Holding Deposit
I’m located in CA and recently applied to an upstairs apartment on 8/4/26. The next day I was told we were approved and that I needed to come in to drop off a $1,000 “deposit” which I thought was a security deposit. I was trying to put my baby to sleep so my husband dropped it off. Turns out he signed a paper stating it was a holding deposit & that we would be charged if we backed out of renting it. The apartment is currently being renovated so it won’t be ready until mid Sept, this weekend the manager called us to let us know that there was a downstairs one available. We took a look at it and it was so small and outdated. She then pointed out that my son may make noise that could bother the downstairs neighbors, we tested the noise level and agreed. It’s not a good fit after all, we told her we changed our mind and today she texted us saying they would be keeping the full amount plus more. She then offered to deduct $500 off first months rent and to offer a 6 month lease instead of 12 so that we wouldn’t “loose the deposit”. Money has been tight and I’m freaking out over the $1,066.66 that they’re keeping. My husband signed the holding agreement on August 5th, although on the form she wrote August 4th.
Now she’s trying to say they would charge us from August 1st since that’s the day that we toured the apartment. This just doesn’t make sense to me, I’m so bummed.