Right to Manage
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Introduction.
Right to Manage is where the leaseholders of a building take ownership of the management of the building where they own the leases. At the moment Parkview Court is under management by a freehold managing agent, in our case HLM. These people are appointed by the Freeholder, the person who owns the land Parkview Court is built on. It is this person you pay ground rent to. The residents community is proposing we force the Freeholder to grant management of Parkview Court to a Residents Trust under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.
What is a residents trust, how does it work and how will it gain management of Parkview Court ?
A Residents Trust is legal entity, similar to a company but rather than existing to profit the shareholders, a trust has a group of trustees who guarantee the trust's assets in accordance to the founding trustee document. The Parkview Court Residents Trust will be a not for profit entity. In practice this will mean 3 (or more) leases holders of Parkview Court (that could be you !) will oversee the running and management of the building under the terms of the trustee document which you will have input into writing.
We will gain management of Parkview Court through a lease holder valuation tribuneral. Given the miss-management and monies owed to the residents account and the lack of financial transparency it is not envisaged that a robust application will be rejected.
What will the Residents Trust do ?
The Residents Trust will replace the function of the Free Hold manager. That is the Residents Trust will collect service charges and pay for buildings insurance, water rates and maintenance. Crucially the Residents Trust will have transparency and accountability to the lease holders - something we don't have at the moment.
Why should I support the Residents Trust and Right to Manage ?
Put simply it will save you money and increase the value of your apartment. It will save you money because all the money you pay will be for genuine costs and will not pay for someone else's profit. The value of your apartment will increase because unlike now you will have a say in the running of Parkview Court and the repairs and maintenance that Parkview needs will be able to be done in a timely and cost effective manner.
Further Information.
For more detail on Trusts please read this wikipedia article. The assets of the Residents Trust will be the service charges collected and the Right to Manage. The Residents Trust will be a charitable trust, type 5 on the wikipedia list. The service charges will be the effective donations and charitable cause will be the maintenance and running of Parkview Court.