The practical result of a force close is that both parties will receive their portion of the money in the channel, but the party that initiates the force close must wait anywhere from hours to weeks—the exact delay is negotiated by the nodes beforehand—to receive their funds. This delay, referred to as to_self_delay
in the LND documentation, provides the offline node a window of opportunity to come back online and verify that the force-close was legitimate. If the force-close was fraudulent, the peer can challenge it with a penalty transaction.