Moving into rented accommodation in the catchment area-when can I safely move back?

I still don't get why you don't sell your home and buy another one in the catchment area you want.

"But seriously if you lived there for several months, which you would have to, probably a year in fact and rented out the original home then it is not fraud and nothing could be done."

Round here, that is exactly what leads to your child's place being removed (even after they have been at the school for some time, though they seem to be getting better at weeding out the dubious applications in advance now)

Just out of interest, does anybody know how this affects homeless families living in temporary accommodation such as B&Bs?

Pansy,

Owning another home is OK AS LONG AS the reasons behind it stack up - e.g. owned in previous home for previous job, moved to new town for new job, for example, or a property owned but rented out over a sustained period...

However, if the ownership of multiple addresses is manipulated in order to obtain a place - e.g. moving from a house that you have lived in for a long period to one of your rental properties because it happens to be in catchment - then that would be treated as fraudulent misrepresentation of your permanent address, causing a loss of or failure to gain a place.

I'd be fucked then as I own five houses.... so technically if they look at ownership then that counts out a lot of people and they would have a very very hard time proving it. I am not saying it is right (but in the scheme of things I cannot get that worked up about it - same thing with people going to church etc) But seriously if you lived there for several months, which you would have to, probably a year in fact and rented out the original home then it is not fraud and nothing could be done. You would just need to make sure you swapped council tax, electoral role and child benefit to the address and technically it would be legal. Wherever you are registered to vote is technically your home and if the original home is rented to someone else what could be done.

People just hate this sort of thing because they perceive it to be unfair that someone can essentially buy a place.

If you lived there it is not fraud. Renting somewhere and not living there and then it is fraud. Not commenting on the morality of it just saying if you lived there at the time of the application and to be safe after they start school you are free to do as you wish

Wait until the child starts and then not technically fraudulent.

Harrow Council took a mother to court who fraudulently applied for a school place for her son. She was not prosecuted in the end but her photo and details where all over the local/national press and the internet. Her son's place was withdrawn and she became a social pariah.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1179968/Mother-facing-year-jail-trying-son-better-school.html

OP proceed with extreme caution. The truth has a way of outing!!

I am not saying it is the 'punishment'. I am saying it is a possible outcome. I also regularly make the point on here that an unpopular school is not necessarily a bad school and a popular school is not necessarily good. If a parent is thinking of breaking the rules in an attempt to get a place at a 'good' school they need to understand the possible consequences.

On the more general point, there will always be good schools and bad schools. No reform is ever going to change that.

Schools change. The school that was outstanding when you chose to send your child there may stop performing and go into special measures a year or two later. Equally the school you avoided like the plague may become the top school in the area.

It would be great if all schools were consistently outstanding but realistically that is never going to happen. That means there will always be a small proportion of parents who attempt to fiddle the system.

You say "A parent is not doing anything morally wrong trying to get their child a good education". I would agree provided they stick to the rules. You would not, I hope, condone a parent robbing a bank so that they can pay the fees to send their child to a top independent school. So clearly some actions a parent may take are morally wrong even if they are motivated by trying to get a good education for their child. What the OP is proposing involves lying on the application form. As far as I am concerned that is morally wrong whatever the motivation.

Its interesting most posters claim the 'punishment' for committing fraud to get into a good school is being forced to go to a s*t school. The scandal here is that there are s*t schools!

Another interesting claim is that there would be no s*t schools if middle class parents were forced to send their children to such schools. What a load of c*p. Schools are not bad because of the kids in them, schools are bad because of the head, the teachers, or maybe even the LA.

A parent is not doing anything morally wrong trying to get their child a good education. Its a an inherent evolutionary drive of all human beings. If this causes an outrage it should be directed at the education system we have and attempts to reform it made.

• previous address, blooming phone!

enlondon on a side note I really hope the people you called are not reading this thread as your buggered!

Did you with hold your number when you called? Most councils see and record the number you call from.

I contacted the la from my partners phone but left mine as contact number iyswim. They called back on his phone as tey had recorded it. If you called from a landline tey will be able to trace you to your precious address when you make your application and they will spot that you called asking how to successfully commit fraud...