Deposit left on car. Keep or not?

[Beemer-5]

I 'sold' the Jaguar, to someone who seemed genuine, just over 2 weeks ago and indeed, he left a £500 cash deposit for which i gave him a receipt.
To cut a long story short, (mucho stalling, etc.), he decides a week later that he can't afford it after all.
The car is back on sale and i have his money.
(This is the second time such a thing has happened to me, actually, it happened about 3 years ago also.)

So, part of me says the guy does not need to lose money if he is genuinely hard up, the other part says that i doubt i'd get my money back were i to muck someone about in the same way.
Would you return the money or tell him to move on?

[Beemer-5]

Phoenix, you're not wrong, it's a lovely car, but i've over-bought (4 cars at present) and am skint!

[Beemer-5]

Well, true, (although for some very bizarre reason, Will thinks i am tight!), but it's the £70K i have shelled out on cars this year which has hurt the most!
The holidays tend to be quite good value and a lot of work goes into getting them that way!

[Beemer-5]

I probably shouldn't have, but i accepted his story and gave him half back.

[Beemer-5]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

If you genuinely suffer a loss, then keep it. Otherwise give the poor bugger his money back!

He's had half. He nearly didn't get that!

[Beemer-5]

2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:

P50Boy said:

i put a 200 pound deposit on a new van before xmas with a good dealer. then had to cancel it and quite rightly lost the deposit. its there for a reason!!!!!

He would have to prove the loss to keep the deposit if you challenged him.

No, i looked into this and if you put a deposit down and the seller takes his car off sale, you have no rights whatsoever to that money back.
Zilch.
It's easy for the seller to show a loss; the car is probably losing £10 a day (minimum) in depreciation for one thing.
Storage costs, advertising costs, keeping it clean, any number of costs really.

[Beemer-5]

As it goes, i sold the car for £760 less than he was paying.