Legal advice about deposit received from car dealership.

A small car dealership sent me £100 deposit to reserve a car I’m selling. I marked the car as sold on auto trader pending collection. The dealership said they’d come get it tomorrow and transfer 6500 once they had inspected it. They have done a U-turn (pardon the pun) and said they are no longer interested and could I send the £100 back.

my question is: do I have to pay this back?
No contracts were signed by either of us, just text messages. The texts do not mention anything about a “refundable” deposit, just that they would send £100 deposit to reserve it.

I have potentially lost out on a sale as I changed my advert on auto trader.

 

In my experience if neither party have stipulated that it is a refundable deposit, then it isnt.
If the roles were reversed, would you expect a dealership to give you your cash back? I wouldn't, there'd be all sorts of admin fees they'd obviously have to cover.
Also wouldn't have taken the ad off until the sale had been finalised.
All just my opinion though, not based on any legal expertise

 

That’ll ding dang do for me

 

If there were no other terms agreed then no, you don’t have to return the deposit.

 

Tell them they owe you another £50 due to the cost of administration fees and loss of sale...amount to £150

 

Did they inspect the car or just not turn up and say changed their mind?

If they turned up and claim it’s not as described you would have to refund, if they didn’t you won’t.

 

No, they didn’t even turn up. In fairness they haven’t hounded me for the money yet. They may even know themselves they haven’t a leg to stand on.

 

Low down bums.

 

They're probably just trying their luck. Otherwise I don't understand why they'd expect a refund.

 

Cowboys with no legs?