QUESTION
I have just bought the freehold interest of a block in which there is a RTM company which was formed about 18 months ago because of problems with the former freeholder. As the new freeholder, I have written to the board of the RTM company requesting membership of the RTM company. I have also sent each of the flat owners ‘lessee information forms’ – asking for their contact details and the details of their tenants/managing agents etc. if they are not resident in the flat. Although I thought that these were straight-forward requests, I am facing a lot of resistance from the lessees and also from the RTM company.
As the new freeholder, is the RTM company obliged to allow me membership of the RTM company?
ANSWER
Immediately upon the RTM company taking over, the landlord becomes entitled to membership of the company, with full voting rights. The landlord’s votes are, in the first instance, determined according to the units he holds in the building, flats or non-residential parts. Where he holds no units, and therefore would have no votes, he is allocated a vote as the landlord.
If the outgoing freeholder was a member of the RTM then you need to follow the transfer of membership provisions in the Articles of Association.
Selchouk Sami, Solicitor,
Ronald Fletcher Baker LLP
