Running your own building? You probably don't need an AGM

Plenty of resident directors assume their company has to hold an annual general meeting, because that’s what companies do. For most buildings run by their residents, it isn’t true. Under the Companies Act 2006, private companies have no legal duty to hold an AGM, and almost every RTM company, RMC and resident-owned freehold company is a private company.

That doesn’t mean you should never meet, and it doesn’t mean nothing has to happen each year. But it’s worth knowing what’s actually required before you book a church hall and print an agenda.

Check your articles, then your lease

The law sets the default. Your company’s own rules can add to it.

Start with your articles of association, the rulebook every company has. If they say you must hold an AGM, you must, whatever the general law says. This catches out older companies in particular. Articles written before the 2006 Act often required an AGM because the law did at the time, and that requirement can still bind you until the articles are changed. You’ll find the current version on the company’s Companies House record.

If you’re an RTM company, your articles follow a standard form set by government. The English version doesn’t require an AGM. If you’re in Wales, check your own articles rather than assume.

Then look at your lease. It’s less common, but some leases expect the budget or accounts to be put to leaseholders in a particular way. If yours does, you have to do it.

What still has to happen every year

Dropping the meeting doesn’t drop the paperwork. Whether you meet or not, the company still files annual accounts and a confirmation statement at Companies House, and sends a copy of the accounts to every member. The service charge side carries on too: a budget, demands that follow the lease, and year-end accounts if your lease calls for them.

Miss the Companies House filings and the company can eventually be struck off. When that company is what holds your right to manage or your freehold, that’s a serious problem, so these dates matter far more than any meeting. Our guide to the first 90 days of running your building covers getting them in the diary.

When residents can insist on a meeting

Even without an AGM, members have a right to call the directors together. If members holding at least 5% of the votes ask for a general meeting, the directors must call one within 21 days, and it has to take place within 28 days of the notice going out. If the directors ignore the request, the members can call it themselves.

In a ten-flat block, one unhappy flat is enough to cross 5%. That isn’t a threat to worry about. It’s a reason to keep people informed so they never feel they need to use it.

If you do hold one, run it properly

Plenty of buildings choose to meet once a year anyway, and there’s a lot to be said for it. Putting faces to names helps, and the budget lands better when people can ask about it.

Give enough notice. The legal minimum is 14 days, and your articles may say more. Send the agenda and any papers with the notice, especially the accounts and budget, so nobody is reading figures for the first time in the room.

Know how many people need to be there for the meeting to count. In the standard RTM articles it’s 20% of members or two people, whichever is higher, with one vote per flat. Your articles will set your own figure. If too few turn up, the meeting can’t make decisions, which is a frustrating way to spend an evening, so it’s worth chasing replies beforehand.

Write minutes. Short ones are fine: who came, what was decided, and the vote. Those minutes are what you’ll point to in two years’ time when someone asks why the windows were done before the roof.

Decisions without a meeting

A private company can pass most decisions in writing, with members signing or replying rather than gathering in a room. There are two exceptions: removing a director or an auditor before their term ends still needs a meeting. Your articles may also set out how written decisions work, so follow them.

This is where SavvyPlace helps between meetings. The Forum gives everyone the same proposal, the same papers and the same questions and answers, and directors can attach a vote. That’s a good way to find out what the building thinks and to keep a record of it. Be clear on the limit, though. A Forum vote isn’t automatically a formal company resolution. If a decision legally needs a members’ resolution, it has to be passed the way your articles and the Companies Act require. For something like a Section 20 consultation, the statutory notices still have to be served properly.

Most of what a resident-run building decides in a year never needs a formal resolution at all. It needs people to know what’s going on and to have had a fair chance to say so.

Written for resident-run companies in England and Wales, and correct as of 17 October 2026. Company rules vary, so check your own articles of association and lease.