Can a franchisor delay approval long enough that my buyer just walks away from the deal?

Realistically, yes — a franchisor who drags out approval, whether deliberately or simply due to internal process, can exhaust a buyer's patience or their financing commitments regardless of how the legal rights play out on paper, and this practical risk is often just as damaging to your deal as any formal refusal would be. A buyer facing an open-ended wait may have every legal right to remain committed but no real appetite to keep waiting, especially if their own financing has a shelf life.

Whether the buyer has a formal right to walk away depends on your purchase agreement's own terms, but even where they don't have that right, a frustrated buyer can simply choose to breach or renegotiate rather than continue waiting, which creates its own set of problems for you as the seller.

Because a slow approval process is a practical business risk as much as a legal one, it's worth pushing the franchisor for a timeline as early as possible and keeping your buyer informed and engaged throughout, rather than treating the delay passively. A Treadstone business lawyer can help apply pressure and manage the buyer relationship through a slow approval process.