How Much Does Right to Manage Actually Cost?

If you have started asking managing agents or RTM specialists for a quote, you have probably noticed something strange. The right to manage cost you are quoted seems to have almost nothing to do with the size of your building.

Quotes shared in leaseholder groups range from around £300 per flat for a large block, to £2,000 or more per flat for a small one. A 72-flat block was recently quoted roughly £21,600 to run its claim. A 242-flat estate was quoted £20,000 for the same job, working out at about a third of the per-flat cost. There is no obvious pattern connecting the fee to the actual work involved.

What a paid RTM firm's fee typically covers

Most quotes bundle together some combination of an initial eligibility review, incorporating the RTM company, preparing and serving the statutory notices, handling a dispute if one arises, and support through to the acquisition date.

Some firms charge one flat fee for all of it. Others charge for notice preparation only and leave you to handle correspondence yourself. It is worth asking exactly which of these your quote includes, because an RTM service can mean very different amounts of actual work depending on who is quoting.

What it costs to do it yourself

The genuine cost floor for a DIY claim is low, and it is almost entirely fixed rather than something that scales with the size of your building. Incorporating the RTM company costs about £50 at Companies House. If your building is more than one self-contained block, you will need a separate RTM company for each one, because the Court of Appeal ruled in 2015 that one RTM company can only take on one self-contained building.

A solicitor's review of your completed notices before serving them typically costs a few hundred pounds up to around £1,000, depending on how much checking you want.

For most single-block claims, that puts the realistic all-in cost somewhere between £50 and £150 per flat. A long way from the £300 to £2,000 per flat being quoted by some firms.

Why the RTM cost gap is shrinking

A chunk of what you pay for in a higher-end quote is risk cover. Historically, if an RTM claim was disputed and lost, the RTM company and its members could be liable for the freeholder's legal costs. That was a real financial risk, and it justified paying someone experienced to get the claim right the first time.

That changed on 3 March 2025, when reforms under the Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 came into force. Since then, RTM companies are no longer liable for the freeholder's costs of the process by default, and each side generally bears its own. The financial downside of a disputed claim, which used to be the strongest argument for paying a premium, has largely gone.

When the process needs more care

Not every claim is equally easy, but size is not really the deciding factor. Small conversions can raise genuinely tricky questions, and large multi-block estates sometimes turn out to be simple once the paperwork is in hand. What actually determines the difficulty is what your specific leases say, including whether a block shares services with a neighbouring property, whether the freeholder is a company or an individual, and how your service charges are apportioned.

If you are unsure, that is exactly what the solicitor review step is for, a relatively small cost to catch a problem before it invalidates months of work.

What self-management could mean once you have RTM

Winning RTM only changes who is in charge. What you do with that control is a separate decision, and it is where the real savings usually sit. With the right tools, leaseholders can source their own quotes, see exactly where the money goes in real time, and keep every building document in one place instead of waiting on an agent to reply to a simple request.

We compared real managing agent invoices against the equivalent cost of self-managing for two buildings we know well. One could cut its mandatory costs by nearly half simply by switching how it insures and manages itself. Another showed a saving of close to forty per cent. Once you have taken control, that same comparison is worth running on your own building before you reappoint anyone.

Where to start

Check if your building qualifies, then use our checklist to generate your RTM notices once you are ready to serve them. The full RTM process is explained from your first notice through to the day management transfers.

This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every situation is different. If you need guidance specific to your building or lease, please consult a qualified solicitor.