The deposit is a written agreement, and one party will pay a certain amount to the other party as a guarantee for the contract. Its purpose is to ensure that the parties conclude a contract or urge the debtor to perform its obligations, and to ensure that the rights of creditors can be realized. If the party paying the deposit fails to perform its obligations, it has no right to ask the other party to return the deposit. If the party who accepts the deposit fails to perform its obligations, it must return it to the other party in double, which is the basic spirit of "penalty for deposit".
But whether the deposit can be refunded depends on the following six factors:
1. If the buyer fails to sign the contract at the time and place specified in the subscription before signing the formal house purchase contract, or the seller resells the subscribed house to others within the time limit specified in the subscription book, resulting in the failure to sign the formal contract, if the buyer breaches the contract, the deposit will not be refunded; If the seller breaches the contract, it shall double the deposit.
2. If a formal purchase contract is signed, the deposit shall be mortgaged or returned to the purchaser. In the process of performing the formal contract, if either party breaches the contract, "non-return" or "double return" shall apply.
3. If both parties have no breach of contract in the above process, and it is difficult to reach an agreement only on the contents of the pre-sale (sales) contract and supplementary agreement, and the contract cannot be signed, the seller shall return the deposit in full to the buyer without compensation.
5. The seller does not meet the housing conditions such as house price, floor, area and orientation confirmed in the subscription book. During the signing of the formal contract, if the contract fails, the seller shall be deemed as a breach of contract and double the deposit.