Home owner refusing to pay back deposit

We rented a house from this gentleman. We agreed to a one year contract since we have been moving a lot lately because of home owners who decide to sell their property. Upon signing the one year contract the owner neglected to mention that the house is in the market. Since then we had people showing up at the most inconvenient times to view the house. They saw the property for sale on the Internet, seen the estate agent's for sale sign or they were brought over by the estate agent. It became intolerable. The estate agent informed us potential buyers committed to the sale. We decided to find a new house. The deal never materialised and owner refuses to pay back deposit because we didn't give him 3 months notice. According to him there was also a loose standing water pump on the property that went missing. There was no such pump when we moved in and we never saw or signed an inventory. We do not accept liability. The house was before we moved in and owner never reinspected property when we moved in. His last visit was 2 weeks prior. According to someone he hired to clean the the property, the pump was moved to the garage and there was a break in before we even moved in.