Lack of communication, excessive service charges, out of control expenditure, poor building work, all of this can result in leaseholders pulling their hair out.

Poor building management either by a freeholder or the managing agent the freeholder has instructed will be the main reason for taking control of this as leaseholders. This can either leave you to manage the building yourselves once you have set up a right to manage company (RTM - there will be a separate blog post on this soon) or to instruct a new, competent agent of your choosing to carry out the management for you. Although poor management is the most likely reason to do this, you do not have to prove mismanagement to set up an RTM. Having control of the building can possibly increase the value of your property.

Sussex Block Management can assist with getting you set up as an RTM company. It requires a minimum of 50% of flats to agree to the process. The freeholder does not have to agree to the process.

It is important to note that it can involve quite a lot of work if you decide to self manage, you will certainly need to familiarise yourself with the legislation involved, basic management and accounting. Unless you are a small building then it would be more beneficial to hire a managing agent to handle this for you.

We will go into more detail on RTMs on the next post, just know that you do not have to suffer a dreadful freeholder or managing agent instructed by the freeholder!