Our RTM company is considering managing the block ourselves instead of paying an agent. Is that allowed, and what would we actually be taking on?
Yes. An RTM company that has acquired the right to manage already holds the management functions, so it can carry them out itself rather than employ an external managing agent. There is no separate step of appointing itself as agent. The practical burden is significant: budgets and service charge demands in the correct statutory form, accounts, arrears, statutory consultation, insurance, repairs, fire and building safety, health and safety, Companies House filings, complaints, emergency cover and record keeping. Directors can delegate individual tasks but remain responsible for oversight. Hybrid arrangements, where professionals handle accounting and compliance, often suit small blocks best.
An RTM company that has validly acquired the right to manage already holds the relevant management functions. It does not appoint itself as its own managing agent under some separate agency agreement; it simply carries out the functions directly instead of employing someone else to do so. Self-management is therefore normally permitted. The real question is capacity, not permission.
Directors sometimes underestimate the breadth of the work because the visible parts - cleaning, gardening, the occasional repair - are the smallest part. A self-managing RTM company typically has to handle:
Any one of these is manageable. The difficulty is that they arrive at the same time, and several carry statutory consequences if they are missed.
Directors can and should delegate tasks - to a bookkeeper, an accountant, a fire safety consultant, a company secretary. What they cannot do is stop supervising. If a contractor is not appointed, a consultation is not run, or accounts are not produced, the responsibility sits with the company and its board, not the person who was supposed to remember.
The choice is not binary. Many small blocks work well with a hybrid: the directors handle day to day contractor liaison and resident communication, while a professional handles service charge accounting, statutory consultation and compliance tracking. Others buy in support only for specific projects, such as a major works programme or a first year of accounts. Full block management makes more sense as the number of flats, the plant and the compliance burden grow. Boards in the East London and Essex area can weigh that up against professional block management from our Romford office.
A useful test is to ask three questions honestly. Who covers a burst pipe at 2am in August? Who will still be doing this in three years? And what happens if the one director who understands the accounts resigns? Self-management fails far more often through director turnover and burnout than through any single technical error.
Where a director is also a leaseholder in arrears, or is related to a contractor being considered, the interest should be declared and recorded, and the director should stand back from that decision. Self-managing boards are held to the same standards of fairness and transparency as a professional agent, and are often scrutinised more closely by their own neighbours.
Boards that decide to self-manage should put the compliance calendar on paper from day one. Our Self-Managed Block Fire Safety Checklist covers the fire safety side of that.
Self-management is a resourcing decision. It works where there is genuine capacity and succession, and fails where it depends on one willing director.
Issuing service charge demands in the wrong form
Demands that omit required information or the summary of rights and obligations can be challenged, and recovery may be delayed.
Missing statutory consultation
Failing to consult on qualifying works or long term agreements can cap what is recoverable from each leaseholder.
Mixing funds
Service charge money kept in a general or personal account undermines the trust position and makes accounting very difficult to unpick.
Relying on one director
When that person resigns or moves, blocks routinely lose records, passwords, bank access and institutional memory at once.
Most questions on this topic are management questions rather than legal ones, and the two are worth separating. A managing agent can tell you how something works day to day and what it will cost. A solicitor tells you what your rights are and how a Tribunal is likely to view them.
East Valley Properties provides management expertise, not legal advice. Where a matter turns on the wording of your lease or on formal proceedings, we will say so and work alongside your solicitor.
The official material behind this guide. We summarise it in plain English rather than reproducing it.
The right to manage framework and the functions that transfer.
Comparing self-management with employing an agent.
The standards a self-managing company is measured against in practice.
We act as managing agent for RTM companies across Greater London and Essex, covering service charge accounting, compliance and contractor management on fixed fees.
Answered by Romain Maillard - Director, East Valley Properties
Romain manages residential blocks and estates for RTM companies, residents' management companies, share of freehold developments and freeholders across East London and Essex.
Published · Updated
Based on the legislation and official guidance cited on this page.
General property management information, not legal or professional advice. Where a decision depends on an individual lease, building, dispute or technical assessment, obtain specialist advice. See our editorial standards.
This answer has been anonymised. Personal details, addresses and company names have been removed. Guidance is general and does not replace advice from a solicitor or surveyor on your specific block. East Valley Properties is a managing agent, not a firm of solicitors or legal advisers.
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