Contact a local NC R/E attorney who deals with PM companies all of the time, and hire that person to deal with chasing the money if you want. 

Hey Rachel,For what its worth, I have a "Tenant Lease Security Account" with Chase for each tenant which is intended for holding tenant security deposits.

The easiest way to make a mistake is to chase shiny objects instead of going in with a plan.Spend the next 5-6 months saving up and educating yourself on the different type of investments, how to finance them, and how to manage them.

In one case that I'm familiar with, notice was sent to Chase Bank, but the address of the office was closed and the forwarding address had expired, so the certified mail came back to the tax office unclaimed. 

My Chase accts  make me answer questions if I deposit any cash at all, but will allow 30 bills at a time deposits at their ATM.   

No system is perfect, so don't waste your time chasing after the next shiny object.

. - as others have mentioned, you could hypothetically try to go after the full $50k if it was meant as earnest money deposit but even then the legal chase might not be worth it. 

Since we don’t “chase” deals just to “do a deal”, (we don’t NEED the resultant “transactional” income to keep our operation running), we are much more selective; if a piece of the puzzle doesn’t fit our risk/reward criteria we “fix it”, or if need be pass on the deal. 

@Chase Horst feel free to DM me

@Chase Lawson you do not have to take the money and split!