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Canonbury Management
Blackwell House
Guildhall Yard
London
EC2V 5AE
Sales: +44 (0)845 460 7060
Sales: +44 (0)207 1188 400
Existing: +44 (0)845 460 7050
Existing: +44 (0)207 1188 500
Fax: +44 (0)871 750 2688
mail@canonburymanagement.co.uk
Canonbury Management is a division of Investment Technology Limited
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Frequently asked questions about Right To Manage (RTM)
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How long does the Right to Manage process take?
The Right To Manage process takes 5 months from payment of the invoice to you receiving your final letter from us.
Do we need a solicitor for this process?
The simple answer to this is NO and we would advise against using them for this process. We are a specialist legal service provider and will have more experience in this field than almost all
solicitors. We have done more RTM Claims than any other company and have a 100% success rate for this process even if the claim has failed in the first instance, which is rare. In our
experience, it is very rare that the freeholder will even use a solicitor. Out of our first 1000 cases, just 3 involved the other side appointing
a solicitor to contest the process. As we form your RTM Company with ourselves as nominee directors, we are entitled to submit the written applications to the LVT on your behalf, saving you the cost of a solicitor.
Do I have to pay the reasonable legal costs of the freeholder and what might they be?
Yes, the law requires that you pay the reasonable legal costs of the freeholder and we would say that up to £400 would be reasonable
and anything over that, depending on your inclination to do so, should be challenged, after the process, by application to the
Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT). In over 1000 RTM Claims, legal costs have only been requested 4 times!
What are the legal responsibilities of the RTM Company and its directors?
The directors of the RTM Company have the normal responsibilities of any limited company, however, they also are responsible for
the maintenance of the building as the freeholder would have been before. They effectively replace the freeholder in terms of
insurance and maintenance. This is not an onerous task in the case of buildings under 5 flats in size, however, we would always
advise you outsource this role to a managing agents as they will have the necessary systems, expertise and insurances to assist in the
collection of revenues, insurance and maintenance of the building.
What annual returns do we have to file for the company?
Our advice would be to appoint a managing agent who can take care of these matters for you and would allow you to make the
company dormant and thereby reduce accounting costs. If you decide to manage the building yourself, you will need to file annual
accounts and an annual return which can be simply done online. Companies House are able to give advice on how to do this or your
managing agent or accountant may be able to also.
What happens after we have filled in our online questionnaire with Canonbury?
We will then set up your property and create invoices online for you to pay. If you have given us your email address, you will
receive a username and password and a copy of the invoice. You can then pay by telephone banking or log in to our website and pay your outstanding bill.
If you do not have email, you will receive an invoice in the post which can be settled by BACs payment or telephone banking. All
payment details are shown on your invoice.
What happens if a counter notice is received?
Unfortunately, at this point, the matter must be referred to the Leasehold Valuation Tribunal (LVT) but we will notify you if this
happens. We can also complete the application to the LVT for you for a fee of £500 including VAT, so long as the matter is capable
of being heard on the papers, that is, without a hearing. If we need to attend trial on your behalf because it is decided that a hearing is
necessary or the other side requests it, then we would charge a further fixed fee of £1500 including VAT for this. We have 100%
track record in our RTM claims and it is unusual that this ever happens. In several hundred RTM Claims, the matter has only had to be
referred to the LVT on 3 occasions.
I want to pay by cheque – why is this not possible?
Unfortunately, we cannot process cheques efficiently and they provide a very bad audit trail of payment into our accounts. They are
also far less secure than electronic payments. We have taken a decision not to accept cheques for payment to improve our internal
efficiency and therefore be able to pass on lower costs to our clients. Please ask you bank how to make a payment by BACs – all UK
banks are able to make payments this way and they are free.
After the RTM Process has been completed, how do we get our money from the managing agent?
This is a potentially complicated process for a lay person to conduct and we would strongly advise appointment of a managing agent
such as ourselves to complete this for you. If there are more than 3 flats, we would suggest that the accounting involved would
necessitate the use of an agent with good systems to complete the ongoing management and obtaining historical fees. If you still wish
to do this, you may find some references on our website useful, however, we cannot advise further unless you sign up for our
management services.
We don’t have everyone’s details in our building – does this matter?
Our advice would be that as soon as you have 50% participation in the RTM process, it should be started. The cost is usually
recovered very quickly and it can be a case of cutting off a nose to spite a face if you hold out until every last person is willing to go
through the process. Also, it is worth considering that there is no obligation for people to participate and they may have valid reasons
for wishing to keep the status quo. Non-participating lessees should not be looked upon as free-loaders in this process. They are
simply, for whatever reason, not eager or willing to participate and we would recommend going ahead with the numbers that are, so
long as you meet the 50% criteria.
What about our eligibility for the process?
We will check the land registry for the lease length. We rely on you to provide the data we request in the RTM Questionnaire
accurately and to confirm that no more than 25% of the building’s non common parts are set to commercial use. We will also rely on
you to provide the correct names of the persons who are participating in the process.
What information can we expect from you and when?
We will send you login details within 3 working days of you having providing us with a completed questionnaire and usually the
same day.
You will then need to login and pay the outstanding invoices or you can pay these by BACs to our bank account which has a sort code
of 400231 and account number 41392484. You will need to login to find your reference to use or in the event that you have not got
access to a computer, you may call us.
We will then contact you when the claim notice is served (with a copy of that) and then at the end of the counter notice deadline. If a
counter notice has been received, we will advise you of that and await your decision. If no counter notice has been received then we
will give you a copy of the memorandum and articles of association and certificate of incorporation and then issue a final letter with
details of when you take over.
Our contract is available online by filling in details and ticking the RTM box on our contact us page.
Any other questions?
If you have any other questions, please email or telephone through to us. We operate a call-back service so the more information you
can leave with our call centre, the faster and better our response to you will be. The minimum information we need is your postcode, your email or your telephone number and name and full details of any questions you have.
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