Our guide on freeholder disputes covers one bad bill. When the management itself is the problem, a freeholder that neglects the building, an agent that never answers, charges that rise while lifts stay broken, the answer short of buying the freehold is the right to manage: leaseholders form a company, serve a notice and take over, no fault to prove, no premium to pay. The 2024 Act eased it in March 2025. Reaching owners abroad is the hard part.
Owning and letting
The right to manage: how leaseholders take over a block’s management, what changed in 2025, and running it from abroad
What the right to manage is and how it works
The right to manage lets the leaseholders of a block with two or more flats, at least two-thirds on long leases, form an RTM company and take over repairs, insurance, services and the service charge accounts. No fault need be shown and no price is paid. Since 3 March 2025 leaseholders no longer pay the freeholder’s costs of responding. Budget £3,000 to £10,000 in adviser fees for a block of twenty flats, and four to six months uncontested. The catch: at least half the qualifying leaseholders must join.
The right to manage, under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, lets the qualifying leaseholders of a self-contained building form a right-to-manage (RTM) company, limited by guarantee, with the leaseholders as members, which on an acquisition date takes over the freeholder’s management functions under the leases: repairs, maintenance, insurance, services, the service charge accounts, and the grant of consents. The freeholder keeps the freehold, the ground rent, the reversion and a right to be a member of the RTM company; the leaseholders run the building. No fault need be shown, no price is paid, and the freeholder cannot refuse if the conditions are met.
Which buildings qualify for the right to manage
A self-contained building, or a self-contained part of one, containing two or more flats held on long leases, with at least two-thirds of the flats held by qualifying leaseholders (long leases, originally over 21 years), and, since 3 March 2025, no more than 50 per cent of the internal floor area in non-residential use (shops, offices), up from 25 per cent, which brings many mixed-use buildings in Marylebone, Mayfair and Kensington into scope for the first time.
RTM company membership rules and excluded buildings
The members of the RTM company must, at the date of the claim notice, include at least half of the qualifying leaseholders in the building. Buildings with a resident landlord of a converted house with fewer than four flats are excluded; local authority freeholders have their own rules.
Right to manage changes in force from 3 March 2025
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 brought three right-to-manage reforms into force on 3 March 2025: the non-residential limit rose from 25 to 50 per cent; leaseholders are no longer liable for the freeholder’s costs of responding to a claim (previously a few thousand pounds per claim, and a weapon in the freeholder’s hands); and the freeholder’s right to be a member of the company is confirmed with limits. The further reforms in the Act, on the forms, the jurisdiction of the tribunal and the handling of uncommitted service charge funds, are among the provisions awaiting commencement, as our lease extension guide’s status table explains.
The right to manage process: forming the RTM company
1. Leaseholders holding at least half the flats agree to proceed; one or two lead, with a solicitor or a specialist RTM adviser. 2. The RTM company is incorporated at Companies House with the prescribed articles; members are the participating leaseholders. 3. A notice inviting participation goes to every qualifying leaseholder who is not yet a member, with 14 days to join.
Serving the claim notice and the tribunal stage
4. The claim notice is served on the freeholder (and any manager and intermediate landlord), specifying the acquisition date at least three months ahead; the freeholder has at least one month to serve a counter-notice admitting or disputing the claim. 5. If disputed, the RTM company applies to the First-tier Tribunal, which decides whether the right exists; the tribunal cannot refuse a qualifying claim on the merits of the management.
6. On the acquisition date the RTM company takes over; the freeholder must hand over the accounts, the contracts, the uncommitted service charge funds and the building’s records.
Four to six months uncontested; a year if the freeholder disputes. The firm has seen a Knightsbridge block go from first meeting to acquisition in five months.
What an RTM company controls in the building
Everything the leases make the freeholder’s management function: the repair and maintenance of the structure and common parts, the insurance (the RTM company insures, usually at a lower premium than the freeholder’s commission-laden policy), the services, the cleaning and the porter, the service charge budget, demands and accounts, major works and their consultation, and the grant of consents under the leases (to alter, to let, to keep a pet), with the freeholder to be notified.
What an RTM company does not control
It does not control the ground rent, which remains the freeholder’s; the freehold reversion; forfeiture, which only the freeholder can seek; or the leases’ terms, which it cannot vary. It must manage to the same standard the leases and the law require, and a leaseholder can take the RTM company to the tribunal over its service charges as readily as the freeholder.
Appointing a managing agent for an RTM company
An RTM company of a block of twenty flats does not manage the building itself; it appoints a professional managing agent, on a contract it controls and can terminate, and the directors (three or four of the leaseholders) supervise. The change from the freeholder’s agent to the leaseholders’ agent is the whole point: the agent now answers to the people who pay.
Choosing a managing agent and typical London fees
Choosing one follows our guide on choosing a letting agent from abroad with the block questions added (how many blocks of this size, which client money protection scheme, which software for the accounts, who the named manager is). Fees are a fixed sum per flat per year, £300 to £600 in central London, in place of the freeholder’s percentage.
Right to manage costs and likely service charge savings
The RTM company’s own: a solicitor or specialist adviser, £3,000 to £10,000 for a block of twenty flats depending on the resistance met; Companies House and the company’s annual costs, a few hundred pounds; the new agent’s set-up. Since March 2025 nothing is paid to the freeholder for responding, which removed the main deterrent. The saving is in the service charge: the firm’s clients’ blocks have typically seen the insurance premium fall by 20 to 40 per cent and the agent’s fee by a third in the first year, which on a Knightsbridge block of thirty flats is tens of thousands of pounds a year.
Common right to manage pitfalls and how to avoid them
A claim notice with a defect (a wrong date, a missed landlord) is invalid and the process restarts; use a specialist. Fewer than half the leaseholders willing to join; the campaign to recruit them is the hard part, and owners abroad who do not answer letters are the usual gap. Directors who do not do the work after acquisition, so that the building is run no better than before; appoint an agent and meet quarterly.
Mixed-use buildings where the commercial part needs the freeholder’s cooperation. And the uncommitted service charge funds the freeholder must hand over, which take chasing. None of these is a reason not to proceed; all are reasons to do it properly.
Using the right to manage as an owner abroad
A leaseholder in the Gulf joins the RTM company by signing a membership form by email, votes at general meetings by proxy or by video, may be a director and attend board meetings by video, and receives the accounts and the agent’s reports electronically. The firm has acted as the London point of contact for owners abroad who hold a majority of a block between them and could not otherwise have organised a claim. The right to manage is, for a block where most flats are owned from overseas, often the only way the building gets looked after, because the freeholder’s agent has learned that nobody is watching.
Sources: Right to manage (Leasehold Advisory Service) · Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (legislation.gov.uk) · Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, Part 2 Chapter 1 (legislation.gov.uk) · Leasehold property: your rights (GOV.UK) Figures verified 14 October 2026.
Frequently Asked
Questions about the right to manage
No. The right to manage takes the management and costs a few thousand pounds; collective enfranchisement buys the freehold and costs the premiums in our lease extension guide. Many blocks do the first and later the second.
Not if the building and the leaseholders qualify and the notice is valid. The tribunal decides disputes on qualification only, not on whether the freeholder is a good manager.
The claim needs half the qualifying leaseholders as members; a block where most owners are overseas needs someone, often the firm, to reach them. It can be done, and those are the blocks that need it most.
At the date of the claim notice the members must include at least half of the qualifying leaseholders in the building. The building itself must have at least two-thirds of its flats held on long leases, originally over 21 years, and no more than 50 per cent of the internal floor area in non-residential use.
Four to six months if the freeholder does not contest it, and up to a year if it does. The claim notice must specify an acquisition date at least three months ahead, and the freeholder has at least one month to serve a counter-notice. The firm has seen a Knightsbridge block go from first meeting to acquisition in five months.
A solicitor or specialist adviser costs £3,000 to £10,000 for a block of twenty flats, depending on the resistance met, plus a few hundred pounds for Companies House and the company’s annual costs, and the new agent’s set-up. Since March 2025 nothing is paid to the freeholder for responding to the claim.
Since 3 March 2025, yes, provided no more than 50 per cent of the internal floor area is in non-residential use, up from the previous 25 per cent limit. This brings many mixed-use buildings in Marylebone, Mayfair and Kensington into scope for the first time, though the commercial part may still need the freeholder’s cooperation.
The ground rent, which stays with the freeholder; the freehold reversion; forfeiture, which only the freeholder can seek; and the terms of the leases, which it cannot vary. It must manage to the standard the leases and the law require, and a leaseholder can take it to the tribunal over service charges as readily as the freeholder.
Yes. A leaseholder abroad joins the RTM company by signing a membership form by email, votes at general meetings by proxy or by video, may serve as a director and attend board meetings by video, and receives the accounts and the agent’s reports electronically. The firm has acted as the London point of contact for owners abroad who hold a majority of a block.
The firm’s clients’ blocks have typically seen the insurance premium fall by 20 to 40 per cent and the agent’s fee by a third in the first year. A managing agent appointed by the RTM company charges a fixed £300 to £600 per flat per year in central London, in place of the freeholder’s percentage.
