Do we need to prove our managing agent is bad to get the right to manage?

No. Right to Manage is a no-fault right. You do not have to prove poor management, and you do not need the landlord's consent. If your building qualifies and enough leaseholders take part, you can exercise it for any reason.

How many leaseholders need to take part in a Right to Manage claim?

Leaseholders of at least half the flats in the building must become members of the RTM company. If there are only two flats, both leaseholders must take part. Separately, at least two-thirds of the flats must be held by qualifying tenants, meaning leases originally granted for more than 21 years.

Do we have to pay the freeholder's legal costs for a Right to Manage claim?

Not usually, since 3 March 2025. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 removed the general liability for the landlord's costs. Costs can still be awarded against an RTM company in limited situations, such as where the claim is withdrawn or the company has acted unreasonably.

Does the Right to Manage company collect the ground rent?

No. The right to demand and collect ground rent does not transfer to the RTM company. It stays with the landlord. The RTM company takes over the management functions under the lease, including the service charge, but not the ground rent and not the right to forfeit a lease.

How long does Right to Manage take?

Usually four to six months or more from forming the company. After the notice inviting participation and the claim notice, the landlord has at least a month to serve a counter-notice, and the acquisition date is then at least three months after that. A disputed claim takes longer, as it goes to the First-tier Tribunal.

Thinking about Right to Manage?

An honest guide for leaseholders considering taking over the management of their building. What it is, whether you qualify, what changed in March 2025, what it costs, and what you are actually signing up for.

Before you read on

This is general information about how Right to Manage works in England and Wales. It is not legal advice, we are not a law firm, and your lease and your building have their own facts. The notices are prescribed and unforgiving, so get a solicitor to serve them.

What Right to Manage actually is

Right to Manage (RTM) lets the leaseholders of a block take over the management of their building from the freeholder. You form a company, you serve some notices, and on a set date the management functions in your lease become yours.

Two things make it unusually powerful:

It is a no-fault right. You do not have to prove your managing agent is bad. You do not have to prove anything at all. You can exercise it because you simply want to run your own building.
You do not need the landlord's consent. They can check whether you qualify. They cannot refuse you if you do.

What it is not

RTM is not buying the freehold. The freeholder still owns the building. You are taking over the management, not the ownership. Which means:

Ground rent stays with the landlord. The RTM company does not collect it and never will.
The right to forfeit a lease stays with the landlord too.
The landlord becomes a member of your company and gets to vote. Since March 2025 their votes are capped at one third of the leaseholders' votes, so they cannot dominate it.

What you do take over is everything that matters day to day: the service charge, repairs, maintenance, insurance, and the contracts.

Does your building qualify?

Four tests. Work through them before you spend a penny.

Self-contained building, or a self-contained part of one. This sounds simple and is the most litigated point of the lot, especially in converted houses and multi-block estates.
At least two-thirds of the flats held by qualifying tenants. A qualifying tenant is a long leaseholder, meaning the lease was originally granted for more than 21 years. In a block of 8 flats, at least 6. In a block of 20, at least 14.
At least 50% residential. If there is a shop or an office in the building, the non-residential part must not exceed half the floor area. This limit used to be 25%, and changed on 3 March 2025. A lot of buildings that were excluded now qualify.
Leaseholders of at least half the flats must take part and join the RTM company. If there are only two flats, both must.

You do not have to live in your flat. Landlords who let their flats out still count, and shared ownership leaseholders are eligible too.

The main disqualifiers

You cannot use RTM if the freeholder (or an adult family member) has lived in one of the flats as their main home for the past year and the building is not purpose-built and has fewer than four flats. It is also unavailable where a local housing authority is the immediate landlord, or where an RTM company already has the right.

What changed in March 2025 (and why it matters)

Two changes came into force on 3 March 2025 under the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, and together they make RTM materially easier:

Costs	You no longer pay the freeholder's legal costs in a standard claim. Until March 2025, leaseholders picked up the landlord's bill even when the claim succeeded. That was the single biggest deterrent, and it is gone. Costs can still land on you in limited situations, for example if you withdraw the claim or behave unreasonably.
Mixed use	The non-residential limit rose from 25% to 50%. Flats above shops, which were the classic excluded case, now often qualify.

Practitioners expect a significant rise in RTM claims as a result. If your building was told it did not qualify before 2025, it is worth checking again.

The process, step by step

Form the RTM company. A private company limited by guarantee, with prescribed articles set by statute, and "RTM Company Limited" in its name. Its constitution is not something you get to write.
Serve the notice of invitation to participate on every qualifying leaseholder who is not already a member. Everyone must be invited, whether you like them or not. This is a prescribed form.
Serve the claim notice on the landlord, at least 14 days later. Also a prescribed form.
The landlord may serve a counter-notice, and has at least a month to do it. They can only object on the basis that you do not qualify, not because they would rather you did not.
If it is disputed, it goes to the First-tier Tribunal to decide whether you qualify.
The acquisition date. If uncontested, this is at least three months after the counter-notice date. On that day, management becomes yours.

Realistically, allow four to six months or more from forming the company to taking over. Longer if it is contested.

The notices are where claims die

The process is technical and the forms are prescribed. Get a notice wrong and the claim can fail, and you start again. This is the part to pay someone to do properly. It is not the part to do yourself with a template off the internet.

What it costs

Since March 2025, in an uncontested claim, you are generally paying for your own advisers, and not the landlord's. Budget for:

Solicitor's fees for the company formation and the notices
A surveyor, if the residential and commercial split needs measuring
Tribunal costs, if the landlord contests it
Your new managing agent, or the tools to do it yourselves

Split across the participating flats, it is usually a manageable one-off. The more of you who take part, the cheaper it gets per flat.

What you are actually taking on

This is worth being clear-eyed about. On the acquisition date, your company does not just get the keys. It inherits every statutory duty the landlord had. Overnight, and whether or not anyone on your board has read them.

s.20	Before any works costing more than £250 for a single leaseholder, you must consult, in a prescribed way, in stages. Measured against your largest contributor, not the average. Get it wrong on a £40,000 roof and you can recover £250 per flat. The rest is yours.
s.20B	Costs must be demanded within 18 months of being incurred, or notified in writing within that window. Miss it and the money is simply gone.
s.21B	Every service charge demand must carry a prescribed summary of the leaseholder's rights. Leave it off and the leaseholder can lawfully withhold payment.
s.42	Service charge money is held on trust. It is not your company's money. Spend it wrongly and the directors are personally exposed.
Company law	Annual accounts, a confirmation statement, statutory registers, people with significant control. Volunteer directors are directors, with a director's duties and a director's liability.

None of this is a reason not to do it. Thousands of blocks run themselves perfectly well. But it is the reason to go in with a plan rather than enthusiasm, and to decide early whether you are self-managing or appointing an agent onto it.

What happens to the money on day one

This is the thing that goes wrong most often. Three facts to know before your acquisition date arrives.

s.94	The outgoing landlord or agent must pay you the accrued uncommitted service charges they hold on the acquisition date, including the reserve fund. It is a statutory duty. It does not need a request. In practice, some will stall, and some will ask you to pay them to release the accounts.
Arrears	What does not come across is the debt. Your company cannot chase service charge arrears that predate your takeover. That right stays with the former landlord, who now has very little reason to use it. Your ledgers open clean, and possibly short.
The trap	Some leaseholders will already have paid the old agent in advance for a period falling after your acquisition date. That money should reach you in the handover. If you then demand it again, you are charging them twice, and you have begun your tenure with a dispute you cannot win.

Ask for the opening position before the acquisition date, in writing: what is held, what is committed, what each leaseholder has paid, and up to when. If you get that right, the first year is straightforward. If you get it wrong, you will spend the first year arguing about it.

So, should you do it?

A short and honest test.

Good reasons

You want control of what is spent, and on what.
You want to choose your own agent, or none.
You are tired of not being able to see where the money goes.
You have two or three people willing to be directors and mean it.

Bad reasons

You assume it will be cheaper. It often is, but not automatically, and not immediately.
One person is furious and everyone else is lukewarm. RTM needs half the flats, and it needs a board that lasts.
You want to punish the freeholder. RTM is a management right, not a weapon, and it will not feel like revenge.

The single best predictor of a happy RTM is not anger. It is whether you have enough people who will still be showing up in year three.

Who to talk to

We do not do the legal work, and we would not want to. Get the notices done properly.

LEASE, the government-funded Leasehold Advisory Service. Free, impartial, and the best first stop.
A leasehold solicitor who does RTM claims regularly. The notices are prescribed and unforgiving, and this is not the place to save money.
A surveyor, if the commercial floor area is anywhere near the 50% line.

When your acquisition date comes, the money has to land somewhere.

Openhold is built for exactly that week: import the opening position, see what is bank-verified and what is only asserted, and start demanding cleanly from day one. Whether you self-manage or appoint an agent onto it, the books belong to your company.

See how it works

Information, not advice. This guide describes how Right to Manage generally works in England and Wales. It is not legal advice, reading it does not make us your adviser, and it is not a substitute for a solicitor. Your lease governs, and two blocks on the same street can have different answers. Leasehold law is changing quickly: this guide is accurate as at the date it was last reviewed and not necessarily afterwards. We cannot accept liability for anything done or not done in reliance on it. Nothing here excludes liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. See our terms of use. Last reviewed 12 July 2026.