My Right To Manage Company - Can A Specialist Solicitor Help?

So you've had a few meetings, got together all the information you need and found a specialist solicitor to help and you and the other tenants in your building are now ready to create your right to manage, or RTM, company and manage your own block of flats. This right to manage company, although run by you, will be in charge of the responsibilities and exercise the right to manage. This is because, even if the actual leaseholders change over time, the right to manage company will stay the same.

Although following the right to manage procedure and creating a right to manage company might not be overly complicated, it needs to be done in an organised fashion and executed with precision in order to avoid future problems. Your right to manage solicitor can help you with those and ensure each leaseholder fully understands and is aware of various aspects of the RTM company. In brief, this includes:

- in order to be a legal company your right to manage company must have an Articles of Association. This regulates the running of the company and its purpose -exercising your right to manage leasehold property.

- when it comes to the registration of your RTM company you will need to draft a Memorandum of Association. This memorandum is a formal document which lists all the leaseholders whom are involved in the right to manage company. Here they will be setting their intention to create the company

- information about starting right to manage companies is detailed in a Statutory Instrument from 2009 No. 2767.

When you decide to create your right to manage company your RTM solicitor will take you through the process step-by-step, this will make sure that you do not miss anything vital and the procedure is as pain free as possible.

A good source of information can be obtained from Companies House and leaflets, such as:

- Resolution (GBA7)

- Annual Returns (GBA2)

- GBA1 - or Directors and Secretaries Guide

- Accounts and Accounting Reference Dates (GBA3)

At this initial stage, to establish the right to manage company, you will only need enough qualifying leaseholder participants to have a chairman, directors and a secretary. Nevertheless, in order to run a successful right to manage company you will need a group of dedicated and responsible leaseholders who know what the process will involve.

After the RTM company has been set up and registered, it is obligatory that the rest of the leaseholders are invited to join (including the landlord).

Talk to your solicitor to get the process completed properly and soon you can be enjoying the ability to manage your own block of flats. And most importantly, when selecting a right to manage solicitor, make sure that you pick someone with the right type and amount of experiences surrounding right to manage companies.


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Tim Bishop is senior partner at Bonallack & Bishop, a firm of solicitors experienced in advising on forming a right to manage company and specialised in advising on the right to manage leasehold property. Tim is responsible for all major strategic decisions, seeing himself as a businessman who owns a law firm. He expanded the firm by 1000% in 13 years.