Sure, I'm just pointing out that unless explicitly added to a contract, the default situation is that forfeiting the deposit does not allow you to walk away.

So in a simple agreement where you agree to do $10,000 worth of work for someone, and ask for a $2,000 deposit, the client is not allowed to just pay $2,000 and walk away even if you haven't done a single minute's worth of work on the project yet.