AIBU to rent out my house so I can rent a house in a better area with a better school?

[BatCrapCrazy]

We are homeowners, currently living in a bit of a "rough" area. Currently not in a position to buy again (DP just gone self employed, I'm taking a year out next year to do PGCE).
DC are 4 and 5 and their school (just up the road from us) has just had another bad inspection. We are in the catchment area for another school but that one doesn't appear to be much better. I've had concerns about the school from day 1 really but wanted to see how they settled in.
We have a beautiful house but the street we live on is quite busy and we get a lot of "riffraff" passing through.
I'm desperate to live in the village I grew up in but to buy there isn't possble for the foreseeable. The house we live in now is worth about 145k. The same house in said village would be closer to 350k.
We have talked about ways to be able to move to the village. The village has a fantastic primary school and is in catchment area for the best comprehensive in the region. We decided to keep an eye out for a house to rent in the village with a view to renting ours out.

A house has come up for rent in the village. It's a beautiful little house and it's up for £725pm. We had a valuation on ours for £675pm so we wouldn't be paying out an awful lot more a month. Our house is a 4 bed with 2 small reception rooms and a massive kitchen but a crap garden (courtyard garden, no sun). The village house is 3 bedrooms, small kitchen, one big reception room but the most beautiful garden backing onto the beautiful church).

Do you think we should go for it?

If you think its a better choice for your family, then go for it. But do be realistic about being a landlord and all the possible costs involved, it sounds like you need to do some more research into the practicalities.

Sounds perfect. Do it!

Absolutely.
The choices you make for the children now will stand them in good stead for the rest of their lives.

We are already landlords, we own 2 other houses so we know all about the practicalities. Have already spoken to bank about switching mortgage to a buy to let and they said it shouldn't be a problem.
My only doubt is the size of the house.
We would need a massive clear out! But the kids education is so important To us. It's such a difficult decision. Houses in this village don't come up for rent often so we need to jump at this one really. Now is the time to move the kids to new school really (DS Just going into reception and DD going into year 1)

Does the village primary school have places?

Does the school have places so your children could go there? How many months could you survive if your house was standing empty or for any reason you were not receiving rent? Have you considered additional costs ie gas safety checks and servicing, landlords insurance etc?

Do a lot more research on the costs involved. By the time you have paid insurances, any taxes, accounted for void periods, held a sum back for required repairs etc, you are likely to be seeing quite a bit less than that 725. Could you cover a substantially bigger shortfall every month?

Also, is there space in the new school? You would get bumped up waiting lists by being nearer, but you will only get in if there is space. And if there is space, you could take the spaces from where you are now.

Finally, watch the criteria on catchment for secondaries. Some oversubscribed LEAS check for other properties owned in the area and will take the owned property as the home address not the rented one; it's a while away of course and things could change but bear it in mind.

Yes we could afford a few months without rent. The mortgage is tiny and DP earns a very good wage and we do have some savings. The school does have space for them but they are very strict on catchment area so wouldn't be able to put them there while we live here. It also wouldn't be realistic due to distance and commuting to work etc.

Bear in mind the rules are going to change on mortgage tax relief - make sure this doesn't skew things for you.

It depends on the distances involved - it may be impractical from your pov to live where you are and take the children to school in the village you like but, from the LA's pov, would it be seen as a "temporary move" and would they measure the distance from your current home? Unless the village is many, many miles from your current home, I would be very wary of doing this.

It's not many many miles, it's about 8 miles. I have just emailed the headteacher as the school deals directly with their own admissions.

I think you should post on one of the education boards - there are regulars who really know their way around these sorts of issues. Imo (live in inner London area where every place at a halfway decent school is oversubscribed and fought over), eight miles sounds as if it might be a bit of a grey area.

If the school has spaces then they have to take any applicants-no matter how far away from the school they live! They can't hold spaces in case someone moves closer!

That's true but my understanding was that they had spaces and BatCrap would be at the top of the list if she moved to the house in the village.

And what do you do if down the line your LL wants you out for whatever reason?

If the landlord wanted us out then we would have to move back. The information that the estate agent has given me is that the landlord is looking for a long term tenant as the house has been bought as an investment that the landlord will want to cash in upon retirement (he is mid thirties apparently).

you 'own' 2 other houses
why not sell those and buy where you want to live in the catchment area of the school you like. being a landlord with a 'portfolio' is not as important as your children's education.

The one house is jointly owned with PIL (it's a house with basement flat. We are responsible for the house, they are responsible for the flat) so can't sell unless they agree (which they won't). The house and flat can't be sold seperately, we have looked into it. The other house is tenanted by a young family and we wouldn't want to turf them out. And there isn't enough equity in this house alone for us to put a desposit on a house in that area. The plan is to build up our savings and to sell the house we own with PIL in about 5 years (they are willing to sell then).
We have explored all avenues. Renting is definately the best option. The "portfolio of properties" is for the benefit of our DC in the future. We don't make a profit on them as any "profit" is set aside for repairs, annual insurances, safety reports etc.

You ought to check with the admissions experts on the education boards as the LA may decide you are renting solely to get a place in the school and decide to use your current address regardless.

Depends on the rules of your local authority. Where I live, if you own a home they would use that as your permanent address rather than a rental. They would be especially vigilant if you'd moved from the catchment of a poor school to a good one. It might not be like that near you though... round here it's nature red in tooth and claw for the best school places, with some catchments being around 200m

If you can get away with it, it sounds like a good idea. It sounds like you genuinely want to live in the village and stay there rather than doing it as a temporary measure in a cynical bid for a school place. Put like that, it's no different to all the other parents who bought a house in their preferred school catchment - that's what we did.