Twenty-one statutory obligations sound terrifying. Most are quick, predictable, and below £500 each. Below: the order to do them in, the calculator and template for every one, and a 90-day pathway from "I just inherited this" to "we are in control".
This page describes the position in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have different fire-safety and housing regimes. Information only, not legal advice. Always take professional advice before acting.
“I just became a director and I don't know what I'm liable for.”
Statutory duties, company-law duties, building safety duties, and the personal-liability traps. The 9-step first-90-days plan walks you from day 1 to operational rhythm with calculators, supplier checklists, and draft emails for every step.
“Are we compliant?”
5-min audit covering 21 statutory obligations. Personalised gap list with cost and S20 status.
Run the audit →“A leaseholder is using ChatGPT against us.”
How to respond when AI-drafted challenges arrive. Holding-reply template included.
Read the playbook →You didn't sign up for 21 statutory obligations when you became a director of your freehold or RTM company. You inherited them the moment you took the role. Not knowing what they are doesn't reduce the exposure. It just means you can't see it coming. What follows is the full list, in plain English, with the four areas that trip up self-managed buildings first.
Roughly: insurance £2,500-£5,000, management or director-executive fee £2,000-£8,000, cleaning £2,000-£3,000, communal utilities £500-£1,500, statutory inspections (annualised, smoothed across cycle) £800-£1,500, reserve contribution £1,500-£3,000.
Per leaseholder: roughly £600 to £1,000 per year for a well-run 16-flat block. Year one if you have outstanding inspections may add a one-off £1,500-£3,000 to the block total.
The Leasehold Advisory Service (LEASE) is government-funded and provides free unbiased advice to leaseholders and directors. They are not partisan, they do not sell anything, and they will speak to you on the phone or by written enquiry. Use them if anything here feels overwhelming or your situation is unusual.
Visit lease-advice.org →Built primarily for directors of smaller blocks (under about 30 units) and self-managed blocks (RTM, Share of Freehold, RMC without a full-service agent). If a TPI-member managing agent runs everything for you, the audit and fix library are still useful as a sanity-check on what they are doing, but the manual BLOCK-iQ tools (budget builder, company books) are unlikely to be your day-to-day. We are most useful where you are doing the work yourselves.
An ordered pathway through the most important compliance work, calibrated for someone who has just inherited the role. Every step links to a dedicated fix page with the calculator, supplier checklist, and draft email needed to close it. Items 1 to 3 are urgent for any director without a recent audit; items 4 to 8 are the operational rhythm of a compliant block.
Five minutes. Tells you exactly which of the 23 compliance items apply to your block based on age, height, units, gas, and management structure. Every gap then has a dedicated fix page.
Free to fix, takes ten minutes, and without it any service charge demand is unenforceable. Highest-impact-per-minute compliance task in the building.
Statutory duty under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 with criminal liability for the responsible person. Either find the current FRA, commission a new one, or close out outstanding action items.
Each has its own page with cycle, cost, supplier, and draft quote-request email. Asbestos applies only to pre-2000 buildings; gas safety only where there is a communal supply.
Use the manual BLOCK-iQ budget builder. Paste prior-year costs, auto-categorise, fill statutory inspection lines, generate Section 20 flags, and produce a copy-ready budget for leaseholder circulation.
Most blocks are paying too much. Run the rate-per-£1,000 ratio check, demand commission disclosure under the FCA's Insurance Distribution Directive rules, and switch broker at next renewal if the rate is materially above fair range.
A RICS surveyor produces a 25-year cost forecast for major works and sets the target reserve plus annual contribution. Held on trust under Section 42 LTA 1987 in a designated account.
Companies House confirmation statement, filleted accounts, director records up to date. Set the AGM date and use the minutes template. Confirm management agreement is fit for purpose and fee is fair.
The rest is a steady operational rhythm. Log every repair as it happens, commission certified accounts each year, watch the Section 20 threshold on any major works, run the audit annually to catch any gap.
Free, one-page, no log-in. Drop your email and we will send the latest version of the pathway plus monthly compliance updates. Unsubscribe anytime.
If you would rather browse than follow the 90-day pathway, the same pages are categorised here. The full library index with progress signals is at compliance-fixes.html.
Most directors never see a tribunal. The ones who do missed the paperwork, not the law. The work below is the same work every self-managed building does year-round, just organised enough to prove it.
You carry personal liability for building compliance. These aren't optional, they're statutory requirements with penalties ranging from fines to criminal prosecution. The four cards below are the categories that trip up most self-managed buildings; the full 21-point checklistFire safety, insurance, service charge accounts, Companies House filings, Section 20 consultation, ICO registration, asbestos management, client-account ring-fencing, health and safety inspections, statutory responses to leaseholder requests, and legislative change monitoring. Download the full checklist at the bottom of this page. covers the rest.
Annual review required under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005Fire Safety Order 2005. The responsible person must ensure a suitable and sufficient fire risk assessment is maintained and reviewed regularly.. Failure to maintain one is a criminal offence. The responsible person can face unlimited fines or up to two years' imprisonmentGOV.UK enforcement guidance. Unlimited fines in magistrates' court. Up to two years' imprisonment in Crown Court for the most serious offences..
Ask your managing agent or fellow directors for the date of the last fire risk assessment. If nobody can produce it, assume it does not exist. A competent fire risk assessor (look for BAFE SP205 accreditation) will assess your building for £300-£800 depending on size.
What counts as "reviewed regularly"? There is no fixed statutory interval, but the generally accepted standard is annually for most residential blocks, or immediately after any significant change (refurbishment, change of use, fire incident).
Who is the "responsible person"? In a share of freehold or RTM building, it is usually the directors collectively. You cannot delegate liability by appointing a managing agent. The duty stays with you.
Adequate buildings insurance must be maintained at all times. Directors are personally liable for gaps in cover. If the building is underinsured and a claim arises, leaseholders can hold the directors responsible for the shortfall.
Check three things: rebuild value (not market value), policy terms (does it cover terrorism, subsidence, accidental damage?), and expiry date. Your lease almost certainly specifies the minimum insurance the freeholder or management company must maintain.
Rebuild valuation: Get a RICS reinstatement cost assessment every 3-5 years, or whenever you do significant building works. Using an index-linked estimate alone is not enough for larger buildings.
Common gap: Many policies exclude damage to individual flats' internal finishes. Check whether your lease requires the building policy to cover the demise (the flat itself) or just the structure and common parts.
Must comply with Section 21 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985LTA 1985, s.21. Leaseholders can request a written summary of service charge costs. The landlord must provide it within one month of the request, or six months after the end of the accounting period (whichever is later).. Accounts must be certified, sent to leaseholders within six months of the accounting year end, and accompanied by a summary of rights and obligationsLTA 1985, s.21B. Every service charge demand must be accompanied by a summary of leaseholders' rights and obligations. A demand without this summary is not payable until it is provided..
Service charge accounts must show income and expenditure for each accounting period. They must be certified by a qualified accountant if there are more than four dwellings. Smaller buildings can use a competent person.
The summary of rights: This is a prescribed form (The Service Charges (Summary of Rights and Obligations, and Transitional Provision) (England) Regulations 2007). You cannot write your own version. It must accompany every demand, or the demand is not payable until it is provided.
Reserve fund: Your lease may require you to maintain a reserve or sinking fund. Check whether it specifies a minimum contribution or a formula. Failure to collect the reserve when the lease requires it is a breach of your management obligations.
Annual confirmation statementCompanies House guidance. Every company must file a confirmation statement at least once every 12 months. Late filing is a criminal offence. RTM and SoF companies are subject to the same requirements as any limited company., accounts filing, and director change notifications are mandatory. Late filing incurs automatic penaltiesCompanies House late filing penalties. Penalties range from £150 (up to 1 month late) to £1,500 (over 6 months late) for private companies. These double if accounts are late two years running., and persistent non-compliance can lead to the company being struck off and directors personally prosecuted.
Go to Companies House WebFiling and search your company name or number. The filing history shows every submission and its date. The overview page shows next filing deadlines.
Key deadlines: Confirmation statement due within 14 days of the anniversary of incorporation (or last filing). Accounts due 9 months after the accounting reference date. Director changes must be notified within 14 days.
Common trap: Many SoF and RTM companies were set up by solicitors years ago and nobody has filed since. If your company is overdue, file immediately. The penalty clock is already running. If it has been struck off, you can apply for administrative restorationCompanies House guidance on restoration. A company can be administratively restored within 6 years of being struck off. The application costs £100-£400 depending on method. All overdue filings and penalties must be cleared. within six years.
Answer seven questions about your building. We will tell you where you are compliant, where you are exposed, and what to do first.
Manage these yourself. Or let BLOCK-iQ track them for you.
Fire risk assessments, insurance renewals, Companies House filings, ICO registrationICO Data Protection Register. Most organisations that process personal data must register with the Information Commissioner's Office. Annual fee for small organisations is £40. Failure to register is a criminal offence., Section 20 consultationsLTA 1985, s.20. For qualifying works over £250 per leaseholder or qualifying long-term agreements over £100 per leaseholder per year, a three-stage consultation process is mandatory. Skip it and recovery is capped at £250., health and safety inspections. Each has its own deadline, its own process, and its own penalty for missing it.
If challenged at tribunal, you need to prove you acted. That means documented decisions, dated records, signed-off risk assessments, and properly filed accounts - not just emails in someone's inbox.
Leaseholders have legal rights to request account summaries, inspect receipts, and challenge charges. You must respond within the statutory timeframeLTA 1985, s.21 and s.22. For a written summary of costs (s.21), the landlord has one month or six months after the accounting year end, whichever is later. For inspection of supporting documents (s.22), facilities must be provided within 21 days of the request. Different obligations have different deadlines. or face potential tribunal action.
For qualifying works over £250 per leaseholder or qualifying long-term agreements over £100 per year, you must follow a strict three-stage consultation process. Skip any stage and you can only recover £250.
The Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024LFRA 2024. Strengthens leaseholder transparency rights, reforms service charge demands, and introduces new accountancy requirements. Provisions are being implemented in phases through 2025 and 2026., Building Safety Act 2022Building Safety Act 2022. Created the Building Safety Regulator and introduced a new safety regime. The most stringent requirements (safety cases, mandatory occurrence reporting) apply primarily to higher-risk buildings (18m+ or 7+ storeys), but the Act also expanded duties for all residential buildings., and Fire Safety Act 2021Fire Safety Act 2021. Clarified that the Fire Safety Order applies to the structure, external walls, and flat entrance doors of multi-occupied residential buildings. Removed ambiguity that previously left common parts under-regulated. have all changed director obligations. New provisions are still being implemented in phases through 2025 and 2026.
⚠️ Important: These obligations apply whether you have a managing agent or not. If you've delegated management, you're still personally liable as a director if things aren't done.
Professional fees (assessors, accountants, surveyors) exclude VAT unless stated. Statutory fees (ICO, Companies House, tribunal) are fixed.
BLOCK-iQ tracks all 21 obligations for your building:
The penalties are real. The enforcement is increasing. And most volunteer directors have no formal training.
The Building Safety Act 2022 and Leasehold and Freehold Reform Act 2024 have significantly expanded director obligations, including new requirements for building safety casesBuilding Safety Regulator guidance. Building safety cases are required for higher-risk buildings (18m+ or 7+ storeys). They must demonstrate that fire spread and structural risks are being managed. Most SoF and RTM blocks fall below this threshold, but the Act expanded general duties for all residential buildings., mandatory occurrence reporting, and enhanced leaseholder transparency rights.
This page is written for RTM and SoF directors. If you are a leaseholder trying to understand what your directors owe you, start with your rights and how to escalate.
Your leaseholder rights →Add your building. BLOCK-iQ maps your 21 statutory obligations, tracks deadlines, and builds an audit trail - so you can prove you acted when it matters.
See how it works →All 21 statutory obligations that directors carry personally. Fire safety, insurance, service charges, Companies House, health and safety. Emailed to you as a printable checklist you can take to your next board meeting.