Yes. Money paid for a service that was never performed is recoverable, and a consumer commission is the cheapest place to recover it. Before anything else, gather three things: proof that the money went from you to the broker, whatever was written or messaged about what he was to do for it, and the trail of your follow-ups and his excuses. With those, the legal analysis is short.
What did the broker actually promise?
The claim depends on what the fee was for, so pin that down first. If it was a success fee, payable on a completed sale or lease, and nothing completed, the money was paid for a result that never came and Section 39(1)(c) of the Consumer Protection Act allows the commission to order return of the charges paid with interest. If it was a retainer to search, show properties and negotiate, then the question is whether any of that was done, and a broker who showed you nothing and returned no calls has performed nothing. If the broker did close a deal but got you into it by a false statement about approvals or title, that is a separate and larger claim, and the loss it caused is recoverable under Section 73 of the Indian Contract Act, 1872, which gives the party suffering a breach compensation for loss that naturally arose from it or that both parties knew was likely to result.
Brokerage is a service under Section 2(42), which defines service as service of any description made available to potential users for consideration, and you are a consumer under Section 2(7)(ii) because you hired it for a fee. Section 2(11) defines deficiency to include any act of negligence or omission causing loss to the consumer and the deliberate withholding of relevant information. A broker who pocketed the fee and vanished has omitted to perform. A broker who took a token advance to pass to the owner and kept it has done something worse, and that goes to the police as well.
What does RERA add if the flat is in a registered project?
A good deal. Section 9(1) provides that no real estate agent shall facilitate the sale or purchase of any apartment in a registered real estate project without registration with the Authority, and Section 10 lists what a registered agent must do. He must not facilitate the sale of any unregistered project, must maintain the prescribed books of account, must not involve himself in unfair trade practices, which the section defines to include falsely representing that the promoter or the agent has an approval or affiliation he does not have and making false or misleading representations about the services, and under clause (d) must facilitate your possession of all the information and documents you are entitled to at the time of booking. Section 31(1) lets any aggrieved person file a complaint with the Authority or the adjudicating officer for any contravention of the Act against a real estate agent. Section 62 imposes a penalty on an agent who contravenes Section 9 or Section 10 of ten thousand rupees for every day the default continues, cumulatively up to five per cent of the cost of the unit, and Section 65 imposes a further daily penalty on an agent who fails to comply with the Authority's orders. Section 88 preserves every other remedy, so a K-RERA complaint does not cost you the consumer forum.
Check the K-RERA portal for the broker's agent registration number before you write to him. An unregistered agent dealing in a registered project has a Section 9 problem the moment you complain, and that changes the tone of the negotiation. Our note on RERA remedies for homebuyers covers how a K-RERA complaint is filed and enforced.
| Forum | Provision | What it gives | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|
| District Consumer Commission | Sections 2(11), 2(42), 39(1)(c) and (d), Consumer Protection Act, 2019 | Refund of the fee with interest, compensation, costs | Any broker, any property, fee paid for a service not performed |
| K-RERA, complaint under Section 31 | Sections 9, 10, 62 and 65, RERA | Directions to the agent, penalty for non-registration and unfair practice | The property is in a registered project |
| Civil suit for recovery | Sections 73 and 74, Indian Contract Act, 1872 | Damages for loss caused by the breach, beyond the fee | You lost a token advance or a deal because of the broker's default |
| Police complaint | Cheating and criminal breach of trust under the BNS | Investigation and, sometimes, the money back quickly | The broker took money to hand to a third party and kept it |
How does the consumer complaint work in practice?
Section 34(1) fixes the forum by the value of the consideration paid, which is the brokerage, so this is a District Commission matter on the current bands, and Section 34(2)(d) lets you file where you reside. Section 69(1) gives two years from the cause of action, which is the date the broker refused or stopped responding, and you should create that date with a demand letter rather than leave it to inference. The filing fee is modest and depends on the value band. Relief is the fee with interest under Section 39(1)(c), compensation for loss under Section 39(1)(d), and costs under Section 39(1)(m). The territorial jurisdiction answer explains the four grounds if the broker operates from another city.
- Send a demand letter to the broker's address and email, stating the amount, the date paid, what he was to do, that nothing was done, and requiring refund within fifteen days. Attach the payment proof.
- If the property is in a registered project, check the agent's K-RERA registration and say in the letter whether he has one.
- On expiry, file the consumer complaint with the letter, the payment trail and the message history annexed, naming the broker by his legal name and any firm he traded under.
- Where the amount is large or a token advance was diverted, lodge a police complaint at the same time and say so in the consumer complaint.
- Bank transfer, UPI or cheque record showing the payment to the broker's own account, or a signed receipt for cash
- The brokerage agreement, or the messages in which the fee and the work were agreed
- Listing screenshots or the property details he sent, showing what the fee related to
- Every follow-up message and call log, with his replies or the absence of them
- The demand letter and the proof of its delivery
- The K-RERA agent registration search result, printed with the date
Where these claims die is on cash. A fee handed over in notes with no receipt, to a man known only by a first name and a mobile number, produces a complaint that cannot be served and a defence that the money was a token for the owner and was passed on. What I tell clients is that a single bank transfer to the broker's own account, with the purpose typed in the remarks field, is the entire evidence of consideration and identity, and that a broker who insists on cash has told you something about how he intends to behave later.