Does Our Building Qualify for Right to Manage? Every Test Explained

Your building qualifies for the Right to Manage if it is a self-contained building, or a self-contained part of one, with at least two flats held by qualifying tenants (broadly, leaseholders whose leases were granted for more than 21 years), making up at least two-thirds of all its flats. It must also avoid the exclusions in Schedule 6 to the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, chiefly more than 50% non-residential floor area and a resident landlord in a small conversion.

This article covers premises in England. Wales differs in places and is not covered. It is general information, not legal advice.

If you want a quick answer first, our RTM eligibility checker asks the core questions in the same order as the sections below. For the claim process that follows once you know you qualify, see the RTM claim process.

Is the building self-contained?

The starting point is section 72(1)(a): the premises must "consist of a self-contained building or part of a building, with or without appurtenant property", such as a garage, garden or yard (section 112(1)).

A whole building

A building is self-contained if it is structurally detached (section 72(2)). A building joined to its neighbour, such as a terrace, is not, and blocks sharing a basement may not be, so you look at whether your part of it is a self-contained part.

A self-contained part of a building

Under section 72(3), a part of a building is self-contained only if all three of these are true:

• It is a vertical division of the building. The dividing line runs from the ground to the roof. A horizontal split, such as the upper floors above a shop, is not a self-contained part.
• It could be redeveloped independently. The structure must be such that the part could be redeveloped independently of the rest of the building.
• Its services are independent, or could be. The relevant services for its occupiers must either be provided independently of those for the rest of the building, or be capable of being provided independently without works likely to cause a significant interruption to the rest of the building's services (section 72(4)). "Relevant services" means services provided by pipes, cables or other fixed installations (section 72(5)): water, drainage, gas, electricity, heating and the like.

Self-contained parts with different freeholders

The checker's question about different freeholders comes from Schedule 6, paragraph 2. Where different persons own the freehold of different parts of the premises, the Right to Manage does not apply to those premises if any of those parts is a self-contained part of a building. If a neighbouring self-contained section has its own freeholder, you cannot claim both together.

How many flats are there, and how many are held by qualifying tenants?

Section 72(1)(b) and (c) set two numerical tests. The premises must contain two or more flats held by qualifying tenants, and the number of flats held by qualifying tenants must be "not less than two-thirds of the total number of flats contained in the premises". In a nine-flat building, six must be held by qualifying tenants; in a ten-flat building, seven (two-thirds of ten is 6.67, and six would be less than that).

Count every flat (defined in section 112(1)), including empty ones, those on short tenancies and any the freeholder keeps. Shops and offices are not flats; they matter for the floor area test below.

Who counts as a qualifying tenant?

Under section 75(2), a person is the qualifying tenant of a flat if they are its tenant under a long lease. There is no residence test: an owner who lets the flat out is still the qualifying tenant, and the person renting from them is not.

What is a long lease?

Section 76(2) lists the categories. The one that covers nearly every leasehold flat is a lease "granted for a term of years certain exceeding 21 years". What matters is the term originally granted, not the years left: a 99-year lease with 40 years remaining is still a long lease. The others are perpetually renewable leases, leases under section 149(6) of the Law of Property Act 1925, Right to Buy and Right to Acquire leases, and shared ownership leases, but only once the tenant has staircased to a 100% share.

Section 77 catches some unusual cases, such as short leases with a covenant for renewal, renewed past 21 years in total (section 77(3)), and a flat and its garage let separately by the same landlord to the same tenant, which count as one long lease (section 77(5)).

Who is excluded even with a long lease?

• Business tenancies. A lease to which Part 2 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 applies does not make its holder a qualifying tenant (section 75(3)).
• Unlawful sub-leases. A lease sub-let out of a superior lease that is not itself long, granted in breach of that superior lease, where the breach has not been waived (section 75(4)).

One qualifying tenant per flat

No flat has more than one qualifying tenant (section 75(5)). Where a flat is let under two or more long leases, the superior tenant is not the qualifying tenant (section 75(6)), and joint leaseholders are jointly the single qualifying tenant (section 75(7)).

How much of the building is non-residential?

Under Schedule 6, paragraph 1(1), the Right to Manage does not apply if the internal floor area of any non-residential part, or of those parts taken together, "exceeds 50%" of the internal floor area of the premises taken as a whole. The figure was 25% until section 49 of the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 substituted 50%, in force from 3 March 2025 under the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2025, regulation 2(a). Because the test is "exceeds", a building that is exactly half commercial still qualifies.

How the area is measured matters. Common parts are left out altogether (paragraph 1(2) and (4)), and a garage, parking space or storage area used with a particular flat counts as residential (paragraph 1(3)). Shops, offices and a commercial car park count as non-residential.

Is it a resident landlord conversion?

Schedule 6, paragraph 3 excludes premises that have a resident landlord and contain no more than four units. A unit is a flat, any other dwelling, or premises let, or intended for letting, on a business tenancy (section 112(1)), so a converted house with three flats and a shop let on a business tenancy has four units. All of these must be true:

• The premises are not, and are not part of, a purpose-built block of flats, meaning a building that as constructed contained two or more flats (paragraph 3(2)(a)).
• A freeholder of the whole or part of the premises, or an adult member of their family, occupies as their only or principal home a flat or other unit used as a dwelling, whose whole freehold that freeholder owns (paragraph 3(2)(b), (3) and (6)).
• They have lived there throughout the last twelve months (paragraph 3(4)), or the premises already had a resident landlord when the freeholder bought and they moved in within 28 days and have lived there since (paragraph 3(5)).

Paragraph 3(8) defines an adult family member: a spouse or civil partner, a child or child-in-law (including stepchildren) aged 18 or over, or a parent, including those of the spouse or civil partner. The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 did not change paragraph 3.

The other exclusions in Schedule 6

A local housing authority is the landlord

Paragraph 4 excludes premises where a local housing authority is the immediate landlord of any of the qualifying tenants. A local housing authority has the meaning in section 1 of the Housing Act 1985. One flat where the council is the immediate landlord of a qualifying tenant, such as a Right to Buy flat, is enough.

The right to manage exists already, or ended recently

Paragraph 5 excludes premises where an RTM company already has the right to manage, or had it and it ceased less than four years ago. That four-year bar does not apply where the right ended because the RTM company acquired the freehold (section 73(5)), and the First-tier Tribunal can disapply it on an RTM company's application if applying it would be unreasonable in the circumstances (paragraph 5(2) and (3)).

How many leaseholders need to be on board?

The checker's last question is about serving the claim, not the building. Under section 79(4) and (5), on the date the claim notice is given the RTM company's members must include qualifying tenants of at least half of the total number of flats in the premises, or both of them where there are only two qualifying tenants. The half is of all the flats, not of the qualifying ones.

What about an estate with several blocks?

Under section 73(4), a company is not an RTM company for premises if another company already is for those premises, or for premises containing or contained in them. And in Triplerose Ltd v Ninety Broomfield Road RTM Co Ltd [2015] EWCA Civ 282 the Court of Appeal held that one RTM company cannot acquire the right to manage more than one self-contained building or part of a building. On an estate of separate blocks, each block that qualifies needs its own RTM company and its own claim.

The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 does not change this. Its Right to Manage sections (49 to 52, all in force since 3 March 2025) cover the non-residential limit, costs, compliance and tribunal jurisdiction, not multi-building claims.

Edge cases where you need advice

A quick checker, including ours, cannot decide these for you:

• Mixed-use buildings near the 50% line. Get the internal floor areas measured before you rely on a figure.
• Shared services. Terraces, linked blocks and shared plant rooms raise the section 72(3) and (4) questions, which turn on evidence.
• Mixed freeholders. Where parts of the building belong to different freeholders, paragraph 2 of Schedule 6 can rule out a claim drawn around the whole.

The Leasehold Advisory Service gives free guidance, and a specialist leasehold solicitor can advise on your building. If the landlord disputes a claim, the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) decides whether premises in England qualify.

Check your building

Run your figures through the RTM eligibility checker to see which tests you pass, then read the complete guide to Right to Manage for what the right gives you.

References

• Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, Part 2, Chapter 1 - the Right to Manage, including sections 72 to 79 and 112
• Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002, Schedule 6 - premises excluded from the right to manage
• Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024, section 49 - the change of the non-residential limit from 25% to 50%
• The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 (Commencement No. 3) Regulations 2025 - brought sections 49 to 52 into force on 3 March 2025
• Housing Act 1985, section 1 - the meaning of local housing authority
• Triplerose Ltd v Ninety Broomfield Road RTM Co Ltd [2015] EWCA Civ 282 - one RTM company cannot acquire the right to manage more than one self-contained building or part
• First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) - decides disputed RTM claims for premises in England

Marklet is Right to Manage software for RTM companies: issues, service charges, Section 20 consultations and managing-agent emails kept in one record.