How to recover Misleading holding deposit?

I, along with some friends, had tried to look for a house. We ended up looking at a house with Surrey Student Homes (website link below). Upon finding a suitable house, the landlord, who has a strong affiliation with SSH, told us the holding deposit was £165*4. Believing him, we paid. However, as we realised that this house would not be the one we would be renting for the next 12 months, we had to back out. During this process, we realised that according to the website's own terms, we are to only pay £100 per person in holding deposits. Due to this, we have asked the landlord for the remaining 65*4 back, however he is refusing to return it. What channels can we go through to ensure that our money is returned to its rightful hands?
Website:Here
Archived version:Here

Hi @IamSpiderLily,
That must be a challenging situation to be in. I would advise speaking to your students' union adice team. Often they are very happy to help students with housing issues, especially when dealing with such a misleading landlord. It is also a good idea to contact Surrey Student Homes about the landlord as he is giving false information out, which does not go well for them. There are other independent organisations that can support you as well, such as shelter. The influence of a third party organisation may push the landlord to return the money, but there is unfortunelately no guarentee on it.
I hope you can resolve the issue
Matthew
Student ambassador

I, along with some friends, had tried to look for a house. We ended up looking at a house with Surrey Student Homes (website link below). Upon finding a suitable house, the landlord, who has a strong affiliation with SSH, told us the holding deposit was £165*4. Believing him, we paid. However, as we realised that this house would not be the one we would be renting for the next 12 months, we had to back out. During this process, we realised that according to the website's own terms, we are to only pay £100 per person in holding deposits. Due to this, we have asked the landlord for the remaining 65*4 back, however he is refusing to return it. What channels can we go through to ensure that our money is returned to its rightful hands?
Website:Here
Archived version:Here