What Are an RTM Company's Cladding Responsibilities?
If you've recently taken on a director role at a Right to Manage company, we recognise that no one handed you a manual for what happens if your building turns out to have unsafe cladding. Most RTM directors are leaseholders first and perhaps accountants, teachers or retirees who volunteered to sit on a board so their block would be better run. We understand that cladding remediation was likely on few of your minds when you agreed to serve.
But if your building has combustible or non-compliant external wall materials, your RTM company is very likely one of the parties the law now expects to act. This guide walks through what that actually means: when the responsibility lands with you, what funding is available, and (the question most directors ask first) whether you're personally on the hook.
What is an RTM company actually responsible for?
A Right to Manage company is formed by qualifying leaseholders to take over the management functions of their building from the freeholder, under the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002. It's worth being precise about what that transfer does and doesn't include. Taking on the right to manage gives you management functions, it doesn't hand your RTM company the freehold or the legal ownership of the building's structure and exterior. The freeholder typically remains the Principal Accountable Person even where an RTM company is in place, though the RTM company can become a separate Accountable Person in its own right if it holds a repairing obligation for the building.
That distinction matters, because two different pieces of legislation can both apply to your RTM company at once, depending on your building's height:
For every residential building, regardless of height, the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 puts fire safety duties on whoever is in control of the common parts, usually the RTM or RMC. As the "Responsible Person" under that order, your RTM company has to make sure fire risk assessments are carried out and acted on, that fire precautions are in place, and that an emergency plan exists. This applies whether your block is three storeys or thirty.
For higher-risk buildings (defined as at least 18 metres in height or at least 7 storeys) the Building Safety Act 2022 goes further. It introduces a formal "Accountable Person" role with statutory duties around structural safety and fire spread, not just fire precautions. Where an RTM company holds the repairing obligations for the common parts of a building that meets that threshold, it takes on those Accountable Person duties directly, including exposure to criminal liability for non-compliance.
So the short version: every RTM company has fire safety duties. RTM companies managing taller buildings have a heavier, more formal set of duties on top of that.
When does an RTM company have to act on cladding?
There's no single trigger that applies to every building, but the pattern is usually the same. A fire risk assessment (or, for external walls specifically, a Fire Risk Appraisal of External Walls carried out under the PAS 9980 methodology) identifies a fire safety concern with the cladding or wall system. From that point, the Responsible Person (your RTM company) has a duty to act on what the assessment recommends, not file it away.
This is also where a lot of RTM boards get stuck. A FRAEW can be several thousand pounds before you've even started thinking about the cost of the remediation itself, and most lay directors have never procured a construction project, let alone a regulated one involving multiple funding bodies and a Building Safety Regulator watching over higher-risk buildings.
What funding is available and who can apply
This is the part that's changed the most recently, and it's genuinely good news for a lot of buildings that had nowhere to turn until now.
The Cladding Safety Scheme (CSS), run by Homes England, is now the route for cladding remediation funding on buildings over 11 metres in England. The CSS meets the cost of addressing life safety fire risks associated with cladding, and a Right to Manage company can apply directly as the Responsible Entity where it has primary responsibility for the repair of the property, or through a representative acting on its behalf.
Buildings under 11 metres are now also able to apply for CSS funding. Until this year, lower-rise buildings had almost no route to government funding regardless of how serious the risk on site actually was. The government has now expanded the Cladding Safety Scheme to include targeted funding for eligible multi-occupied residential buildings under 11 metres in England, with support prioritised according to cladding fire safety risk and focused first on buildings assessed as presenting a high life-critical risk.
Applications for this route are currently open but close soon, on Friday 9th October 2026. It's a narrow window, and it isn't automatic. Homes England will review and audit every FRAEW submitted against the existing CSS process and PAS 9980 methodology, and meeting the fund's requirements does not by itself create any entitlement to funding. Decisions remain subject to prioritisation and the availability of funding. Applicants will also be asked whether other routes (insurance claims, developer contributions or warranty schemes) have already been explored.
There's also a cost-protection layer sitting alongside the funding routes. Where a landlord or building owner is liable and fails to provide the required leaseholder protection documentation on time, they can lose the ability to pass remediation costs on to leaseholders at all, which is part of why getting the paperwork right early matters as much as the funding application itself.
Can RTM directors be held personally liable?
This is usually the real question underneath "what are our responsibilities", and it's the one that keeps volunteer directors up at night.
The reassuring starting point: the law is built around the company, not the individual. The Building Safety Regulator has confirmed that where an RTM company is the Accountable Person, it will normally take enforcement action against the company itself rather than against individual directors, on the basis that it's the company that carries responsibility for the safety of the building.
But that protection isn't absolute. Section 161 of the Building Safety Act extends personal liability to a director, manager or company secretary who consents to, connives in, or through neglect causes a breach of certain duties. This means individuals can, in principle, face fines or imprisonment if they're personally implicated in a failure, not just the company.
There is a specific and useful protection for lay RTM directors here, and it's worth knowing about even if you never need it. Where an RTM or RMC appoints one or more paid directors specifically for a building safety purpose, any of the company's unpaid directors become exempt from that personal liability. In practice, this is a strong argument for bringing in paid, competent support, whether that's a Building Safety Director or a specialist consultancy managing the process, rather than expecting volunteer board members to personally carry statutory building safety duties they never signed up for.
Where EWS1 fits in
EWS1 gets mentioned constantly in this space, and it's worth being precise about what it actually does, because it's often confused with the fire risk assessment itself. The EWS1 form is a process that lets a building owner confirm to lenders and valuers that a building's external wall system has been assessed for safety by a suitably qualified expert. It applies to the external wall system specifically, and it's explicitly not a life safety certificate. It exists for valuation and mortgage purposes, not as a substitute for a full fire risk assessment. It isn't a statutory requirement, but lenders remain free to ask for one, and a completed form is valid for up to five years before it needs reassessing.
For leaseholders trying to sell or remortgage in a building with any history of cladding concerns, a clean, up-to-date EWS1 is often what actually unblocks the transaction. This is why it tends to be the finish line RTM boards are working towards.
Where this leaves an RTM board
Put together, an RTM company's cladding responsibility usually breaks down into a handful of practical jobs: get a proper fire risk assessment or FRAEW commissioned, understand which funding route the building actually falls into (and the deadlines that come with it), keep leaseholders informed as the Building Safety Act now requires, and manage the process through to a valid EWS1 at the end.
It can help to have someone in the loop to manage the process on your behalf. As a RICS-regulated Client Representative, Archway FM works alongside RTM boards through the full process, from the initial assessment and funding application through contractor appointment and compliance oversight to final EWS1 sign-off, without directors having to become building safety experts themselves.
If your RTM company is facing a cladding issue and you're not sure which of these routes applies to your building, it's worth talking it through before the sub-11m application window closes. We're happy to arrange a call and walk through where your building sits, just click here.