Please reach us at info@batterseareachrtm.com if you cannot find an answer to your question.
There are a total of 1358 apartments at Battersea Reach, so 680 (being 50% plus 1) need to sign up for RTM to be possible.
No. Only full, open market leasehold flats plus shared ownership flats are eligible to participate in RTM. Social housing flats (those in Genoa and Nautical Houses) are excluded by law.
No. For a development of Battersea Reach's size and complexity, a professional managing agent would still be required. The key difference with RTM would be that the managing agent would be fully accountable to leaseholders via the RTM company.
It is hard to say precisely but we would expect between 12 and 18 months after the campaign gets into full swing. It may take longer, however.
Directors are elected by simple majority at general meetings of the RTM Company (usually annually). Each person standing for election as a director is voted for by the members separately. Members have one vote per apartment. In addition, the board of directors may appoint addtional people to serve as directors between general meetings (sometime called co-opting).
The key objective of RTM is to ensure that leaseholders get value for money from their service charges. As is often said, people spend their own money far more carefully than they spend other peoples' money. Right now our money is being spent for us by freeholders and managing agents who are unaccoutable to us. We simply pay the bills. We would hope that as a culture of extracting value for money develops, our service charges would become more reasonable.
Ground rents will not be affected by the RTM process in any way.
A new page will shortly be added to this website which sets out all of the pros and cons of RTM. Please check back in the coming days.
No. RTM is reversible. The RTM Company can only exercise power at Battersea Reach as long as a simple majority of apartment owners are members of it. If people feel that RTM is not working, then they can resign as members. Once the number of members falls below half of all owners, the power of the RTM Company reverts to the freeholders.
They don't. Shared owners and full leaseholders have exactly the same rights in law when it comes to obtaining RTM and then exercising consequential new powers.