verbal agreement in renting room

i was supposed to move into a room for about 6 mo. circumstances came up and i was unable to. however, i had already given the "landlord" a security deposit. he says he couldn't find a new tenant for the upcomming month (1.5 weeks away) so he's keeping part of my security deposit which covers one month's rent. i don't believe he looked hard enough b/c rooms go very fast in NYC. can i take him to small claims court to get my money back and if so do i have a chance at winning? there was never a written contract and i have proof that i payed him the deposit. thanx for ur help

I am a law school graduate. WHat I offer is mere information, not to be construed as forming an attorney client relationship.

Most likely then, you should be entitled to your deposit, if you never signed a lease agreement with him.

With all due respect to Lawrat, this may not be that simple....

If you paid a deposit (even without a written lease) and the landlord held that unit for you, your 'hold' might have cost him/her a different paying tenant. Further, your failure to move in as agreed may cause the landlord to lose further moneys if they unit were to go unrented.

Your 'belief' that the unit could (or should) have been rented within some period has little relevance. You would need to SHOW that this is the true fact, not just a 'belief'.

My suggestion:
Take the offered partial refund and learn from it. Do not agree to take something when you are not able to.

As to your question of "can i take him to small claims court to get my money back and if so do i have a chance at winning"...
Yes, anyone can sue anyone in this great country, even if they have NO basis for a claim. Can you win? Maybe, but it sounds like the the ordeal (cost, time and aggravation) of pursuing this might exceed the slim possibility of recovery.

"An oral contract isn't worth the paper it's written on."

I don't agree (even with your pun). An oral contract is absolutely enforcable, if it is able to be shown to be supported by other issues of fact.

For example, an oral contract for a loan between two individuals can be substantiated by a subsequent letter affirming the verbal loan, or a check payment, or even a telephone message left on an answering machine. All of these are caselaw examples of enforcement of verbal contracts.

As for your statement, I agree that a verbal contract is much harder to enforce and certainly is not subject to the details of a written contract, but it is still a contract and is enforcable in most (if not all) states.