My question involves landlord-tenant law in the State of: Washington
My husband and I were going to rent an apartment from Dobler Management Company, Inc (DMCI) apartment called Tudor Village at the Mall in Tacoma, WA. We filled out our application online and paid a $200 holding fee, which we understand is non-refundable if we decide to cancel moving in. Shortly after, we were approved and a few days after approval I came in to pay a $350 deposit and provide my SSN and drivers license, BUT the landlord did not have me sign any paperwork/lease. She had just wanted the deposit and my ID and SSN. My husband didn't provide any of his information yet as well because she said they didn't need it until we officially moved in.
Well now we are no longer able to move in and we wanted to cancel our move so I called and asked to get the deposit refunded but the landlord is refusing and is saying the deposit is considered a "holding fee" as well but I asked her to show me proof where it stated that in the application and I also told her that she did not have me sign a lease yet either so why should she have to keep the deposit. She just told me that it "doesn't say it on the application, but it does say that somewhere and it's considered a holding fee" and that because I cancelled the move-in then I am forfeiting ALL of the money we paid. This doesn't seem fair or make sense to me. On top of that, my husband called back since he was pretty upset AND she ended up backtracking on her word and said that she "doesn't know" if she can return it or not and needs to contact somebody else.
I completely understand that the $200 holding fee we paid, which was also written into the application, is solely to hold the apartment for us before we can move in and that if we decided to cancel moving in, then we would forfeit that money BUT nowhere did it say that we would also forfeit our deposit and she did not specify that the deposit was a holding fee.
Are we entitled to get our $350 refunded to us? I contacted the property management company as well and they said they would get back to me with more information.

