Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

It depends on what boxes were checked on the contract form. You may be obligated to mediate and/or arbitrate, or you can file suit for breach of contract and declaration of rights to the deposit, and any further damages if the liquidated damages provision was not checked. Before the seller does anything, thought, they must demand performance using the appropriate forms, and then terminate the contract using the appropriate forms if the buyer fails to perform. The CAR documents are pretty well set up to force this to a head one way or the other. Your real estate agent should be guiding you through this.