Good Faith Deposit Refundable?
I live in MS but am moving to NY. After contacting several agents to see apartments on two days that I would be in the city, I decided to meet with a certain company. They showed me apartments and I saw one that I liked, I decided to put in an application. They stated I would need to put down a good faith deposit. They explained its purpose was to keep the apartment from being available to anyone else during the time it would take for my application to be approved. After signing the application on the second day of being in the city, I flew back to MS. I looked the apartment up online because I wanted to see the pictures. Well upon looking it up I saw that it was listed as a no fee apartment, yet the agent that showed me the apartment planned to receive $3000 from me for their fee. This did not make any sense to me because everywhere I read stated that a no fee apartment means the broker will get paid by the landlord and that is an incentive for prospective tenants to want the apartment. Additionally, I had seen several apartments online where once an application was put in it would say "app in" right next to the apartment pricing to let people know this apartment is not available. Well mine said no such thing. Upon finding this out I contacted the agent whom i had been working with and whom had been regularly responding to my questions with no issue. I asked her about the no fee listing and if it meant the landlord would pay her the fee and she did not respond. The next day, another agent from the company whom we did not work with, sent an email with our agent cc'd on it, and said we were approved with only first month and security down. I asked once more about the brokers fee and she said yes, I was still responsible for paying them a fee as well. I don't believe it is right because essentially they are going to get two payments, one from me and one from the landlord. After this, I did not trust the company due to communication issues and a gut feeling. I told them I wanted to cancel my application and get my deposit back. she sent several replies at first trying to brush me off and saying it doesn't work like that and she doesnt "think" I can get it back, none of which were backed by showing me legal proof where I signed that they said they could keep my money. When I paid for the deposit I signed a paper with the breakdown of the different costs. It specifically listed out that the credit check fee and the administrative fees were "nonrefundable". However, by the word deposit it did not have this, nor anywhere on the signed paper did it say the deposit was nonrefundable should I get approved and choose to pass on the apartment. As far as the idea that they held the apartment from other people and that they should be able to keep the money because of that, it was literally a two day span total. And honestly she stated when they put the application in the day I paid the deposit, that the management office was closed, so they did not get it until the next day. So is one day of the apartment supposedly being "held" really enough for them to keep my deposit? Especially with no written documentation stating that would be the case? I have email threads noting the entire conversation where she refuses to refund the money and she stopped communication as well after i mentioned how the receipt/ signed paper doesn't list the deposit as being nonrefundable. What would be the next step to take?