Skip in from the cold

Homes of our own in north Bolton

A small back bedroom at evening, just finished: warm clay-coloured walls, a timber sash with clear dry glass and dusk outside, a white radiator below it, and a folded dust sheet beside a wooden stepladder.
North Bolton · one household to a home

Homes to rent

Every house we bring back becomes a home for one household, and we keep it. When one is ready, we write to the people on this list whose needs fit it — all of them, on the same day. Putting your name down tells us what the household needs. It does not reserve a home, and it does not mean one is free now.

The picture is an illustration made for this site, not a photograph of a home that is free.

One household each

Who the homes are for

Our homes are terraced houses in Halliwell, Smithills and Astley Bridge, the three wards north of the town hall where we buy. Each is let whole, to one household, on an assured periodic tenancy with its terms in writing. We never let rooms, and we never ask a household to share a home with another.

A household is whoever will live there: one person, a couple, a family, friends sharing a home together. We do not turn a household away because it has children or because someone in it receives benefits; since 1 May 2026 the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 forbids it, and we would not do it anyway.

  • a gas safety check
  • an electrical report
  • an energy certificate
  • a smoke alarm on every storey
  • written terms
What you need, not who you are

Put your name down

One short form. It tells us what the household needs, not who you are: no income, no work, no references, nothing about health. Those questions come later, only for a home you want, and only as the law allows.

What the home must beBedrooms, people, wards
Bedrooms the household needs
People who would live there, children included
Wards you would live in (one or more)
When, and who elseTiming and a pet
When you would move
A pet coming with you?
Where to writeYou
To everyone it fits

How a home is offered

The list has no numbered places and no queue to climb. A home goes out to every household whose needs fit it, at the same time, and each stage below moves on only when the thing beside it has really happened.

  1. On the listStored the moment you send it, under its own reference. It stays as you left it until you change it, leave, or twelve months pass without a word from you.Moves on when A home of ours is ready whose bedrooms, ward and timing fit what you asked for.
  2. A home that fitsWe write to everyone on the list whose needs fit that home, on the same day and with the same details: the street, the bedrooms, the rent and the day it is ready.Moves on when You write back to say you would like to see it.
  3. A viewingYou see the house with us at a time that suits you. A viewing is offered to every household that asks, before anything is decided.Moves on when You tell us you would like the home. If more than one household does, the home goes to the best fit for its size, then to whoever has been on the list longest.
  4. Written termsThe tenancy’s terms in writing, the right to rent check for each adult, and copies of the gas safety check, the electrical report and the energy certificate.Moves on when Both sides sign and the tenancy starts.
  5. The first eveningThe household moves in. This entry is then deleted from the list, because it has done its job.

Fit means the bedrooms suit the size of the household, never crowded, as the law on overcrowding requires; the home is in a ward you chose; and it is ready at a time you can move. The rent of each home is stated in writing before anyone views it, and we neither invite nor accept offers above it.

Reference and email

Check what you sent

Give the reference you were given and the email you used. You will see exactly what is kept, change any of it, say you are still looking, or leave the list — which deletes it.

And how to leave it

What the list keeps

What you send is kept on Cloudflare, which runs this site, under its reference: the bedrooms, the people, the wards, the timing, a pet, your note, your name and your email. It is used for one thing — writing to you when a home fits. It is kept for twelve months from the last time you change it or tell us you are still looking, and then deleted automatically. Leaving the list deletes it at once.

The Tenant Fees Act 2019 does not allow a landlord to ask for money to put anyone on a list, and we never do. The full notice of what this site keeps, and your rights over it, is Your information.