Using The Right To Manage Act it may be possible to force your freeholder to relinquish the Day to Day management of your building to you, The Lessees.

The Right To Manage Act is part of the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. It is sometimes referred to as an RTM. It is the legal right for leaseholders to take over the management responsibility of their property from the freeholder.

There are a number of steps Lessees will need to go through including the need to set up an RTM company. We can take care of that for you and also the rest of the process.

There are certain rules which must be adhered to.

Firstly, there must be agreement of at least 50% of the Lessees wanting to assume the right to manage their own block. Essentially, you need at least 50% of the flat owners within your block to participate in and become members of the RTM. For example, in a block of 12 flats, 6 of those would be required to proceed. The process can proceed whether the other 6 want it to go ahead or not but those that don’t wont be members of the RTM and therefore will not have the ability to control the maintenance and service charge costs of the building.

If you own a flat in a block but do not live in it, for example, you may rent it out or it is your holiday home, you are still able to be part of the process.

Once you have at least 50% of the Lessees wanting to precipitate in the RTM the process can begin which will need to include: –

• Checking Eligibility (of the building, the tenants etc)

• Organising membership of the RTM and inviting all qualifying tenants to join.

• Choosing the name and setting up the Limited Company (it must be a specific RTM company with appropriate Memorandums and Articles of Association.

• Serving the Initial Notice and subsequent notices to the Freeholder

Right 2 Manage can assist with this whole process for you. Once the statutory process is complete, you will have: –

• Control over who to appoint as your managing agent.

• A say in when and how your money is spent on the maintenance of your building.

  (assuming the lease provisions are always complied with)

• A say in any other expenditure that may be required for your building.

  (assuming the lease provisions are always complied with) The basic procedure is:-

  • A Limited Company is formed to undertake the responsibilities of the Lessor by personal guarantee of the Lessees.

  • At least half the Lessees will need to be members of the new R2M company.

  • Notices need to be served on the freeholder.