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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To move out of rented house in catchment a month after DS starts school?

149 replies

Strawbsy · 08/08/2013 20:29

Hello,

My title sounds terrible and I expect I'm in for a flaming.

We moved into a rented house last month in the catchment of a very popular school that we wanted DS to go to. The council called today and offered him a place for September. We're couldn't be happier that a place came up so quickly.

BUT, we also just found a perfect flat to buy. It's large with a garden but a project that needs lots of work. This makes it within our price range and a bedroom more than we thought we could afford. The flat is further away from the school and almost definitely wouldn't have secured us a place for DS.

The councils do investigate families renting close by to get a place at a good school and I know that for this school they do a home visit to check you live where you say you live. I am worried DS school place will be withdrawn if the council see we moved out a few weeks or a month after he started school. What would you do? I am obviously working on the assumption that we offer on the great flat and it all works out.

OP posts:
QOD · 08/08/2013 22:05

Have you ever sold and bought? I think you're being a tad naive thinking you'll be moving soon!!
You've got to give your tenants notice, get them to agree to show the flat or have people looking, you may make an offer on this Great flat but you've not even got yours on the market. If I was the vendor, I'd tell you to go whistle until you were under offer too.

frogwatcher42 · 08/08/2013 22:06

Youarewinning - even to me what you suggest saying would sound suspicious if I was the LA.

Surely they would ask op why she didn't just continue to live in her old house until one she wanted came up to buy seeing as it was the same commuting distance to work. If op moved to area to test it out, liked it, got child into school, and then bought in area she is now renting in that seems ok. To move to area to test it out, like it, get child into school, and then move out of area out of school catchment seems dodgy doesn't it?

bringbackopalfruits · 08/08/2013 22:12

But she'd tried to buy in catchment. If the catchment is really small it's not unreasonable that she may end up buying outside of it. If catchment is 500m, that really limits the amount of properties available. So, she may buy somewhere 750m from the school. If the OP wants to buy 4-5 miles from the school, that is much dodgier ground.

CycleChic · 08/08/2013 22:12

Why are you looking at places to by before you have your old place on the market? Confused I do the same thing but it's more dreaming than really looking... well ok, it's looking but I know it's not gonna happen Put the old place on the market immediately, and when it sells, look again. By that point I'm a cynic/realist about the dire state of the housing market your DC should have been at the school long enough that catchement/out of catchment shouldn't matter :)

merrymouse · 08/08/2013 22:20

Put the old place on the market immediately

But apparently there are tenants who still have 11 months left to run on their agreement...

I think by the time you are in a position to buy somewhere new it will be next September.

BrokenSunglasses · 08/08/2013 22:24

You aren't doing anything wrong at all.

You can't pass up the chance of the perfect property just in case it looks bad to people who might not even check.

Is the flat in the schools official catchment area, even if distance criteria means its location wouldn't have got you a place?

Also, if you got a place from the waiting list, are you sure the distance criteria would have applied to you anyway?

youarewinning · 08/08/2013 22:26

frog I guess it depends on area. Where I live atm moving 35 miles is moving to a completely different area. I moved in the October during school application process for my DS. I moved a mile - therefore changed catchments. I have 6 schools near me 0.9m, 1m, 1.1m, 1.1m, 1.2, 1.2m.
DS catchment school is one of the ones 1.1miles away. The one that was our catchment is 1.2m away. If I moved 300m away I would change catchments!

takeaway2 · 08/08/2013 22:33

Yes where we are, 35 miles is another county and quite possibly another country even! For sure it'll be another LEA. If I moved a mile one direction we would be in another catchment area with totally different schools to pick from. If we moved 2 miles down the road we'd be in the same school as most of his other friends that he knew from nursery...

Mumsyblouse · 08/08/2013 22:37

There's no 'looking bad to the LEA' or moral reasoning about this, there's a set of rules you have to follow, so phone the LEA and explain your problem, whilst emphasizing that you are still in the catchment area and are likely to remain so for the next 6 months (you will not move that quickly). Just check it's fine, I'm sure it is. But do check for this time around and subsequent children, there's just no point speculating on this further, just ring them up (if they work the holidays) and ask.

MrsOakenshield · 08/08/2013 22:40

moving 3 or 4 years before DC starting may not have made any difference. Up until about 4 years ago our road was in the catchment area of a certain, well-regarded school. Great, we thought (I was pg, we'd already lived here for a number of years). Not any more, it isn't, catchment has shrunk by approx. 300 metres. Not something we could have predicted when I was pg.

We get 6 'choices' here, and certainly for last year we wouldn't have got into any (the closest, which for one reason and another we're not keen on) had more siblings than places, and all the rest we were out of the catchment. It's a fucking joke. People are being offered rubbish schools 3 bus rides away. And now the government have stopped any new schools being built. It is predicted in our borough that there will not be enough primary school places for Sept 2014 (when DD should start).

Will I play the system for all it's worth? Move into a catchment if necessary? You bet I will.

OP - as far as I know, if all your bills are in your new address, i.e. at time of offer that is your actual residence, then you should be fine. Good luck to you.

Mumsyblouse · 08/08/2013 22:53

You can also check this on the LEA website, it often has the criteria on there, in inner London boroughs they are often very stringent (though few get caught), in other parts of the country they may not be that fussed, I was told I could use a temporary address even though it didn't come to that in the end.

merrymouse · 08/08/2013 22:55

Agree Mumsyblouse.

MistressDeeCee · 09/08/2013 03:36

If school finds out although theyll be suspicious I cant see how theyd prove it, really. You are currently renting - and now have an opportunity to buy your own property/get on the housing ladder; thats why youre moving. Thats not so improbable a scenario..

enjolraslove · 09/08/2013 04:51

There are some very knowledgeable posters on the primary board who will be able to answer this better. But I would caution those saying 'they can't prove' you moved for the school that I don't think they matters. The lea doesn't have to prove anything if they suspect fraud they can (and do) remove places.

eccentrica · 09/08/2013 05:43

I agree with Mintyy and feel sorry for the children denied places because of people doing this.

Jenny70 · 09/08/2013 07:34

We live in area with v popular school (catchment 300m). What you're doing is fine by our local auth.

Lots of people move to the area, attracted in part by good schools. They choose a rental close to school whe they look to buy - sometimes this happens soon, sometimes not.

Moving back to old property might raise flags, or not having any possessions in rental place, but moving because you've bought is fine. If they want tochange the rules they can, but you are following the current rules.

EmmelineGoulden · 09/08/2013 08:10

I don't think there's any difference between renting a place near to a school you want your child to go to and buying one. You have to get on with your life, just because you're renting while looking for somewhere to buy doesn't mean you're trying to cheat the system (and the real problem is that there is a system that so many people feel will not be great for their children). Where is your DC supposed to go to school if not here? The place he has otherwise is presumably 35 miles away in your old town?

I have a friend who applied to our local (oversubscribed) school, then bought and moved out of area just after accepting the place - she had been looking out of area when they applied. There will be another child who won't get into our school now who lives a lot closer than they will be. But what was she supposed to do - she couldn't apply in the area she was looking to move to because she didn't live there and didn't know which schools she'd be close to. The school she has actually ended up closest to is also oversubscribed, so there's no way she would have got in there.

OP I think you'll be fine. Even if they investigate they won't take the place away from your child. If they thought what you had done was fraud they could prosecute you. But it's not fraud is it? You were there. You applied. You got the place. Now you may move. Nothing you did was fraudulent. But I think you'll be hard pressed to get your tennants out, find a buyer and close the sale in a couple of months. If you don't intend ever moving back to your old house and you do intend buying somewhere, get on with selling it ASAP. Chains can make house buying a complete pain.

Cheerymum · 09/08/2013 08:28

Agree with Emmeline Goulden. From what you describe, your intentions are genuine and your reasons for renting for a while are genuine. You have to apply where you are living. Entirely reasonable not to buy and sell simultaneously, especially in the current market. Put in your offer, the next move may or may not come to fruition in the timescale that could bother the LEA, and if you think it might and are anxious, contact them about it pro-actively as others have suggested.

ourlittlestreet · 09/08/2013 08:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheDoctrineOfAllan · 09/08/2013 08:39

First you need to agree with your own tenants what is happening. You could put your old place on the market with sitting tenants but they'd need to cooperate and it would reduce your number of buyers.

AmazingBouncingFerret · 09/08/2013 08:44

I've just read through the rest of this thread and want to add that I never moved into the catchment to secure a place at the good school. It was purely to allow us to save up the deposit to buy a house so we could move out of the too small flat! Honest! I'm not that much of a twat! Grin

tedmundo · 09/08/2013 08:51

How large is the school? Be prepared for a bit of gossipy backlash about moving out so quickly.

There will be kids who missed out on a place in the school, friends of the other reception pupils, and there may be a small amount of bad feeling.

This happened in my dc1 year and it still gets mentioned even now (year 2)!

I concur with all the posters above .. Phone the LEA.

Tweasels · 09/08/2013 08:57

I find this sort of stuff hilarious. I live about 100 metres from a newly created academy which is in huge demand. I've had notes put through my door asking if I'm willing to sell/let my property.

We've joked about renting it out to desperate parents for huuuge amounts of money.

I wouldn't though, because it goes against everything I believe in. Good schools should be accessible to all in the local community, this sort of stuff is exactly what drives the widens the gap and kills social mobility.

TheDoctrineOfAllan · 09/08/2013 08:58

Op I'd worry about it once you have an offer on your old flat and one accepted on a new flat - which may well be months.

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 09/08/2013 09:15

In 2006 we first had estate agents looking round our house on my husband's 29th birthday. We completed on our new house in 2007 on the day before my husband's 30th birthday.

I think it is unlikely that you'll be moving in October!

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