How Right to Manage actually works — and what it really costs to self-manage

If you own a leasehold flat, you’ll know the feeling: a service charge demand lands, the figure has crept up again, and it’s not entirely clear what you’re getting for it. The managing agent was chosen by your freeholder, not by you — and yet you’re the one footing the bill. So a fair question to ask is: could we just do this ourselves?

For a great many buildings in England and Wales, the answer is yes. It’s called the Right to Manage, and it’s more accessible than most leaseholders realise. This is a plain-English look at what it is, who can use it, and what self-managing genuinely involves — so you can decide whether it’s worth exploring for your block.

What Right to Manage actually is

Right to Manage (RTM) is a legal right that lets leaseholders take over the day-to-day management of their building from the freeholder or their managing agent. It was created by the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 and applies in England and Wales.

The single most important thing to understand is what RTM isn’t. You are not buying the freehold, and you are nottaking ownership of the building. The freeholder still owns the land and the structure. What changes is who runs things — repairs, maintenance, insurance, and crucially the service charge budget. Management transfers to you; ownership stays put.

The other thing that surprises people: you don’t have to prove the freeholder has done anything wrong. There’s no need to demonstrate mismanagement, neglect, or overcharging. If your building qualifies and enough leaseholders want to, you can simply take over. You don’t need the freeholder’s permission, and they can’t refuse on a whim.

Does your building qualify?

This is usually the first real question, and the criteria are clearer than the legalese suggests. In broad terms:

• It’s a block of flats, not an individual leasehold house. The building needs to be self-contained (either standalone, or a clearly divisible part of a larger structure).
• At least two-thirds of the flatsare held on “long leases” — meaning leases originally granted for more than 21 years. (You don’t have to live there yourself; landlords and live-elsewhere owners count too.)
• Enough leaseholders want in.To take over, the RTM company’s members need to represent at least half of the total flatsin the building. You don’t need everyone — a willing majority is enough, and a reluctant minority can’t block you.

There’s also a recent change worth knowing about, because it brought a lot of previously-excluded buildings into scope. Many blocks have shops, offices or other commercial space on the ground floor. Until recently, if that non-residential space took up more than 25% of the building, you were locked out of RTM. As of 3 March 2025, that limit rose to 50%— so a great many mixed-use buildings that didn’t qualify before now do. If you’d looked into RTM previously and been told “no” because of a commercial unit, it’s well worth checking again.

A second recent improvement: in most cases, RTM companies are no longer liable for the freeholder’s legal costs when making a claim — removing what used to be a significant financial deterrent.

What does self-managing actually involve?

Here’s the honest part. Taking control means taking on responsibility. Once RTM completes, your group — through a company the leaseholders form and run — becomes responsible for things like arranging repairs and maintenance, holding the building’s insurance, collecting and budgeting the service charge, keeping proper records, and meeting the building’s compliance obligations (fire safety, and so on).

That sounds like a lot, and traditionally it has been — which is precisely why most buildings hand it all back to a paid managing agent and the cycle continues. But “self-manage” no longer has to mean “drown in paperwork.” The administrative side — tracking issues, storing documents, running votes, managing the budget, staying on top of deadlines — is exactly the kind of thing software handles well now. The legal right has existed since 2002; what’s been missing is a practical way to actually exercise it without either a full-time commitment or an expensive agent.

Is it worth it?

For many buildings, the appeal is straightforward: control and transparency.You choose your own contractors, you see exactly where the money goes, and decisions about your home are made by the people who live there — not by someone appointed by a freeholder with different priorities. Plenty of self-managed blocks also find their service charges fall, simply because the markups and opaque fees disappear.

It isn’t right for everyone. It needs a few willing neighbours and a bit of organisation. But it’s a genuine, well-established legal right — and with the rules recently widened and reform firmly on the political agenda, more leaseholders are taking a serious look than ever before. Reform is still moving, too: the government’s draft Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill, published in early 2026, signals further change ahead — here’s what the reforms actually mean for you right now.