Friend of a friend renting for school places...

[DoodleNoo]

Ive recently found out that a friend of a friend is renting her own house out and renting another house to live at, well within the very tight catchment of her preferred secondary school, in another part of our London Borough.

I don't know all the details and to be fair I do know that the family has been toying with the idea of moving away for a long time, so I could be generous and assume that they are ultimately planning to buy in the area where the preferred school is. But it still seems unfair that they are jumping the queue to this sought after school.

When I see her in the mornings, dropping her children at primary school near to their old /actual home), I feel so repulsed that I can't bring myself to speak to her.

Am I being unreasonable? I think I feel it all the more acutely as my own DD is applying to secondary school this year and we have been honest and realistic with our choices, even though there is a good chance that we might not particularly like what we end up with.

I don't see how it's depriving another child of a place therugratref. If they don't live within the catchment how are they entitled to a place? Lots of people I know have moved to get into a decent catchment area. It follows that the house prices and rent are higher as a result, which in principal isn't fair. That's life though I'm afraid.

I can't see how's she done anything wrong tbh.

So if she bought a house near school would you still be 'repulsed' at the queue jumping or is that ok?

Yanbu. Its disgraceful the way the system can be cheated like this.

Not necessarily Bramshott.

The housing market isn't great and the costs associated with a move are pretty high.

Maybe they didn't put their old house on the market because they haven't found one they actually want to buy yet in the new area?

Bram there could be all sorts of reasons for not putting their house on the market at the moment, they may be planning to do it in the spring, it may be that they'll make more from renting out old place than they'll spend in renting new place so it makes sense to keep the old place and not buy in the new area. There may not be any houses to buy in the new area atm, so why spend money putting a house on the market?

They might have put their house on the market and discovered like others it is not going to sell fir anything like they paid for it. Hey presto you have reluctant landlords who have no option but to rent their house out and rent in the area they want to be.

I considered doing the same when we lived in London. In the end we moved out so we had a better choice of schools as where we lived the schools were dire. It seemed at the time that although it was cheating the system that it was a better option.

Repulsed

What are you on about?? She's living within the catchment area. Wind your neck in.

Because the second the child gets it's place at the desired school they hot foot it back to their real house which is in a more desirable area with a shit secondary school which they don't want their little darling to go to.
Meanwhile the child who was just a little bit too far away ends up at the shite school because it is the nearest school with places and a longer commute.

I have no objection to people who genuinely move into catchment area's build their lives there and become part of the community. I really object to people who pretend to move and then go back to the nice suburb they never had any intention of leaving once the prize school is secured.

But the OP says they have been thinking of moving away for a long time, so they obviously aren't happy with they're living and probably do intend to leave their current suburb.

with respect though we don't know if this is the case here

"Yanbu. Its disgraceful the way the system can be cheated like this."

How has she cheated? By moving house?

The thing is therugratref, you cannot regulate how long people live in one place. People are allowed to move house whilst their children are at school.

Maybe they can't afford to buy nearer the good school.

There's nothing wrong with what she's done. She wants her children to go to a certain school so she moved closer to it.

You just sound very bitter.

It sounds to me like you would like to be able to do the same thing and are angry that you can't.

Personally I think it's a bit ridiculous to go to such lengths but I wouldn't be repulsed by someone who did it.

You need to deal with your own feelings on the issue and not project your worries about your own children's school choices onto this woman.

YABU. It's none of your business, and frankly, my child's education would matter more to me than anyone else's opinion. I would do the exact same thing. She's not cheating, she's living there now.

I think most people just rent for 6 months so they have proof of where they live so get into the school but go back to their original house.

No you cant regulate it. I still think it is morally wrong.

Another one who doesn't see the problem. If they are actually living there, they are being genuine.

People definitely do cheat the system. I live near one such school, possibly the same one as the op talks about. They rent for a year and then move away outside the catchment having got their pfb and any subsequent siblings into the school. It happens all the time and it just means that house prices in the catchment are ridiculously over-inflated and the lucky people who own flats in the catchment are making a killing. Of course the op's acquaintance may stay in the catchment after her child has got a place, but why would you when you could buy a house for £100,000 less about a mile away?

Maybe you just feel sick that you didn't put yourself to all the trouble it to do that? Some people let things happen to them in this life. Other people take action. I hope your choice to leave things up to fate pays off, but you shouldn't be repulsed by her for upping her odds.