Estate Agent will not refund reservation deposit?

Hello, I paid a reservation deposit of £1,000 for BTL property for it to be taken off the market.

I commenced all legal work and applied for a mortgage with the first lender and they down valued the property by about £10,000. I couldn’t fund the cash difference, so I made this clear to the agent that I will have to renegotiate and apply through another lender. The agent suggested not applying through another lender (due to fast changing conditions in the market some months back) but it was the only option I had, with the hopes of getting a higher valuation or lose my deposit.

Second lender came back with an even lower valuation and so I withdrew my offer as I couldn’t proceed due to funds.

All this happened when we were a couple of weeks from exchange.

Now the agents are refusing to refund the deposit as I withdrew from the sale. The agents have been very slow throughout the whole process which has cost time and money.

The buyer agreement pretty much said deposit was only refundable if property is unmortgageable, the seller withdrew from the sale, or on completion.

Any suggestions on how approach this and get my money back?

Thank you,

Tega