School application from rented address - nothing council can do?

I think all methods of attempting to butt the system are morally unsound and very unfair to those who abide by the rules.

I'm amazed the council has said there is nothing they can do, as I was under the impression that places could be withdrawn if it's discovered that someone has tried to circumvent the system.

This is all wrong. The admissions system is set up to keep privilege entrenched. We need a massive change in how we allocate school places so we can stop wealthy parents buying/renting houses to get into good schools.

Get rid of grammar, religious, free, academy schools etc. and put the council in charge of them all. Parents should be forced to send their children to the local school, good or not. That is the only way we will all be equal. Get rid of the idiotic needs improvement Ofsted ranking and invest in our schools until they are all good.

It may not be the Council that is the Admissions Authority. It may be the school itself, as is often the case with RC, some C of E and all "Aided" Schools and lots of academies. It is a total mess really.

I'll be honest with you, after finding out that our dd's first choice catholic secondary school had changed its criteria last year, which means it's now touch and go whether dd will get a place, we too considered renting closer to the school but couldn't go through with it as it's morally wrong. We own our house and didn't want to sell it and move as it's taken us years to get it how we want, so we are just hoping for the best.

I don't see how councils can allow people to do this though. Fair enough if you rent a home and then move to another rented how closer to the school but if you own a house then that is the address that should be used for the application. Dd's primary is a feeder for the secondary we want her to go to and we had a phone call in November to double check we lived there and apparently the council do this for everyone, so it's very unlikely we'd have gotten away with it had we have chosen to rent close by but also keep our house.

I know a very well off family who have sold their family home (as the school requires rental applications to show proof of sale of their previous home). They have rented one of the very few family homes available next door to a semi selective, extremely sought after school that only offers a handful of 'distance' places. They plan to gain a place for their youngest and then buy back in the area where they were previously. The school has a non catchment sibling policy, therefore their other children will all attend the school.

The 'distance' places are supposed to be offered to local children, to keep a sense of fairness, with regards the local community. They say they have done nothing wrong as some parents are using their childrens academic strengths to gain an advantage, whereas they are using their financial advantage!

Many councils have rules explicitly banning from applying from rented whilst still owning a house nearby.
To be honest I'm a bit shocked if they don't all have such rules.

The council in question can't have seen the documentary last year showing how many people are "caught" doing this by specifically employed people who check applications and addresses etc. A couple of families on the documentary were caught out IIRC.