All Rent to Buy tenants are expected to pay advance rent and a deposit before signing up for their tenancy. The deposit which will be held with the Deposit Protection Scheme.
Download the Torus Guide to Rent to Buy here (pdf)
To be eligible for Rent to Buy you must:
Some of the reasons people may not be eligible include:
If you have any tenancy management or rent queries please contact our Leasehold Team:
As a tenant, you are responsible for the property from the date on your tenancy agreement.
We are responsible for obtaining gas and electricity certificates before you can move into your new home. You will find copies of these in the information pack.
Unless we advise you otherwise you are responsible for ordering and, where applicable, paying for all waste/recycling bins. You can find lots of useful information on recycling, bin collections and replacement bins on your local Council’s website:
If you decide to move out of your current home, your tenancy agreement means that you must comply with the following:
If you don’t comply with any of these conditions, you will receive a bill for any costs incurred by us to rectify the situation. This may result in you losing some, or all, of your deposit.
Tenants living in flats should co-operate with each other to keep halls, stairways and landings clean and tidy. We maintain the gardens. You are responsible for the behaviour of people living with you or visiting your home.
By signing your tenancy agreement, you have accepted all the responsibilities and rights explained in it. You should look carefully at the section about nuisance and anti-social behaviour in your agreement.
You must not keep or allow anyone else to keep any domestic pet or any animal in your property without first obtaining consent.
As a general rule, pets are not allowed in flats with communal areas. Please refer to your tenancy agreement for further information about pets and animals.
If you notice the need for a repair in any of the communal areas of the block, please report the repair by contacting the Torus Customer Hub:
To help us provide an efficient service, please report any problems as soon as possible, provide as much information as possible, provide your contact details and ask for a job number.
If your block has a door entry system, make sure you only allow people in who are visiting your flat. If you feel someone is acting suspiciously in or around your block, contact us or if necessary, the police.
Always ask any visitor who claims to be on official business for the appropriate identification before you let them into your home or into the block.
When you enter or leave the building, make sure the doors are closed properly.
As your landlord, we aim to provide a quality repairs service, on time and with the highest standards of customer care. We will only repair items that we supply, and you should refer to your tenancy agreement for further information.
If you have a repair to report, contact us on 0800 678 1894 and provide as much detail as possible about the repair and include your contact details. If the repair is our responsibility, we will confirm the category of your repair so that you know the maximum time you can expect to wait for it to be completed. You will also be provided with a unique reference number which you should quote in any future communication.
All repairs are prioritised as either Emergency, by Arrangement (Priority or Routine) and or Programmed (Major) Repair:
We will charge you for any repairs that need to be carried out due to deliberate damage or neglect caused by you, members of your family or visitors to your home, or damage caused as a result of police enquiries. Please refer to your tenancy agreement for more information.
Your tenancy agreement will stipulate that you must not carry out any improvements or alterations to your home without our prior written consent, this includes internally or externally.
Please refer to your tenancy agreement for further information improving your home.
By law, we must carry out an annual gas safety check of your home. This check must take place even if you do not have a live gas supply.
This leaflet explains our responsibilities as a landlord, your responsibility as a tenant and how to avoid putting yourself at risk from faulty gas appliances.
If you notice any of these signs, turn off the appliance immediately and contact us on 0800 678 1894.
When you become a Rent to Buy tenant you sign a tenancy agreement which is a legal document that sets out what are our landlord responsibilities and what your responsibilities as the tenant. By signing the tenancy agreement, you are only committing to rent the property in accordance with the tenancy terms. You are not committing to buy the property and we are not committing to sell.
Rent to Buy tenancies can be anything from 6 months up to 2 years. Please refer to your tenancy agreement for the length of term for your tenancy.
The rent is detailed in the Tenancy Agreement. The rent is calculated as 80% of the market rent for the property, which is inclusive of any service charges.
Rent to Buy tenants are required to pay their rent on the 1st of each month, through Direct Debit.
If you are experiencing financial difficulties or anticipate your direct debit may fail, please contact us urgently to discuss this.
Remember – If you don’t keep up rent payments then you may lose your home. We will also not sell to you if you are in rent arrears.
As a tenant, you’re expected to look after your home, but you can report repairs to us as your landlord online or over the phone. Different repairs will be dealt with in different timescales depending on seriousness and urgency. Details of our repair timescales are detailed above.
Any damage caused to the property or any shared areas, by either your household or your visitors, will be recharged at the time or be taken from your deposit in accordance with the Deposit Protection Scheme conditions. This will also be the case if you purchase.
Remember this is just a guide, your tenancy agreement will explain yours and our responsibilities in more detail.
Updated: 17 January 2023
Torus recently explored proposals to move office-based services from Bank Park House in Warrington to the ground floor commercial spaces at Roebuck Plaza in Warrington town centre.
Following an extensive review of the options and costings, a decision has been made by Torus to not proceed with the move.
Torus is still committed to providing much needed affordable homes and putting customers at the heart of everything that we do and providing great places for our colleagues to work from. Being at the heart of where people need our support and services is still a priority for the organisation and we would like to reassure our customers that all our essential support services in the area will be unaffected by our decision to continue to operate from Bank Park House.