Our RTM claim has succeeded and the acquisition date is in seven weeks. We need an agent in place. What should we be looking for that is specific to RTM, rather than the general advice about choosing an agent?
An RTM company should look for an agent with genuine experience of acting for resident-controlled companies rather than for freeholders, and with a concrete plan for the statutory handover. The specific things to test are: how the agent obtains records and funds from the outgoing manager, including the reserve fund; whether they can describe the notices and steps around the acquisition date without prompting; how they manage the continuing interface with the landlord, who retains ground rent and certain rights; how they build a first-year budget when historic figures are incomplete; what company secretarial support directors receive; how they communicate with leaseholders who are now the client; and whether the fee is realistic for a building of your size.
An RTM company acquires the management functions under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. It does not buy the freehold, and the landlord retains an interest and certain rights. The agent you appoint is working for a resident-controlled company that has just taken over mid-stream, usually from an agent who did not want to lose the instruction, and often without a clean set of records. That combination produces a specific set of requirements.
Ask how many RTM companies the agent currently acts for and for how long. The distinction matters: an agent used to taking instructions from a freeholder client sometimes struggles with a board of resident directors who expect to make the decisions and to see the reasoning.
The first months are dominated by getting records and money out of the outgoing manager. Ask for the agent's document schedule, who chases it, what they do when a deadline is missed, and how uncooperative handovers have been handled before. Ask specifically how they approach the reserve fund, which is usually the most contested item.
Notices to contractors and suppliers, insurance arrangements from the acquisition date, uncommitted service charge funds, existing contracts and how they are dealt with, and the notices due to leaseholders. An agent that has done this before will be able to describe the sequence without prompting.
RTM does not transfer everything. Ground rent remains the landlord's, the landlord retains an interest in certain approvals, and the RTM company has ongoing obligations to keep the landlord informed. Ask how the agent handles that interface, because unnecessary friction with the landlord is expensive and avoidable.
A first RTM budget is often built on incomplete historic figures. Ask how the agent approaches that: what they use as a baseline, how they explain a necessary increase to leaseholders who voted for RTM expecting savings, and how they build a reserve fund position that the leases actually support.
Register of members, confirmation statements, accounts filing, AGMs and minutes. RTM company directors are volunteers. Confirm what is included and what is charged separately.
Most RTM companies come out of a period of dissatisfaction. Ask how the agent communicates: reporting frequency, how leaseholders raise issues, and what the board sees. Expectations are high in year one and disappointment is quick.
Small blocks are frequently quoted a fee that cannot fund proper management, or a fee designed for a much larger development. Ask what the fee assumes about the number of site visits, meetings and reporting, and check it against the fee schedule for everything outside the core service.
Appoint early enough that the agent can serve the necessary notices and begin the handover from the acquisition date, rather than starting the work afterwards. Four to eight weeks before acquisition is usually workable.
RTM changes who the agent answers to. The right agent treats the board as the decision-maker, plans the handover as a project with dates and an owner, and is honest early about what the first budget will need to be.
Appointing after the acquisition date
Notices and insurance arrangements need to be in place from day one, not caught up afterwards.
Choosing an agent with no resident-controlled client base
The working relationship with a volunteer board is different from working for a freeholder.
Assuming the reserve fund will simply arrive
Reserve funds are the most commonly delayed item in a handover and need active pursuit.
Promising leaseholders an immediate saving
First-year budgets often need to rise to fund deferred maintenance and proper compliance.
Treating RTM as full ownership
The landlord retains ground rent and certain rights, and the RTM company has continuing obligations to it.
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 provisions, including the transfer of management functions.
Duties relating to the handover of information on acquisition.
Official general guidance.
Free government-funded guidance.
We manage small and medium residential blocks across Greater London and Essex from our Romford office. Fixed fees, no insurance commissions, and directors deal with us directly.
Answered by Romain Maillard - Director, East Valley Properties
Affiliate member of The Property Institute
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.
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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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