Renting in catchment area and owning outside it

It's cheating because you are cheating someone else out of a place. Your son getting a place via your "plan" costs someone else. It's as simply as that.

I’m fairly sure I’m not the only person in the world that has ever moved into an area specifically because of the schools.

Sigh. Of course you're not. And it's perfectly legitimate. But other people actually sell the previous home. Keeping it and renting elsewhere is cheating 101.

What a coincidence that the one he’d like to attend is the one out of three which happens to be outstanding.
I really hope you don’t get burnt by this; his anxiety won’t be helped by being removed from school a couple of weeks into the first term, if you get that far.

Only having a 6 month rent in the house you will be applying from is going to raise "red flags" and especially so if it is near a school that is oversubscribed. Near me there is a primary school which is always over subscribed with a row of small cottages opposite. If anybody applies for a place from any of these cottages then this is automatically "red-flagged" at the LA who have had plenty of past experience of renting to get a school place in these cottages.One estate agent even boasts that they are rented out for this purpose but now the application is rarely successful!
I would definitely consider extending the rental period till 12 months if at all possible because it gives more confidence to the LA that this genuine.
It is questionable which of having the house up for sale on October 31st and having it rented out for at least a twelve month period is going to be more acceptable to the LA. I would suspect it is a long rental period but that would only be a guess.

I think OP is overly worried about her dc moving to secondary school without peers. Most dc I know make new friends at secondary school and don’t stick with their primary school friends. Plenty of dc move to schools where they know no one and do just fine.

What’s so wrong with just staying put?

IIRC the only group of people for whom future intention to move is acceptable for Admissions are Forces families, when the move is evidenced by posting order or CO's letter.

" How can the LA give a place based on House A, when DS is not physically living there?"

When there are two addresses, it is up to the LEA to determine which is the valid one for admissions purposes. parents can go to appeal if they do not think the LEA has acted correctly. But given the number which specify that it will be the owned address that is used, people shouid be realistic about chances of success.

If it is a temporary move because the owned property is uninhabitable, then a conversation with a manager in Admissions (not necessarily whoever picks up the phone) wouid be worthwhile to determine which address to use, and get the decision in writing

Moves from owned to rental much closer to more desirable school are very likely to be scrutinised. Especially if the rental is let out every year to families with DC of admission age.

Playing devil's advocate.

If OP moves out of House A (but still owns) that is an outstanding secondary area and rents the property out. She then moves into House B that is in a good secondary area with DS's friends nearby. How can the LA give a place based on House A, when DS is not physically living there?

We rented when our house was being renovated. It was uninhabitable. Both addresses were in the catchment of good primary schools. We put down the address we were physically living at as I did not want the LA knocking on a door that clearly our DS was not residing at and would not be for another year. As it happened, we renovated and sold up, so DS never lived at the house we owned, only the one we rented. It would have felt wrong to take a place from a child in that area, just because we owned the house...on the other hand we could have moved back and lived there for the next 10 years. It is a tricky one for LAs.

I would say a 6 months rental contract will look suspicious.

Of course it doesn’t matter whether posters here believe you or not.
But the point posters are trying to make and that you’re not listening to, is that the admissions board won’t believe you either.
And they don’t have to listen to your sob story; just apply the same rules to you as they will to everybody else.

Op

I’m not trying to scare or upset you, I live on the cusp of Derby city and Derbyshire authorities and educate one child under each authority so have local insight as this is happens often here both at primary and secondary

I merely giving you insight into people who’ve gone before within your authority and how they have faired

It’s a well recognised route around Ecclesbourne, Littleover and chellaston and your set up will raise flags, I live 5 houses away from a rotating property used for a certain primary and it’s well recognised now as are other rental properties around Derby

I really do wish you well, I’m just trying to point out that they’ve seen this many times and will be suspicious

It's not Littleover is it? As that is heavily oversubscribed now because it's one of the few schools on Derby that is not failing

Seriously, no one is trying to be difficult, but what you are saying you are going to do is EXACTLY what LAs want to avoid.

It's fair enough that you intend to stay in catchment but everyone says that!

You might get away with it, but you really might not.

You are playing the system and that often backfires! (Rightly so!)

I think they will view a 6 month rental as very dodgy, and if renting from September you could if something happens be not in the property on allocations day at the start of March

Honestly OP, just reading as someone who has no involvement with LAs or allocating schools, you do sound like ypu are trying to do something dodgy.

In one breath you say you want to keep the house for your son and in another you say you intend to buy in catchment but the reason ypu haven't done it is because you didn't want to have a bigger mortgage. Well owning 2 houses, even with a tenant in one will mean that you have a much bigger mortgage, or two!

I agree if you mean to rent you should get your current house on the market, get a rental with a long lease and do it soon. And even then I would still be worried until I got the offer.

Good luck with your conversation in Monday and yes, get it in writing or ask her to tell you exactly what sentence in the admissions criteria she is relying on to give you the advice she is giving. Take detailed notes of the phone conversation

Do you have a contingency plan for being allocated a school based on your permanent home? What will you do if the only school left is a really bad one? It is not a gamble I would take.

What you are proposing to do, does carry a level of risk because so many LAs have been tricked in the past around rental properties and owned properties. More and more LAs will insist on using the address of the owned property, no matter what the circumstances . I do not know what Derbyshires policy is on this and even if you get it confirmed in writing, what the admission office might do with your application, when it actually comes to allocation of a place, may be different from what they have said to you.

I would get into the rented accommodation well in front of the 31st October deadline for on-time applications, so that you can ask for the three preferences that you want as secondary schools. Ideally you should sell the owned house (and i can see all sorts of issues around giving it to your son in the future but that is a different conversation) by 31st October but being realistic that is not going to happen. You should therefore get it rented out before the 31st October, with a rental period that is at least a year, so that it shows that you will not be moving back into it before your child starts at the school.
Normally the LA has a further later date than 31st October (often the middle of December) which is for people moving houses but I cannot find that in any of the literature for Derbyshire LA, so you do need to be very sure that everything is organised by October 31st or you will potentially be treated as a late application and go to the back of the admission queue.

You need to check the admissions policy for the school or LA if still under LA control. Where I live you have to have live at the current address 18months prior to application and submit council tax bill, 2 utility bills, bank statements and rental agreement or Morgage statement for those 18months.
Good luck