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Leasehold

An RTM company runs the block and the roof leaks. Has the survey decided the company must repair it?

No. The survey has not decided that the right-to-manage company must repair the leaking roof. An RTM company may take on management functions, but whether this leak is that company's job depends on the lease and on what was actually handed over. The inspection recorded a leaking roof. It did not construe the lease, did not see the company's records, and did not order anyone to do the work. Responsibility for the roof stays a legal question. It is not a finding of this visit.

Last reviewed 24 October 2026. Written for buyers in England and Wales unless this answer says otherwise. No named surveyor has signed this page. It is general guidance, not a report on your house, and not legal advice.

What is the fuller explanation?

Right to manage is a statutory route for leaseholders to take over management from the landlord. It does not, by itself, rewrite every repairing sentence in the lease, and it does not turn a surveyor into the person who decides who pays. A leaking roof still needs a condition note: where water is getting in, and what was seen of the covering. That note is as far as this inspection goes. The company's duties, its funds and any notice it must serve sit in the legal papers.

Ask your solicitor to read the lease and the RTM paperwork and to say, as a legal view, who must repair the roof and how a leaseholder raises it. Pass them the survey as a description of the leak, not as an order. Do not tell a lender the company has accepted the repair because the block is under RTM. The survey has not calculated anyone's share and has not started any consultation.

What should you ask your surveyor?

  • Has the survey ordered the RTM company to repair the roof?
  • Were the lease and the RTM papers construed on this visit?
  • Is the leak note being passed to the solicitor as a description only?

What are the typical next steps?

  1. Treat roof responsibility as a legal question, not a survey order.
  2. Ask your solicitor to read the lease and the RTM papers.
  3. Do not tell a lender the company has accepted the repair.

Costs vary with the building and with who you instruct. Where this page does not cite a published figure, ask the surveyor, a relevant specialist, or your solicitor for a written quote. Do not treat a forum average as the price.

Also asked about this

Does a leak inside the flat prove the company is in breach?

No. Water in the flat shows a leak the survey could see. It does not prove a breach, a delay, or that the RTM company is the party who must repair. Those points come from the lease and from the solicitor's advice. The inspection recorded the leak and stopped. It has not judged conduct.

Can the survey set the cost split for the roof works?

No. The survey has not calculated anyone's share of roof works, and it has not seen the service-charge papers. A leak note is not an account. Ask the solicitor what the lease says about costs, and keep any estimate you later obtain outside this report. The visit will not turn a stain into a bill.

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