A Supreme Court ruling has made it harder for freeholders to resist Right to Manage claims

It found that a procedural error did not invalidate an application for a transfer of the right to manage a block.  In the case of Avon Freeholds Limited v Cresta Court E RTM Company Limited , the freeholder sought to invalidate an application from the Right To Manage (RTM) company because one of the leaseholders in the block had not received a Notice of Invitation to Participate.  Despite this fact, the freeholder became a member of the RTM company and supported its claim to the right to manage the building.  The Supreme Court ruled that invalidity was "too blunt a tool to address procedural defaults which may be of almost limitless variety in seriousness, blameworthiness and practical consequence".  Landlords may now only rely on substantive qualification criteria rather than procedural failures which do not directly affect them.  The decision was supported by campaigners for leasehold reform, as well as the Housing Minister, Matthew Pennycook, who posted on X that it had significantly reduced the scope for obstructive landlords to block valid RTM applications.