When you go sale agreed you put down a booking deposit. You then have some time (typically between 3 and 6 weeks) to sign contracts and pay a bigger contract deposit.
You can pull out without forfeiting your booking deposit at any time up to signing contracts. However, once you've exchanged contracts and paid the contract deposit, if you pull out after that you could lose all deposits paid.
There are countless reasons why there can be delays between going sale agreed and closing, including problems with survey, delays with legal title issues, vendor not being ready to move etc. Six weeks from start to finish would be fairly rapid.
There's almost no limit on how long they can potentially delayed if you're unlucky. I arranged a mortgage for a lady who went sale agreed in September 2005 and hasn't closed yet.
After you go sale agreed you then have to sign a contract, after that you close the sale. If you've signed the contract then you cannot get the deposit back, if you haven't, then you can
What about the situation regarding the vendor where a Contract Deposit has been paid and contracts have been signed is he similarly committed to close /complete the deal.
If both parties have signed the contract, then both have to close the deal or pay the penalties involved.
It can sometimes happen that a purchaser has already signed but a vendor has yet to do so. In this case, the vendor is under no legal obligation to complete the deal.