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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Buy BTL house for postcode for secondary? Please help

331 replies

Schoolhousemystery · 15/12/2023 12:26

Please tell me if I got it right or wrong in my head! I think there is probably something I have not considered well.

We live in a house which we bought and we have a mortgage.

We have saved around £100k which we can use for a deposit for another house.

Our kids are early KS1 years but we don't have a good comp secondary around - we live in a heavy grammar area.

Would it be a strategic move to buy a second property close to a good comp secondary, have a buy-to-let mortgage on it , and use this address for the secondary applications? It will work well for most grammars anyway.

Would it matter that someone else would live in there as the mortgage would be buy-to-let? If we get a place to that school we will move there but since the primary is next door to our house we wouldn't like to move from now. And we don't want the money to sit in our account forever.

This house would be used from us as a back-up if our kids won't do well in the grammar results.

AIBU - There is something I am missing and we can't use an address that someone else lives even if we own that property

AINBU - You can use the address of your hypothetical BTL property

OP posts:

GoodlifeGlow · 21/12/2023 13:37

Why don’t you rent in the new area a year before applying? Get your name on the bills so you have proof. If anyone asks you and your husband have “separated”. Once your kids have a place you can “get back together”.

Or just save up and go private. Less hassle and you can live where you want.

UbiquitousPenguin · 21/12/2023 14:18

GoodlifeGlow · 21/12/2023 13:37

Or just save up and go private. Less hassle and you can live where you want.

Because it’s dishonest. I suppose it depends what you want to teach your DC about how to behave in life. With teaching morals you really need to walk the talk for it to stick.

MereDintofPandiculation · 21/12/2023 14:22

aramox1 · 16/12/2023 16:35

The system is planned precisely to stop you gaming it. You aren't meant to have a free choice- you're meant to go to one of your nearest schools.

You don’t have a right to choose. You have a right to state a preference.

Youcannotbeseriousreally · 21/12/2023 14:23

Schoolhousemystery · 15/12/2023 12:53

I came here for some serious advice. When I started the thread I didn't have a clue about all this.

Please try to help and don't be judgemental. I am not stupid enough to do something illegal, I am just trying to understand the options.

So, what people do? If we relocate on time, then we would have to live to this property for the duration of year 6 essentially? So to move the summer before the applications?

And as I have a younger kid who would be year 3 in our current primary, would I have to drive 30' back and forth everyday for this year?

Is this what people do to secure a good school for their kids?

People buy houses with this in mind in the first place. I’ve had 4 houses since my kids were born, all within 3 miles of each other. All within the catchment to the outstanding secondary school. I had a plan for them and I stuck to it.

this is not a hard one. Just move. Move their schools now and then you’ll be where you need to be. Your ideas of how to circumnavigate the system are positively bonkers!

greengreengrass25 · 21/12/2023 15:50

GoodlifeGlow · 21/12/2023 13:37

Or just save up and go private. Less hassle and you can live where you want.

That's honest

FaiIureToLunch · 21/12/2023 15:54

You could at least be legitimate and just send your kids private op 🤷‍♀️

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