MN Jury please convene!

[Thistledew]

Probably should post this in Property or Legal, but I want opinions!

I am forming a Right to Manage Company for the Leaseholders of the flat in which I live.

We have to decide on voting rights for decisions such as whether we self-manage or appoint a management company, which management company to appoint, and when major works or improvements should be carried out.

Any decision will have to be made by agreement of at least 51% of the Leaseholders.

There are 7 flats in the building, which is a converted Victorian townhouse.

The issue is that the flats are of different sizes, and the service charge is divided according to the proportional size of the flats. This means that the biggest flat pays 20% of the whole service charge, and the other flats either pay just under or just over 10% each.

Do you think that the Leaseholders should have equal votes, ie one vote each, or should the weight of their vote be apportioned in accordance with the proportion of the service charge they are responsible for?

It seems right to me that leaseholders should have one vote each.

(I'm guessing you have the biggest flat, though)

I do have the biggest flat, so have been trying to look at this objectively.

The Statutory Instrument which determines what has to be in the Articles of Association for the RTM company does say that the Leaseholders have to permit the properties to be measured for purposes including voting rights, so I don't want to deny myself something that is in fact standard practice.

One vote each. Much simpler and major works will potentially affect everyone equally, regardless of how much service charge they pay. I'm curious as to why the bigger flat has such a significantly increased service charge. Perhaps because it is significantly bigger. We set up a company to self-manage the flats in our block and the service charge is divided equally since it is used for things which everyone uses/benefits from equally - eg cleaning communal areas, garden maintenance, roof repairs, external decorating - regardless of the size of their individual property. Although, to be fair, there is a relatively minimal difference in flat sizes.

IMO voting rights should be apportioned per flat.

But then I can't see why a higher service charge is being paid by the larger flat actually.

The service charge is for upkeep of common areas, just because your flat is bigger doesn't mean that you are wearing out twice as much carpet on the hall. Or using the front door twice as much. That doens't really make sense to me. I'm sure that in our flats the service charge is just split out evenly.

As an aside, thesew flat things are a nightmare.

In ours, we had a management company (about 30 flats) who we then sacked, now we have a mgt co voted in by the residents who make decisions, and big things we have a vote on at the meeting once a year. That seems fine.

My parents flats it's about 10 elderly people. They can never agree on anything, the meetings are frequent and go on for hours. There are power sttruggles and people have petty concerns that they always raise and nothing ever gets done and it's a total nightmare. Also none of themn want to spend any money ever and the whole thing is a such a nightmare my parents are thinking of selling up. It's very stressful.

If I were you I would find some way of doing it so that someone/a couple of people can actually make decisions on the nmundane stuff.

Ah, cross-posted and I didn't see that you have the bigger flat! Well, for what it's worth, I think you should pay an equal service charge and have one vote!

I would be happy with that too SweetApril.

Unfortunately the proportionate share of the service charge is in the Leasehold agreement, so I can't change that.

What is really galling is that I have a separate entrance, so don't access the communal area anyway

1 vote each from me!

Can't you get someone legal to look at the service charge and determine whether or not it's fair?

One flat, one vote.

One vote per flat.

How frustrating for you. These agreements can be a minefield. I do still think that one vote each is more straightforward as I'm not sure what it would ultimately achieve if the bigger flat has a larger proportion of the vote. What do the other owners think? I wonder if it might lead to resentment and pettiness in the future. DP runs our management company (we also had to sack the original company) and as I'mSo said people do get their knickers in a knot over the most petty things. Good luck anyway.

BTW if you decide to manage the property yourselves be warned that it's alot more work than you might initially imagine - especially when people sell their flats - but we found that ultimately it's much better than paying someone else a lot of money to do a not very good job. Sorry, you didn't ask for an opinion on that!