# Interior Design Refund: HomeLane Refuses ₹25,000 > Paid a booking fee for a modular kitchen and got an inflated BOQ? Here's how to claim an interior design refund in India via a formal consumer complaint. Source: https://sudhirrao.com/insights/interior-design-refund-homelane-booking-dispute Author: Sudhir Rao — Advocate, Supreme Court of India Category: Consumer Court Published: 2026-09-14 --- #### One of my clients recently had a case which I am explaining below and if you are stuck in such similar situation, here is what to do. **Note:** Due to attorney-client privilege, I cannot disclose complete case details or identify the actual parties involved. However, I am sharing the essential facts and legal approach so that if you find yourself in a similar situation, you can understand the available solutions and legal remedies. **TL;DR:** If an interior company takes your booking fee and then hands you a bill of quantities that contradicts what was promised before payment, you can seek an explanation in writing first, and then a refund — through the consumer commission, a civil suit, or in some cases a criminal complaint. What usually decides the outcome is not the size of the gap between the promise and the bill of quantities. It is what you were shown, and what you signed, before the money left your account. ## The key facts I can share - A booking fee was paid to an interior contractor before any work started. - The bill of quantities was produced only after that payment was received. - What the bill described did not match what had been discussed before payment. - Whether a signed contract exists, and what it says about the booking fee, is the first thing I would want to read. That is the shape of it. Amounts, dates, the city and the names are all left out, because they change nothing about the legal position and would identify the people involved. I also only have one side of the story. The contractor may well have a version in which the bill of quantities was shown earlier, in some form, and the client simply did not read it — that happens often enough that it has to be considered. ## Can I recover my booking fee if the bill of quantities changes? Yes, often — but the route depends less on the bill of quantities than on three questions, and they are worth answering in order. ### Was the bill of quantities shown before you paid? If it was, and you signed or replied "okay" to it, the conversation shifts. You are then arguing that a specific item was described differently in person, which is hard to prove without a written record. If it was produced only afterwards, the company's position is weaker: it took money against a scope it had not finalised. ### What does the writing say about the booking fee itself? Look for one sentence. Is the booking fee described as an advance to be adjusted against the final bill, as earnest money, or as a non-refundable charge? An advance that is adjusted is money held for work; if the work is never done on the agreed basis, it generally has to come back. A pure non-refundable booking charge is a harder argument, though not always an impossible one. A blanket clause that lets the company keep the money and change the scope of work at will can be challenged as an unfair contract term and, in some cases, as being opposed to public policy under Section 23 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872. ### Can they simply keep it and walk away? If the company stops responding and does no work at all, the question stops being about a bill of quantities and becomes about whether they intended to perform the contract when they took the money. That is where the criminal route becomes arguable, and I deal with it below. ## Your options, in the order I would actually use them ### 1. A written legal notice Boring, cheap, and it works more often than people expect. A notice that sets out the sequence of events, attaches the payment proof and the earlier quotation or chat, and demands a refund within a stated period, gives the company two choices: pay, or explain in writing. That explanation is useful later. If they write back admitting the scope changed, you have your evidence. ### 2. A consumer complaint Hiring an interior contractor is a "service" under the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, and you are a "consumer" under Section 2(7). Taking money and then supplying a scope that does not match what was represented can be both a deficiency in service under Section 2(11) and an unfair trade practice under Section 2(42). Practical points, because these are what people actually ask about: - **Where:** District Commission for claims up to ₹50 lakh, State Commission between ₹50 lakh and ₹2 crore, National Commission above that, as per the pecuniary limits notified under Section 34. - **Deadline:** two years from the date the dispute arose, under Section 69. Miss it and you need a separate application for condonation, which is not a formality. - **How:** a complaint under Section 35, which can be filed online through the e-daakhil portal. You can appear yourself; you do not need an advocate. - **Cost:** the fee is nominal and scales with the claim value. Time is the real cost — a contested matter before a District Commission commonly runs into a year or more, sometimes two. - **Arbitration clause:** if the contract has one, expect the company to raise it under Section 8 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. Whether a consumer commission must refer the parties to arbitration in a given case is not settled uniformly, and the answer often turns on the wording of the clause and the facts. This is one of those questions where I would not give a confident answer without reading the contract. ### 3. A civil suit for the money If there is a written contract and the claim is for a fixed sum, an Order XXXVII of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 summary suit is the fastest civil route, because the defendant needs leave to defend. If there is no written contract — which is common in interior work — you file an ordinary suit for recovery or for damages for breach, and Section 73 of the Contract Act governs what you can recover. The limitation is three years from the breach. ### 4. A criminal complaint This is where people's expectations usually run ahead of the law. Cheating under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 requires a dishonest intention from the beginning — the inducement must exist when the money is taken, not arise later because the work went badly. A company that genuinely intended to do the work and then quoted badly is not a cheat in the legal sense. A company that collected a booking fee with no intention of ever performing is. In practice, when you approach the police, expect them to call it a civil dispute, and expect some reluctance to register an FIR under Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. If that happens, the options are an application before the Magistrate asking that the police be directed to investigate, or a private complaint before the Magistrate. Both are slow, and both work better when the paper trail shows something more than a pricing disagreement — a fabricated quotation, a dissolved business, a string of identical complaints, or an admission in writing. ## What to preserve, starting today ![An interior quotation, a bill of quantities and a UPI payment receipt for a booking fee placed side by side on a table](/images/interior-booking-fee-bill-of-quantities.jpg) - The payment proof — UPI reference, bank entry, cheque image, or the invoice raised for the booking fee. - The original quotation, brochure, WhatsApp messages, emails or Instagram messages where the earlier scope was described. - The bill of quantities, with the date it was actually sent to you. - Any contract, work order or terms and conditions, including the ones buried in a link nobody opens. - A short dated timeline you write yourself, in plain sentences, while you still remember the sequence. Screenshots of a chat are worth more than a perfect memory. Export the conversation to a file rather than cropping images one by one. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Can the company keep my booking fee if I am the one who cancels? It depends on what the booking fee was for and what the writing says. If it was an advance against work and no work was done, the company usually has to return it, less any loss it can actually show it suffered — Section 74 of the Contract Act stops a party from treating a penalty as a windfall. If it was expressly an earnest money or non-refundable booking charge, and you walked away without the company being at fault, keeping it is more defensible. ### What if there is no written contract at all? Then the quotation, the chats, the invoice and the bill of quantities become the contract, and the argument is about which version of events is more believable. A claim is still possible. It is just harder, and the outcome depends heavily on documents you may or may not have kept. ### Do I need an advocate for a consumer complaint? No. You can file and argue it yourself. Many people do, particularly for smaller amounts. Where the company turns up with counsel and disputes the scope of work, the case stops being about a simple refund and becomes an evidentiary fight, and that is usually the point at which people seek help. ### Will the police register an FIR against the interior company? Sometimes, but not usually on a first complaint. Police treat a scope-and-price dispute as civil. An FIR is more likely where you can show money taken with no intention to perform, a disappearing contractor, or forged documents. Otherwise, the realistic path is the consumer commission or a civil suit. ### How long will this take? A legal notice that produces a refund takes weeks. A consumer complaint that is contested takes a year or more. A civil suit takes longer. A criminal case, if it survives the first few hearings, takes years. That timeline is worth weighing against the amount at stake, honestly, before you start. ## Where this leaves you If you signed a bill of quantities before paying, and the contract describes the booking fee as a non-refundable charge, there may be nothing much to argue, and I would rather tell you that in the first meeting than after two years of litigation. If the bill arrived after the money, and the earlier scope is sitting in your WhatsApp history, you have a case worth pursuing — most likely before the consumer commission, with a legal notice first. To get a view on your own facts, send the payment receipt, the earlier quotation or chat where the scope was described, the bill of quantities, and any contract you signed, along with a two-line note on what happened and when. A first look at those four documents is usually enough to say whether you have a claim and which forum fits. Use the [contact page](/contact-us) or [book a consultation](/book). Phone **+91 97295 06771**, email **me@sudhirrao.com**, or write to Lawyers' Chamber, Chamber No. 86, Supreme Court of India, New Delhi 110001. *This article is general information about Indian law and is not legal advice on your own situation. Outcomes depend on the documents and the facts, and you should have your papers read before acting on anything here.* *Advocate Sudhir Rao, Supreme Court of India* --- _This is the AI-readable Markdown version of an article published by the Chambers of Sudhir Rao. It is general legal information, not legal advice. Canonical page: https://sudhirrao.com/insights/interior-design-refund-homelane-booking-dispute_