Law Commission consultation on RTM: Leasehold home ownership: exercising the right to manage

Overview

This is a public consultation by the Law Commission of England and Wales.

The right to manage (“RTM”) was introduced to give leaseholders control over the management of their buildings. Leaseholders can set up an RTM company, which can then acquire the landlord’s management functions. Once the transfer occurs, the leaseholders become responsible for things such as collecting and managing the service charge and the upkeep of communal areas.

However, the current system is seen by many as too technical, slow, restrictive, uncertain and expensive. Government has asked the Law Commission to review the RTM legislation to make it simpler, quicker and more accessible, particularly for leaseholders.

We have published a Consultation Paper which discusses the problems with the current law, makes provisional proposals for reform of the current RTM legislation. We have also published a shorter summary document. These are designed to help you answer the consultation questions. Both are available here.

Our consultation closes on 30 April 2019.

For more information about the RTM project, including our Terms of Reference, click here.

Is this consultation for me?

We want to hear from everyone with views on the law and process of RTM – leaseholders, landlords, campaigners, property developers, industry bodies, professionals and academics.

We are aware that our Consultation Paper is lengthy, and that the response form asks a lot of questions. We encourage you to share your views with us regardless of the level of your legal or technical knowledge. You do not need to answer every question. If you are only interested in one part of our consultation, or even if you wish to answer only one question, you can respond to just that part or question.

You do not need to complete all of your answers in one go. You can save and return to the form at any time.

We have also produced a short survey for leaseholders and directors of RTM companies to complete, to tell us about their experiences of the RTM. You can access it here. This information will provide part of the evidence base that we will use to produce our final recommendations for reforming the law.

About the Law Commission: The Law Commission is a statutory body, created by the Law Commissions Act 1965 (“the 1965 Act”) for the purpose of promoting the reform of the law. It is an advisory Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). The Law Commission is independent of Government. For more information about the Law Commission please click here.

How do we deal with responses: We may publish or disclose information you provide us in response to this consultation, including personal information. For more information on how we consult and how we may use responses to the consultation, please see page ii of the consultation paper. For information about how we handle your personal data, please see our privacy notice.