10 February 2025
The government has announced significant changes to the rules relating to Right to Manage (“RTM”) which implement provisions in the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 and will lead to an increase in the number of buildings entitled to exercise RTM.
Buildings with a mixture of flats and other uses such as shops and offices have so far been excluded from RTM if the non-residential floor space was more than 25 per cent.
This non-residential limit is set to increase to 50%.
Leaseholders will also no longer be required to cover the legal fees of their freeholder when making a Right to Manage claim.
These changes will come into force on 3 March 2025.
Commenting on this development the Chair of LEASE Martin Boyd said:
“On Friday the government published the letter from Minister Pennycook setting out the expanded role for LEASE. We will be writing more about this over the coming months.
Yesterday the government announced the first key parts of the secondary legislation that support the implementation of the 2024 Leasehold and Freehold reform Act. The LEASE lawyers have been working with the government for many months to help bring forward the legislation. The Right to Manage powers that come into force on the 3 March will help thousands more leasehold sites to take control of their property management and limit the landlords’ rights to their legal costs. The move allowing RTM on sites with up to 50% commercial element means many more sites will have access to the right of self-control.”
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