Agreed. I will never put a deposit on a private sale. I nearly got screwed out $400 when the guy found out that wouldn't cover the cost of safety. Luckily the guy was a superintendent of an apartment building. I ended up calling the company that owned the building, told them the story and they pressured him to give the deposit back. He wrote me a NSF cheque because he didn't have the cash. When I found out the cheque was bad, I ended kicking his door and told him I wasn't leaving until he got the money. If you want any help with getting the money back, I'm more than willing to suggest some methods.