024, our current rental property is now expired and we feel at risk of being homeless due to being in limbo with our application process with the new property being in limbo.
i emailed the agent requesting our holding deposit refunded due to lack of communication & confirmation for the approval of our application for the said property and putting us at high risk of being homeless with elderly and children to think of. The agent has refused to refund the holding deposit due to “us withdrawing from the application process”, this is not true and when we email regarding the refund request we got immediate responses as opposed to the above earlier requests of information in april 2024 we got no responses.
Does the agent have the legal right under the tenancy act 2019 is my question.: