The basics
What is The HouseHOLDER?#
A home admin app for UK households. Your whole home — bills, boiler, MOT dates, manuals, meter readings, renewals, paperwork — organised in one place, instead of a drawer, seven email accounts and one person’s head.
Who is it for?#
UK homeowners and renters who are tired of being their household’s unpaid admin department. If you’ve ever gone looking for the boiler service receipt at 9pm, it’s for you.
How much does it cost?#
Nothing. It’s a private tool rather than a product — no card, nothing to buy, and the AI included. The AI does the typing, and Settings shows everything it’s done for you — and lets you switch it off whenever you like.
How do I get it?#
At the moment, you don’t. It’s a private tool — built for one household and shared with a few people who asked — rather than something open for general signups.
Is there an iPhone or Android app?#
Not on the App Store or Google Play, no. The web app installs like a native one though: open it in your phone’s browser and choose “Add to Home Screen” for an icon, a full-screen app and push reminders.
How long does setup take?#
Minutes. When you join it asks a handful of questions about the place — how many floors, bedrooms and bathrooms, which of the usual rooms — and builds exactly that, plus a systems list and a starter maintenance schedule (boiler service, meter readings, bin day, smoke alarms, gutters). After that, add things as they cross your path. It’s a filing cabinet, not homework.
Is there a manual?#
Thirty of them, filmed. Every part of the app has a video of about a minute with the written steps beside it — the how-to library — and the same clips sit inside the app under Help. Nobody has ever read a manual, so we made them a minute long instead.
Why “the most boring app in the world”?#
Because house admin is boring, and that’s the point — it should take 30 seconds, not a Saturday. We’d rather be boring and useful than exciting and abandoned.
Around the house
Can it find my appliance manuals?#
Yes. Ask it to find the manual for anything you’ve added and it searches the web, files the manual against the appliance, and pulls out the maintenance and troubleshooting tips while it’s there.
What paperwork can I file in it?#
Anything: receipts, invoices, warranties, MOT certificates, insurance policies, gas safety certificates, bank statements. One upload button — the app reads each document and suggests what it is and what it belongs to; you confirm. (Wondering what’s worth keeping at all? The retention guide has the document-by-document answer.)
Will it remind me about the MOT?#
Yes — add a car by its number plate and the MOT due date comes straight from the official DVSA record. You’re nudged 30 days before it’s due. The reminder is cheaper than the fine.
Can I keep a list of tradespeople we trust?#
Yes — name, trade, phone, rating, notes, and every job you’ve logged against them. Next time it’s “who did we use for the gutters?”, the answer’s already written down.
Money, bills & statements
How do bills get in without me typing them all?#
Photograph one and the supplier, amount, due date and category are read for you. Or upload a bank statement — the regular payments come pre-ticked, ready to add as bills.
Is it safe to give an app my bank statements?#
We designed for exactly that worry. We never store account numbers, card numbers, sort codes or balances — only amounts, dates and categories, plus a generic label like “Barclays current account”. Merchant names are encrypted at rest, and line-by-line detail is automatically deleted after 12 months. You can also use a statement once and save nothing.
Does it connect to my bank?#
No, and that’s deliberate. No open-banking connection, no credentials, no live feed. It only ever sees what you choose to upload.
Renewals & reminders
How do renewal reminders work?#
Any bill can carry a renewal date — insurance, energy, broadband, breakdown cover. It joins your renewals list and nudges you 21 days ahead by default: enough time to get quotes, not so early you forget again.
Why nudge before something auto-renews?#
Because most insurers renew you automatically at a worse price than they’d offer a stranger — the loyalty penalty. A nudge in time means you can compare, switch, or phone up and haggle while it still counts.
Does it track passports and driving licences?#
Yes — and those remind a full year ahead, because renewals take weeks and an expired passport gets discovered at the worst possible moment. If you move house, it also reminds you to update your DVLA address, which is free.
Sharing your household
Can my partner use it too?#
Yes — invite them by email and you both see and edit the home’s records: belongings, vehicles, documents, to-dos, meter readings, contractors, warranties. One home, everyone on the same page.
Can my partner see my bank statements?#
Not unless you choose it. Money is private by default: your bills and budget are yours alone until you flip the sharing switches — and even then the household sees monthly totals, never the line-by-line detail of your statements.
Can I manage more than one property?#
Yes. Each property keeps its own belongings, schedules and costs, with a switcher to move between them. Accounts start with one property — ask us and we’ll open up another.
The AI bit
What does the AI actually do?#
The typing. Photograph a boiler and the make, model and serial number fill themselves in; photograph a bill and the amount and due date are read; upload a statement and the budget builds itself; ask for a manual and it’s found and filed. You check, it types.
What does the AI cost?#
Nothing, to you — it’s included. It costs us pennies per action: most are less than sending a text, and reading a whole statement is the priciest. Every call and what it cost is listed in Settings, so nothing is a mystery.
Do I have to use the AI?#
No. It only ever pre-fills forms — switch it off entirely in Settings and everything still works by hand. It’s a convenience, never a requirement.
Your data & account
Can I get my data out?#
All of it, any time: one button builds a zip of your whole home — every document, photo and record, in folders that mirror the app, with a browsable index. No lock-in; it’s your house, not ours.
What do you never store?#
Account numbers, card numbers, sort codes and balances from statements — never. Merchant names are encrypted at rest and statement detail is deleted after 12 months. Card payments are handled by Stripe; we never see your card.
How do I delete my account?#
From Settings, permanently and completely — properties, belongings, documents, photos, bills, reminders, everything. You type DELETE to confirm. Download your export first if you want a copy. Already uninstalled the app? thehouseholder.diy/delete-account explains how to do it from any browser, or by email if you can no longer sign in.
How do I sign in? Is this another password to remember?#
No password: sign in with an email link, Google, or a passkey (Face ID or fingerprint). Nothing to forget, nothing to leak.
Something we haven’t answered? Email info@thehouseholder.diy — a human reads it.
That’s the lot.
Proudly the most boring place on the internet — one household’s bills, boiler, MOT and manuals, quietly handled. Not open for signups at the moment.
From the boring shelf: How to use it, in one-minute videos · The UK home maintenance calendar · How long to keep receipts, warranties and paperwork · Why this exists at all.