Part 5 - Regulation of Estate Management Section 72: Meanings of "estate management" etc
Section 72 sets out key definitions that have effect for Part Five of the Act. Subsection (2) defines estate management as meaning: the provision of services; the carrying out of maintenance, repairs or improvements, the effecting of insurance or the making of payments for the benefit of one or more dwellings. Subsection (3) defines an "estate manager" as a body of persons (whether incorporated or not) which carries out, or is required to carry out, estate management; and which recovers the cost of carrying out estate management by means of relevant obligations.
	Subsection (4) sets out that an estate manager in relation to a managed dwelling means an estate manager which carries out, or is required to carry out, estate management in relation to that dwelling. Subsection (5) defines a "managed dwelling" as a dwelling in relation to which an estate manager carries out, or is required to carry out, estate management.
	Subsection (6) defines a "relevant obligation" in relation to a dwelling. This includes: an estate rentcharge set out under the Rentcharges Act 1977 ("the 1977 Act"); an obligation under a lease (that is not a service charge); any other obligation which runs with the land that comprises the dwelling or binds the owner for the time being of the land which comprises the dwelling; and any other obligation to which the owner of the dwelling is subject and to which any immediate successor in title of that owner will become subject, if an arrangement to which the estate manager and that owner are parties is performed. Subsection (7) makes it clear that subsection (6)(d) includes an arrangement under which the owner is required to ensure that any immediate successor in title to the owner enters into an obligation.
	Subsections (8) and (9) define what is meant by, and what is excluded from the definition of an estate management charge. Subsection (8) makes it clear that the costs are amounts payable by people that own a dwelling, who contribute towards the costs incurred by an estate manager in carrying out estate management for the benefit of the homeowner and other homeowners, and who are obliged to pay through a relevant obligation. Subsection (9) sets out those payments that do not count as an estate management charge. These include costs paid as part of an estate management scheme (under the 1967 Act and the 1993 Act), rent reserved under a lease, service charges as defined in the 1985 Act, and charges in respect of the expenses of a commonhold association.
	Subsection (10) clarifies - in relation to subsection (9) – that "unit holder", "commonhold unit" and "commonhold association" have the same meaning as set out in the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002.
	Subsection (11) defines "relevant costs", in relation to a dwelling, as costs which are incurred by an estate manager in carrying out estate management for the benefit of that dwelling, or that dwelling and other dwellings.
	Subsection (12) states that costs are relevant costs in relation to an estate management charge whether they are incurred, or to be incurred, in the period for which the charge is payable or in an earlier or later period.