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Applying for a council home

Darlington HomeSearch is here! A new way to apply for a home in Darlington

Darlington Borough Council Housing Services has left the Tees Valley Lettings Partnership and we have been working hard to bring you our new, stand-alone digital lettings platform, Darlington HomeSearch [external link].

The Darlington Borough Council Housing Allocation policy [pdf document] has been approved by Cabinet and our council housing will now be allocated according to the new policy.

The Housing Allocation Policy is also available in other languages;

We reviewed our housing priority bands. Summary of housing priority bands [pdf document].

Please visit the Darlington HomeSearch [external link] page to register your account and see our advertised.

Please be aware the demand for all types of social housing in Darlington is extremely high. This means the waiting time for applicants has significantly increased.

Do you need some help to get started?

We have created the following guides to help you register and start using Darlington HomeSearch.

How to register [pdf document]

How to upload your documents [pdf document]

How to bid for properties [pdf document]

Darlington Home Search

Frequently Asked Questions

If you were in Band 1 we have transferred your information on to Darlington HomeSearch. If we have not already contacted you, please call us to activate your online account.

If you were in Band 2,3 or 4 you will need to reapply for housing using Darlington HomeSearch[external link].  If you register before the 30th August 2023 we will honour your original registration date.

Summary of changes to bands [pdf document] under the new Darlington Borough Council allocation policy.

If you reapply before the 30th August 2023 we will honour your original registration date.

We can offer telephone appointments to customers who are unable to register online themselves.  During the appointment we will also discuss how you can apply for properties and discuss any additional support you might require.

Please call 01325 405333 to request an telephone appointment.

If you are homeless, threatened with homelessness or in urgent housing need please contact us for advice.  For further information please go to our homeless advice pages.

We will upload our new adverts to Darlington HomeSearch [external link] every Thursday morning.  They will run until the following Tuesday night and then close.

We will review the shortlisted applicants on Wednesday and we will contact the successful applicants after that.

Unfortunately it is not possible to contact unsuccessful applicants.

We generally do not advertise properties on Wednesdays so you will not see any adverts if you visit Darlington HomeSearch [external link] on this day.

If you have very specific search criteria you may also find that sometimes there are no advertised properties marching your criteria that week.

Darlington Borough Council is the largest social housing landlord in Darlington.

We have a range of properties available including:

  • 2, 3 and 4 bedroom houses
  • 1 and 2 bedroom apartments
  • 1 bedroom bungalows

We also offer:

How to contact us

There are several ways housing applicants and tenants can contact us:

Tenants can report emergency repairs to 01325 405333 24/7 365 days a year.

What if I am not satisfied with the response?

We hope that we can work together with our residents and listen to their voices and resolve any problems, but if you are unhappy with the response from the Housing team we have a complaints procedure you can follow and you can contact our Complaints Team by:

Install our web app.