Can a landlord keep my money if I never move in or sign anything?

[heydippy]

My husband and I have been looking for a larger home to rent, we thought we found one. It's one that aquaintences of ours had rented and were moving out. They wanted us to take over their lease so they wouldn't have to pay rent on 2 places for 2 months. We liked the house and decided we'd try to help them out. We met the landlord and did a walk though. The landlord insisted on our first month rent and security before he would rent to us, not a big deal. However after giving him the check (on a Friday) he cashed it on Saturday and then showed us the lease, which we were not comfortable with. We explained this to him and told him we would not be moving in. He refuses to give us back our money now. We never signed a lease, we never signed anything. Our receipt says the money is for the security deposit and first month rent beginning the 1st of next month, as does the note on the check. He said he won't give it back because he may be losing out on potential rent for the next month, however the other people are still under lease and obligated to pay the rent for next month (which they have and would be given a refund once someone moves in.) My question is, does he have any right to keep our money?

 

[Gail_in_Georgia]

Nope.

Gail