It is legal to put clauses in about forfeiting part of the deposit for not staying 10 months to a year, not sure about certain times of year.

., The deposit will be forfeited per the lease!

If you put earnest money down to secure the property from the owner and then decide not to follow through on the contract without a viable out that was written into the agreed upon purchase contract you would then forfeit the earnest money.

Voided, settled, forfeited for a variety of reasons.  

I know one group who dropped $85k on forfeited deposits last year. 

Worst case scenario if they don't buy it they forfeit the extra they paid in rent and you are free to sell it on the market then...Not sure if this would work for you - but wanted to put it out there.A

Simply put - in violating their lease, they could forfeit their security deposit outright (again, depending on how the lease stipulates return of security deposit).But line items aside, they damaged the property.

Binder deposit which will remain as a binder until closing, unless sooner forfeited or retained,according to the provisions in this Agreement.

Then according to the listing agreement, the seller may owe the broker/agent a portion of the forfeited deposit. 

Or it may say that you simply forfeit our deposit if you default.