You have taken control of your building. Now it needs managing — correctly. Compliance-led RTM management from day one, with full financial transparency.
Right to Manage gives leaseholders the legal right to take management of their building away from the freeholder. It is one of the most significant things a group of leaseholders can do. It is also, for most of the directors who exercise it, completely new territory.
The RTM company takes legal responsibility for the management of the building from the day the right is exercised. Service charge accounts, building compliance, Section 20 major works, insurance, leaseholder communication - all of it passes to the RTM directors. Most directors are leaseholders who have been frustrated by poor management. Very few have ever managed a building before.
Every RTM director we have spoken to has the same concern when they first take control. It is not about the day-to-day management. It is about the money. We address this on day one. Before we take on active management, we conduct a full financial and compliance audit and give directors a clear picture of the position they are inheriting.
Service charge funds are held in a designated client account, separate from Neon's own funds, protected under Client Money Protection. You can see the balance and every transaction through your online portal at any time.
We expect it and plan for it. We have audited buildings where accounts had unexplained variances and the reserve fund had been spent without a proper budget process. We establish the real position and advise on options for any historic issues.
RTM directors are responsible for approving budgets, authorising major expenditure, ensuring the building is insured, and maintaining compliance. We brief every new RTM board on their responsibilities at the start of instruction.
We handle leaseholder communication on behalf of the RTM company. Where questions require a director decision, we brief you and draft the response. You are not expected to know everything on day one - that is what we are there for.
Our RTM management service covers everything the building needs from the point you exercise the right - and everything the directors need to fulfil their responsibilities to the building and to their fellow leaseholders.
The handover from the former managing agent to the RTM company is one of the most important moments in the RTM process. What matters is that you have someone who knows what to ask for and what to do with it when it arrives.
We are instructed. We review available documentation and agree the scope of the compliance and financial audit. We prepare the list of documents and information to request from the outgoing agent.
The RTM right is exercised and management transfers to the RTM company. The former agent is required to transfer the management file, service charge funds, and all building documentation. We manage the request and receipt.
We audit the service charge accounts on receipt. We reconcile the balance, identify any unexplained variances, and establish the reserve fund position. Directors receive a written summary.
We check every compliance obligation: insurance, fire risk assessment, certificates, building safety documentation. We establish what is current, what has lapsed, and what needs immediate action. A compliance report is issued to directors.
Service charge accounts are set up. Direct debit collection activated. Online portal is live and directors have full access. Leaseholders are notified of the change in managing agent and given new contact and payment details.
The building is under full active management. The compliance calendar is operational. Issues identified in the audit are being addressed in priority order. Directors are briefed on the budget process and the first AGM under RTM management.
One of the questions we are asked most often by new RTM directors is where their responsibilities end and ours begin. The short answer: we manage the building, you govern it. Decisions that affect all leaseholders require director approval. Day-to-day operation is ours.
| Area | RTM Directors | Neon |
|---|---|---|
| Annual budget | Approve before demands are issued | Prepare, present to directors, issue demands |
| Major works | Approve scope and contractor before works proceed | Manage Section 20, tender, oversee works |
| Service charge accounts | Review annual accounts and approve for certification | Prepare, manage, and certify accounts |
| Lease breaches | Instruct action where director decision is required | Identify, issue notices, manage process |
| Buildings insurance | Approve the policy at renewal | Arrange, maintain, and monitor compliance with conditions |
| Leaseholder communication | Available for escalations and formal decisions | Handle day-to-day enquiries, issue formal notices |
| Maintenance & repairs | Approve significant unbudgeted expenditure | Instruct contractors, manage works, report to directors |
| AGM & board meetings | Attend, chair, and vote on resolutions | Prepare agenda, papers, minutes, Companies House filings |
RTM handovers are not always clean. In our experience, there are three things we almost always find.
Service charge accounts where the balance does not match what should have been collected and spent. Reserve fund figures that cannot be reconciled. Invoices that cannot be traced. We go through the records methodically and give directors a written account of the position.
Certificates lapsed. Fire risk assessments out of date, or actions from previous assessments never completed. Insurance policies with conditions not monitored. These gaps become the RTM company's problem to resolve from day one. We identify, prioritise, and work through them.
Leases. Historic service charge demands. Contractor warranties. Section 20 notices for previous major works. In the worst cases, documents held on one person's laptop - or not held at all. Our online portal becomes the document management system the building should always have had.
"The building you take over is not the building you thought you were getting."
Almost every RTM director has said a version of this to us. Our job is to establish exactly what that is - clearly, without alarm, and with a plan for addressing it.
We are not a large corporate agency. We are an experienced, accredited managing agent based in Romford that has been working across North, East London and Essex for over 20 years. We are members of The Property Institute, we hold Client Money Protection, and we are members of The Property Ombudsman scheme.
What RTM directors tell us matters to them: that they can reach us, that they can see what is happening with their money, that we know what we are doing, and that we are honest about what we find. We are not going to tell you your building is fine if it is not. We are not going to disappear when something complicated comes up.
"We are lucky to have you, and some people might not realise how lucky we are."
Director, 32-flat East London block, after 18 months of financial reconciliation from a previous agent who could not explain their own figures.
We work with RTM companies across North, East London and Essex. Whether you have already exercised the right or are still in the process, we are happy to have a conversation about your building and what management should look like.
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