Is A Bad Landlord The Only Way You Can Use Your Rights To Manage?

All over the country there are tenants who have created specific rights to manage companies to run their own block of flats as they see fit. On many occasions they have used their legal rights to get rid of a landlord they are unhappy with. While the landlord will still own the building he will no longer have the right to take care of the maintenance of it.

When the tenants who qualify to run a rights to manage (or RTM) company use their rights to do so, it is usually because they feel they could do a better job. But sometimes they may wish to take over anyway, even if the landlord is not a particularly bad one.

There could be many reasons for this. Perhaps the landlord is good with regular ongoing maintenance jobs, but is not so keen on getting larger works done that could increase the value of the flats. If some tenants are keen on investing in their properties for the years to come, they may wish to set up an RTM company so that they can make this happen.

As you can see, there does not necessarily have to be any animosity between the tenants and the landlord. The law put into place back in 2002 has allowed tenants to use their rights to manage to take over the running of their building. This means they can discuss the various options that are open to them.

For instance one of the main areas people often discuss is the rate of the maintenance charges they pay. The landlord may have listened to the tenants' arguments for reducing it but decided that it should stay the same. The tenants may feel they can reduce it slightly if they were in charge of maintenance issues, so this could be enough of a trigger to allow them to use their rights to manage.

Of course there are many cases where the tenants simply do not get along with the landlord. The ability to set up an RTM company in this situation is a good one, because it will enable the tenants to take an active role in changing things for the better. The landlord could issue a counter notice to try and stop the company from being formed. But unless he has a valid and legally recognised reason for doing this, he will be unsuccessful.

So you see it is interesting to note that whatever you may feel about your landlord, your rights to manage could still be worth exploring. If you do decide to exercise your rights to manage, you need to take the right legal advice - make sure you get specialist right to manage solicitors - as most high street solicitors will come across this issue rarely, if ever.


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Bonallack & Bishop are a firm specialising in rights to manage. They offer experienced advice from Right to Manage Solicitors on forming a right to manage company. Senior Partner Tim Bishop is responsible for all major strategic decisions, seeing himself as a businessman who owns a law firm.