Good faith deposit, apartment will not return my money

There is no such thing as a good faith deposit without a contract. Nor a sales agreement without a cpcv.

Do you have a signed contract? Is it registered with the tax office?

First rule is never to transfer money without a legal contract signed by both parties. You will have a really hard time to get your money back and if you want to pursue it you will have to pay way more than the rent in lawyers. Also, this can take years to be solved in court. Unfortunately you didn't followed the correct procedure and without a signed contract the landlord can rent to whoever he wants.

He is however behaving in bad faith but that's pretty usual in Portugal.

For the future, never, ever transfer money without a contract signed. People are all sweet and cordial. That doesn't mean they won't take advantage of you.

Some relevant parts of your description are confusing, but I agree with Nia. The term "good faith payment" is meaningless because good faith is presumed in all contracts. Furthermore, some of what you describe suggests this is a scam. In particular, the 10,000€ cash bag strikes me as too theatrical on landlord's part.

You did not specify the amount you paid. Unless the amount is too high, the landlord could prevail by alleging that the payment is non-refundable and intended to cover 1st month's rent. Hence his stated condition about the other person, since landlords are not entitled to receive duplicate compensation for the same property. If the landlord advances the argument about non-refundable 1st month, you would need to prove that the other person paid January rent, or that you and the landlord understood the "good faith payment" to be for something other than 1st month's rent.

You mention that "he never signed a rental agreement". The question is whether there is any other evidence of the terms you agreed upon. If so, feel free to post them in case some issues are going unnoticed to you. Regardless, henceforth make sure your interactions with the counterparty (i.e., landlord, his son, and any other agents) are in writing.

I had sent a good faith deposit
   
    -@emailbackuplo

Money is only transferred when there is a contract signed by both parties. It's like that everywhere. We can delude ourselves with fairy tales, but we easily fall into reality...

@emailbackuplo I cannot really understand on what basis you paid anything to your future landlord. It seesm that you don't have anything in your hands based upon which you could requet the money back. Maybe you write this off under "lessons learnt".

You say that if the other rentee takes the place from 8th Jan they will repay your monies  BUT if the other rentee doesn't take the place then they want the January rent from your monies. So in case one you get your money back and don't rent the place  but in case two you have the place for a month of January and they have no other rentee.  When you got the details related to the sale of the place what did your lawyer advise when they saw the details, are the "landlords" the owners on Land Registry listings?

Yes i made a bad call… the owner of the apartment is a friend and neighbor of my agent i never thought he would take advantage of me.   the older man (father) was going to return my deposit but his douch bag son stopped him. 

what people here dont realize is they are taking advantage of the wrong foreigner.  everybody here is so laid-back the local person would walk away and lose €3500 and not think about it… American, we don’t allow that to happen to us.

@emailbackuplo

I am Portuguese. And a law expert. Good luck with that... you may have it solved in a few years and after spending way more than that rent in lawyers or you may never solve it and loose a lot of money. It was your bad call who dictated the result unfortunately.

    Yes i made a bad call… the owner of the apartment is a friend and neighbor of my agent i never thought he would take advantage of me.   the older man (father) was going to return my deposit but his douch bag son stopped him. 
what people here dont realize is they are taking advantage of the wrong foreigner.  everybody here is so laid-back the local person would walk away and lose €3500 and not think about it… American, we don’t allow that to happen to us.
   

    -@emailbackuplo

Think it is be normal here to use legal advice re contracts and not get themselves into such a situation as €3500 is a good amount of average income for Portugese they are not that stupid to hand it over with no comenbacks.   However  "American, we don’t allow that to happen to us" when you, an American?,  have let it happen to you.

My questions to the portuguese on this forum:

1. Do you believe that the owners are entitled to keep the €3500 tax-free?
2. Do you believe that the poor man who lost €3500 is not even entitled to a tax receipt or to have that expenditure recorded against his own NIF for his own tax purposes?
3. if the situation was that the €3500 was given to the homeowners for short-term rental (say 1 or 2 months) then what? short term rentals don’t require contracts as such do they? How would the authorities intervene if the poor man had lost money on a short-term rental and it wasn’t fulfilled?

Edit: by short term rental i meant a holiday rental only.

@Mydeliveries,

A receipt with the owner's tax number can be required.

the owner of the apartment is a friend and neighbor of my agent @emailbackuplo

Why don't you press your agent about his friend's bad behaviour?

    My questions to the portuguese on this forum:Do you believe that the owners are entitled to keep the €3500 tax-free? Do you believe that the poor man who lost €3500 is not even entitled to a tax receipt or to have that expenditure recorded against his own NIF for his own tax purposes?if the situation was that the €3500 was given to the homeowners for short-term rental (say 1 or 2 months) then what? short term rentals don’t require contracts as such do they? How would the authorities intervene if the poor man had lost money on a short-term rental and it wasn’t fulfilled?Edit: by short term rental i meant a holiday rental only.        -@Mydeliveries

1, Whatever people think is not relevant, to take this further you need proof - written or email trail NOT uncorroborated verbal .

2,  Whatever people think is not relevant, Any payments require an receipt at the moment of payment with details of what it is for and to whom and usually with NIF etc.  Just buy one bread for 0.3 Euro in a Supermarket and you'll get an idea of what is required, NIF,  address of seller, item, date, tax% etc.

3 If you cannot prove to The Authorities with paperwork or email trail etc what you are claiming how could anyone do any thing about it?

PS. A word of warning. There is a possibility that if you go to The Authorities with a tale of handing over cash for an non documentated purpose they may be interested in you as undocumented cash transactions can be an way of avoiding tax.

However  "American, we don’t allow that to happen to us" when you, an American?,  have let it happen to you.

    -@Strontium

Without knowing for sure what he meant by that phrase, his remark is rather accurate.

People in the US can litigate in Small Claims Court disputes where the amount does not exceed $5,000. In some jurisdictions the limit is $10,000. Parties usually are not allowed to be represented by an attorney in Small Claims proceedings.

@pragmatist

Well, not in Portugal...

@Mydeliveries

People do money transactions against an invoice or receipt. If one makes a transaction without it, there will be no proof. Unfortunately his "good faith" caused this.

It's unfair? Yes. It's dishonest? Yes! Regardless, he didn't follow the rules for a safe business transaction.

    However  "American, we don’t allow that to happen to us" when you, an American?,  have let it happen to you.     -@Strontium

Without knowing for sure what he meant by that phrase, his remark is rather accurate.
People in the US can litigate in Small Claims Court disputes where the amount does not exceed $5,000. In some jurisdictions the limit is $10,000. Parties usually are not allowed to be represented by an attorney in Small Claims proceedings.
   

    -@pragmatist

Generally, in Europe, claiming to have handed 3500 euro cash for undocumented reasons would be seen as someone lacking in basic common sense. Generally in Europe - Doing litigation for "claiming to have handed 3500 euro cash for undocumented reasons" - so having no proof, would be seen as lacking any sense at all.