Right to manage solicitors

Osbornes Law is one of the original members of the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners (ALEP). Our right to manage solicitors act for leaseholder groups across London, from a handful of flats to blocks with dozens of leaseholders.

We are also an approved lawyer of News on the Block, the leaseholder information service, and we act for groups who want to take back control of how their building is run.

If your managing agent is slow to respond, spends service charge money poorly, or simply is not doing the job you are paying for, you do not have to keep putting up with it. The right to manage (RTM) is a statutory route that lets you and your fellow leaseholders take over management of the building yourselves, appoint your own managing agent, and decide how the service charge is spent.

Many of the groups who come to us have already tried raising concerns directly with the landlord or the current agent, without much luck. Others are simply tired of poor communication and rising costs with nothing to show for it. Either way, the right to manage does not ask you to justify your reasons. It is available to any group of qualifying leaseholders who want it, regardless of whether the current management has been good, bad, or somewhere in between.

We handle the legal side of an RTM claim from start to finish: checking whether your building qualifies, preparing and serving the right notices, dealing with any dispute from the landlord, and getting your Right to Manage company up and running.

What is the right to manage?

The right to manage was introduced by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. It gives qualifying leaseholders the right to take over the landlord’s management functions for their building, without having to buy the freehold and without paying the landlord a premium for it.

Once the claim succeeds, a right to manage (RTM) company formed by the leaseholders takes over responsibility for the building’s management. That includes collecting service charges, arranging repairs and maintenance, and choosing (and if necessary changing) the managing agent. The landlord keeps ownership of the freehold, but loses day-to-day control over how the building is run.

Do you have to prove your managing agent has done something wrong?

No. The right to manage is what the law calls a “no fault” right. You do not have to show that your landlord or managing agent has mismanaged the building, breached the lease, or done anything wrong at all.

This is one of the main things that surprises leaseholders when they first ask us about RTM. You can bring a claim simply because you would rather manage the building yourselves, even if the current arrangement is technically working fine. That said, most groups we act for come to us after a specific frustration: unclear service charge accounts, unanswered repair requests, or an agent who is difficult to reach.

Who qualifies for the right to manage?

Your building needs to meet a few conditions before a right to manage claim can go ahead:

• The building must be self-contained, or a self-contained part of a larger building capable of independent redevelopment, and contain at least two flats.
• At least two-thirds of the flats in the building must be held by qualifying tenants, meaning tenants under a long lease (originally granted for more than 21 years). A tenant who holds a business tenancy under Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 does not count as a qualifying tenant for these purposes.
• Since March 2025, buildings with a non-residential element of up to 50% of the internal floor area can qualify. Before that change, the limit was 25%, so some mixed-use buildings that did not qualify in the past may qualify now.
• To bring the claim, your Right to Manage company must have members representing at least half of the total flats in the building by the date the claim notice is given (or, if there are only two qualifying tenants in the building, both of them).

Every building is different, and qualification can turn on details specific to yours, particularly where a building has retail units, offices, or other commercial space. We check this as one of the first steps once you instruct us.

How does the right to manage process work?

1. Form a Right to Manage company. This is a company limited by guarantee, set up specifically to take on the management of your building.
2. Invite participation. Leaseholders who are not already members are formally invited to join before the claim notice is served.
3. Serve a claim notice. Once enough leaseholders are on board, we serve a formal claim notice on the landlord (and any other relevant parties, such as a management company named in the leases) setting out the RTM company’s intention to take over management.
4. Landlord’s counter notice. The landlord has a set period to respond. They can either accept the claim, or serve a counter notice disputing it, usually on the grounds that the qualifying conditions have not been met.
5. Tribunal, if needed. If the landlord disputes the claim and it cannot be resolved by agreement, the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) decides whether the RTM company is entitled to take over management.
6. Acquisition date. Once the claim succeeds, an acquisition date is set. From that date, the RTM company takes over management of the building.

How much does a right to manage claim cost?

You will need to budget for your own legal fees and, in most buildings, the cost of setting up the RTM company. Since the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 changed the rules in March 2025, an RTM company and its members are generally not liable for the landlord’s costs of dealing with the claim, other than in limited circumstances, for example where the tribunal orders otherwise because the claim was withdrawn or pursued unreasonably. Before this change, leaseholders often had to cover some of the landlord’s reasonable costs as well as their own, so this is a meaningful shift in cost exposure for anyone bringing a claim now.

We agree fees with every group before starting work, so you know what to expect from the outset.

How long does the right to manage process take?

If the landlord does not dispute the claim, the statutory minimum is around four months from serving the claim notice to the acquisition date (at least one month for the landlord to respond, then at least a further three months before the RTM company takes over). Allowing for the earlier step of inviting other leaseholders to participate, most straightforward claims take around four to six months from start to finish. If the landlord serves a counter notice and the matter goes to the First-tier Tribunal, it will usually take considerably longer, often a year or more, depending on the tribunal’s workload and how the dispute is argued.

What if the landlord disputes the claim?

Landlords sometimes challenge an RTM claim, most often by arguing that the building or the leaseholder group does not meet the qualifying conditions. If that happens, we represent your RTM company at the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) to argue the case. Many disputes are resolved once we set out the position clearly and provide the supporting evidence, without a full tribunal hearing being needed.

Why choose Osbornes Law?

Osbornes Law one of the original members of the Association of Leasehold Enfranchisement Practitioners (ALEP) and an approved lawyer of News on the Block, the UK’s leading leaseholder information service. Our leasehold team acts for leaseholder groups of all sizes, from small conversions to large mansion blocks, and regularly deals with landlords who dispute RTM claims at tribunal.

We know that organising a group of leaseholders takes work before the legal process even begins. We support that process with clear, practical advice at every stage, so your group knows exactly where it stands.

Speak to a right to manage solicitor today

Call us on 020 7485 8811 to discuss your building, or fill in the contact form below and we will get back to you.