Devin

A month ago a friend and I put money down for a security deposit on an apartment. We were supposed to move in on the first of November but my friend backed out at the last minute due to financial issues. We have not signed a lease yet and I have a receipt for the money we already gave him. When we told the landlord we will not be able to move in he said he turned down a lot of good people for this apartment and he would be able to give us are money back. Can he do that even though we did not sign a lease?