Deposit.

[Mikeylikes]

I am in the state of alabama. I posted a deposit on a house that me and my wife were going to buy. The total was $200.00. One week after we gave the seller the deposit they sold the house to someone-else. I was mad about that. I wanted my money back from the deposit, cause me and my wife never took possesion of the house, or even lived in it, but she is giving me the run around. What do I need to do to take the person to small claims court to get my money back? We have the reciept and all contacts made to the person in an attempt to get the money back. Please advise us which way to turn and what papers to file. Thank You.

 

[Smithy]

You write a demand letter to the person, stating the date, a way to contact you, what you want, and by when you will accept it. You may or may not want to include in the letter that their refusal to give you what you want will result in them being sued. I included that in my letter and it worked. I also included in my letter that if I did not hear from them that their silence would be interpreted as refusal to give me what I demanded.
(Keep a copy of the letter for your records.)If, after the specified time, you don't recieve what you want, you go down to the courthouse of the county where the person you're suing either lives or works. You'll fill out a form (it differs from state to state) and pay a small fee. (In my state it was going to cost 43 dollars to sue for 5000.) They will give you a court date and then charge you another fee to have the notice either certified mailed or delivered by a sheriff. Look up states laws for your state from the main menu of this site and it should include the state-specific steps for filing a small claims suit, specific names of the forms, and more accurate fees for your state. Good luck.