Leasehold glossary

What is The Property Institute (TPI)?

The UK professional body for residential leasehold property managers, formed in 2023 from the merger of ARMA (Association of Residential Managing Agents) and IRPM (Institute of Residential Property Management). It sets professional standards and qualifications and publishes the industry-standard leasehold sale forms, including the LPE1. Membership is voluntary, not a statutory licence.

The Property Institute (TPI) is the body most residential managing agents in England and Wales look to for professional standards. It was created in 2023 when two long-standing organisations merged:

  • ARMA — the Association of Residential Managing Agents, the trade body that represented managing-agent firms.
  • IRPM — the Institute of Residential Property Management, which ran the professional qualifications and exams for individual property managers.

Bringing the two together under TPI put the firms' trade body and the individuals' professional body under one roof, covering both company standards and personal qualifications.

What TPI does

The Property Institute's main roles are to:

  • Set professional standards for how residential blocks and estates should be managed, and hold member firms to a code of practice.
  • Run qualifications — the tiered exams and continuing professional development that individual property managers work through.
  • Publish the industry sale forms — including the LPE1 (Leasehold Property Enquiries) form that agents complete when a leasehold flat is sold, along with its companion forms.

TPI also contributes to industry guidance on how service charge accounts should be prepared, which feeds into the standards behind service charge accounts certification.

Good to know: TPI membership is voluntary. It is not a statutory licence to manage property, and it is not a guarantee that a firm's charges are fair. A TPI member's service charges are still subject to the same statutory tests as anyone else's — including Section 19 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, which limits charges to costs reasonably incurred.

Why TPI matters to you as a leaseholder

If your managing agent is a TPI member, you have a professional standard to point to — and a complaints route through the body's code of practice if the agent falls short. But membership is a starting point, not the last word. Whether or not your agent belongs to TPI, you keep every statutory right, from requesting a summary of costs under Section 21 to applying to the First-tier Tribunal to challenge a charge you think is unreasonable.

How this shows up in your service charges

A TPI-member agent still has to charge fairly. Our free AI audit reads your service charge demand, accounts and lease and shows you, line by line, how much could be challengeable under the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 — regardless of which professional body your agent belongs to.

Start my free audit