The service charge went up again, the lift has been out since February, and emails to the managing agent bounce between inboxes without landing on a person. If you own a leasehold flat, this is usually the point where someone asks the building's group chat: can we just sack them?
The awkward answer is that it depends who appointed them. The managing agent works for whoever holds the management function, normally the freeholder or a residents' management company. If leaseholders already control an RMC, changing agent is a decision your directors can take, subject to the notice period in the contract, and the rest of this piece is about doing it well. If the freeholder appointed the agent, you cannot dismiss them directly, but you are far from powerless.
Pressure that works on a freeholder's agent
Start with a formal written complaint through the agent's own procedure, because every later step asks whether you did. Managing agents must belong to a government-approved redress scheme, The Property Ombudsman or the Property Redress Scheme, and either one can investigate and order compensation once the internal process is exhausted. Separately, service charges must be reasonable, and the First-tier Tribunal can rule on whether yours are. Remember section 20 as well: works costing any leaseholder more than £250 require consultation, and an agent who skipped it has a serious recovery problem. Agents answer letters that mention tribunals.
Right to manage moves the contract itself
Where the relationship is beyond repair, leaseholders in England and Wales can often take over management without proving any fault and without buying the freehold. Right to manage involves forming an RTM company and serving notice, and the broad qualifying shape is this: the building must be mainly residential, at least two-thirds of the flats must be held on long leases, and leaseholders of at least half the flats must join in. Once the RTM company takes over, it appoints whichever managing agent it chooses, and can replace that firm later like any other client. It is a process with formal steps and deadlines, so most groups use a specialist to run it, but the destination is simple: the building becomes the customer.
Switching well is mostly handover
Whether through an RMC or a fresh RTM company, the change succeeds or fails on the handover. The outgoing agent should transfer the service charge funds and reserve fund, the maintenance contracts, the insurance details, the leaseholder accounts and any section 20 consultations in progress. The incoming agent should chase all of it in writing and tell your directors what is missing. Ask any prospective firm how many blocks they have taken over mid-life and what their handover checklist covers, because a firm that manages blocks well but takes them over badly gives you a rough first year.
Of the 1,499 property management companies listed on this site, block and estate management is its own trade with its own specialists. Look for block managing agents working in your area, or describe the building and invite proposals your directors can put beside the current contract.
The practical first step costs nothing: find the current management contract and note its notice period and end date. Every option above runs on that timetable.
