Janice Northover, partner at Teacher Stern Selby solicitors explained: “The right to manage reform came from the need for an alternative offering for leaseholders. Comparatively, right to manage can be achieved legally months sooner than collective enfranchisement. Since the 2002 reform act was passed thousands of leaseholders, with the help of professional managing agents, are now benefiting from exercising control over their building’s management.”

There are qualifying criteria in order to exercise the RTM and these are:

• At least two thirds of the flats in the building must be on qualifying leases;
• Each lease must be for a term of 21 years or more;
• There must be at least two flats within the building;
• The non-residential use of the building must not exceed 25 per cent of the total floor space of the building;
• There must be at least 50 per cent of qualifying tenants who are members of the RTM company.

Qualifying criteria

To support the RTM application a leaseholder does not need to be resident in their flat. Once the qualifying criteria have been ascertained, leaseholders must set up a private limited RTM company and formally invite every non-member leaseholder in the building to join. The RTM company then needs to serve a claim notice on the freeholder of the building giving at least one month to respond with a counter notice and within the claim notice the RTM company must state clearly the date when the company will take over the building’s management. The date of taking over the management must be a minimum of three months after the latest date upon which the landlord can respond to the claim notice.

The landlord will either respond accepting the RTM claim from the date stated in the claim notice or the landlord will contest the claim. If the latter decision is made, the company has the right to apply to a LVT within two months to have the matter restored.

At the point of being granted the right to manage, the RTM company will have control and will decide how to pursue and ensure that the building is managed efficiently and effectively. Most RTM companies will appoint a professional managing agent to manage the building, communal areas and deal with contractors’ services. In most cases the RTM is a far simpler, quicker and cheaper route for leaseholders to control the way in which their building is run.