Hi please can someone help me. I was very interested in a property and looking to move on this quickly so I paid the holding deposit and requested to view the property. The landlord didn’t show up to the viewing and I haven’t emailed them daily for the last 4 days since the arranged viewing and had no response. I also contacted open rent and they are telling me that I will lose the holding deposit if I pull out. I haven’t pulled out but also haven’t moved forward due to no communication. How am I to be held at fault here and at risk of losing money when I’ve been the one to be messed about. They said because the holding deposit has taken the house off the market that the landlord will need to keep that for lack of advertising time, but they don’t reply!! Does anyone have any advice please? Thank you in advance 
You paid a holding deposit before you had seen it?? Did you pay thru Openrent??
Did LL agree a date for viewing? Are you sure deposit was accepted by LL (Get a friend to check if listing still live)?
Very foolish to put down holding deposit without having seen or been invited to do so by LL. Shows a severe lack of communication skills as forces LL to make a decision whether to take off market for a tenant they’ve not even met. Personally it would be a big red flag and instant rejection from me as shows no consideration or awareness on your part. Thinking a LL will take of the market without even doing viewings implies you think the LL doesn’t care whom they rent to. If they are a new LL who doesn’t know it means the property is taken off the market etc they may have wrongly pressed 'Accept ’ and are now frustrated as they will then be waiting for other people to apply for viewings and getting no interest as advert has been taken down without them realizing.
Re organize the viewing. Could be LL has been unwell, family emergency or whatever. Don’t go to a viewing without having shared phone numbers (eg in case one is running late or has to cancel)
Check your OR inbox and email spam inbox as emails from OR often go there possible LL has been in touch and you didn’t see it.
There’s a statutory deadline so if nothing happens and you’ve not withdrawn your application and provide all info requested by LL, OR will automatically return your holding deposit
See
Also
Source: OpenRent https://share.google/FJmhpKTxan6o8x33d
Good luck
I did yes, I’ve never rented a property before and my situation was serious, constant emails from open rent saying place holding deposit to show you’re serious.
And yes through open rent
@Carly8 well you should ignore those automated OR emails. They are spam.
Think about it. If you were a LL would you spend time and £ making somewhere ready to rent and advertising it, then accept the first tenant who applies before even meeting them? Use some common sense.
Good luck
Wow somethings got your back up hasn’t it!!
I have never rented a property before and each time I was sending an enquiry or a message (again not being replied to) open rent were messaging saying if your serious pay a holding deposit, every time. I was in a very very urgent situation and needed to move fast. Everyday since Saturday I have sent a message for an update and I still haven’t received a reply. As I see it if I was a landlord letting out a house I would be replying to messages. Yes they may have something going on at home also, but most people have their phones in their hands a couple of times a day.
I would hope so as I have followed all the correct protocol I was in an extremely desperate situation and ready to move forward asap. Their lack of communications has left me feeling they are unreliable and I have since found somewhere else with better communications and replies within 24 hours. I think it’s a bit naughty of OR to keep pushing for the holding deposit. And pushing to referencing without viewing.
Yes there’s been various discussions here previously where LLs (not just me) say the same about OR and don’t like the fact OR keep.pushing. It’s their business model - push for contracts to be signed and more services sold, that’s how they make £.
@Carly8 yes quite possible the LL.is unreliable. Glad you found somewhere else
Good luck
NEVER pay a holding deposit before the landlord says it is ok. And Never before you view
Well, at least, your deposit will not be lost. You’ll get it back eventually.
On a different note, David gave you a good advice. Use your common sense and don’t pay attention to multiple spam e-mails. You wanted to move in fast; now you’ll only lose more time trying to get your deposit back.
One more thing. LL don’t like desperate tenants. In fact, nobody likes desperate people. Some LL even refund holding deposit made without their permission and block you.
And now tell me: “Wow somethings got your back up hasn’t it!!”, LOL (OP grammar preserved).
Thank you for your advice
Oh what a fun place to be!! Thanks Tim!
I realise the that you have already received a lot of comments about this issue from several landlords, but as another LL I would like to add my thoughts as well - and also explain how we try to deal with it
The Rent Now button is potentially “highly misleading” and I guess that this must be so particularly for anyone using OpenRent for the first time. There is an “information” button alongside the Rent Now button. If you click on the Information button it warns you not to use Rent Now unless you have agreed with the LL that they wish you to proceed. I’m assuming that you didn’t read this but I accept that it isn’t very clear.
For our own properties, we wish to avoid anyone (who has not already viewed the house and been chosen by us to proceed to referencing) from “jumping the gun” by placing a holding deposit via Rent Now. So we explicitly state in our adverts that the Rent Now option should not be used until we request it - and we also state that anyone who does use it without our consent will not be considered for viewing. (However we have not seen any other LL adverts which deal with this in the same way)
Thank you John this has been very helpful. As a newbie to renting I do feel that after no response to my first 3 messages, send on separate days that open rents emails saying “pay the holding deposit to show you’re serious” was very sneaky. I should have known then that the landlord wasn’t attentive. I’ve emailed daily since 5th September and still had no response. Open rent just keep telling me to message the landlord which I have been doing and they don’t seem to be stepping into help. It’s 2 week on Friday since I paid the holding deposit 
You should have already received the Holding Deposit back - OpenRent rules are
“No Landlord Action: If the landlord does not accept or reject the application within 96 hours, the system triggers an automatic refund”.
So you need to now bypass the landlord and find out from OR whether the LL has accepted or rejected you. If they have done neither then you must press OR to process your refund. And I think you should complain about this landlord if they have not done either of these two actions. OR will not have passed the money to the LL unless a tenancy agreement is in place (in which case it is treated as a payment on account towards the initial rent payment)
It all sounds very unsatisfactory for you - it must be very frustrating!
Ive had a deposit paid when it was an ordinary listing without rent now, and I hadnt met the tenant or viewed, I think OR have plugged that gap now, but yes instant red flag.
I may have inadvertently misled you about the time periods. It looks as if the 96 hours (4 days) had been changed to 15 days - based on the information on the LL section of the OR website. If the LL has not either accepted or rejected the person making the holding deposit by 15 days then the deposit should be returned within 7 days. But I agree with you that is is really bad that you have no communication from the LL in this matter.
No open rent haven’t been very helpful either, I had an email this afternoon saying they will refund the deposit due to lack of communication. Thanks for your help and advice.