Setting up the right to manage
Landlord’s membership and voting rights
From the date the right to manage company takes over, the landlord is entitled to be a member of the right to manage company if they wish, with full voting rights as a member.
Normally each member gets 1 vote per flat, and the landlord also gets 1 vote if they’re a member.
There are different rules if there’s more than 1 landlord, if there’s non-residential space, or if the landlord owns flats in the building.
Any landlords’ total votes are limited to one-third of the votes held by all leaseholders, so that landlords cannot outvote the leaseholders.
Voting rights are set out in the articles of association of the right to manage company.
Voting rights example: where the landlord owns some of the flats - Show Contents Hide Contents
In a block of 20 flats, where 16 of the flats are leasehold, and 4 of the flats are held by the landlord and let on shorthold tenancies:
- the 16 leaseholders may be members of the right to manage company with 1 vote each
- the landlord has 1 vote as the flat owner for each of their 4 flats – so the landlord has 4 votes in total
Voting rights example: intermediate landlord - Show Contents Hide Contents
In a block of 20 flats where there is a freeholder, and a head lessee who holds 4 of the flats, there are 2 landlords entitled to be members of the right to manage company. The votes are weighted to reflect the 2 landlords, with 2 votes allocated to each of the flats:
- the leaseholders have 16 x 2 = 32 votes
- the freeholder, who owns no flats, has 1 vote as a landlord
- the head lessee has 2 votes for each of their 4 flats – so the landlords’ total votes are 1 + 8 = 9
Non-residential units
If the landlord owns non-residential units in the building, such as shops, the right to manage company does not manage these units. But they will still be affected by the overall management of the building, and so the landlord has voting rights for these units.
The votes are proportional to the floor space of the residential and non-residential parts of the building (excluding common parts).
The votes are calculated by taking the total votes allocated to the residential parts and multiplying that number by the formula A/B, where A is the total floor area of the non-residential parts, and B is the total floor area of the residential parts. The areas are calculated in square meters, and fractions of less than half a square meter are ignored.
If there is a dispute about measurement of the floor areas, under the articles of association this can be referred to an independent chartered surveyor. The surveyor’s decision will be final.
The surveyor should be selected by agreement between the parties or, if this is not possible, by the President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The right to manage company will need to pay the fee, but the surveyor has the discretion to direct that some or all of the fee be reimbursed by the individual members of the right to manage company who raised the initial question.
Voting rights example: non-residential units - Show Contents Hide Contents
This example is for a 6-storey block of flats with a single landlord, where 5 floors are residential and contain 20 leasehold flats, and the ground floor is non-residential with a mix of shops and storage.
Assume the internal area of each floor is 1,000 square metres, or 950 square metres to exclude the staircase, corridors, entrance hall and other common parts. The non-residential internal floor area is 950 square metres and the total residential floor area is 5 x 950 = 4,750 square metres.
The landlord’s votes for the non-residential parts will be the total votes allocated to the residential flats multiplied by the proportion of non-residential floor area. Assume the 20 flats each have one vote, then the calculation is:
- 20 x (950 / 4,750) = 4 votes
So the leaseholders have 20 votes and the landlord has 4 votes for the non-residential parts.
- Last updated:
- 16 December 2025
- Next review:
- 16 December 2027
Related content
About the right to manage, eligibility criteria and steps to set it up
Advice guideGuide for leaseholders taking on the director's role of a right to manage company
Advice guideYour options if you're unhappy with how your building is managed
Advice guide