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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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:
Waspie · 15/12/2023 13:36

Schoolhousemystery · 15/12/2023 12:46

The problem is that this second house is about 30min drive from the primary school! How would that work? Would we drive 30min every day for two years back and forth in order to get an address for an application?

Yes. You need to be living in (council tax records, registered to vote, doctors, school records etc.) and let the other property that you are currently living in (to show that you don't live there) for a period of time (local authority specific) before you apply for secondary. Don't forget that you apply for a school place nearly a year before they start in year 7.

We moved 18 months before DS started secondary so that we would be within catchment of a secondary school for this reason.

SauronsArsehole · 15/12/2023 13:36

Well done for highlighting how the kids of families who can’t buy their way into anything get shafted.

don’t be a dick OP. You risk fucking up any future tenants and your kids chances (they’ll be given any school left over if you cheat the system because you lied)

AhBiscuits · 15/12/2023 13:37

Just move temporarily. I've known plenty of people who moved just long enough to get through the admissions process then left again. Getting into a school isn't a promise to stay living somewhere forever.

Mirabai · 15/12/2023 13:39

You might as well spend the money on private school if there’s no good comp and they don’t get into the grammars.

Flamingo68 · 15/12/2023 13:40

It baffles me that someone could earn enough to upkeep two properties, one empty, for years…and yet still be asking these questions.

CurlewKate · 15/12/2023 13:40

@Desdemona44 "This has to be one of the most batshitly middle class threads I've ever read on here"

I don't think it's particularly middle class-it's more offensive and cringeworthy and shamelessly corrupt. Regardless of class.

SuspiciousSue · 15/12/2023 13:45

Donning hard hat 🍿 🍿

Elfandwellbeing · 15/12/2023 13:45

In 10 years on mn this is one of most goading threads I have read. You bloody well know the score and are either assuming yourself or trying to fiddle the system which means a child in their local area won’t get a space at their own local school. You are are trying to be a thief of their chances, you have the money to transport your dc, what if a child whose place you took really struggles for transport costs or walks miles to the next school. Ffs selfishness is all yours today.

PrimalLass · 15/12/2023 13:47

It's not about what you own, it's about where you actually live.

Zanatdy · 15/12/2023 13:48

Someone I know rented out their house and rented a house in catchment for 3yrs until both their kids got into the secondary of their choice. She was glad they did when her friends were all complaining their kids were in a failing local school. Expensive but cheaper than buying another house and leaving it empty. You’d need to time it ready for the application

Original poster
Schoolhousemystery · 15/12/2023 13:49

Many responses here are very judgemental. I honestly had no idea how bad this is, and we are not intending to do it, of course, I was just trying to understand the options.

We are not from the UK and we don't know how the system works. We won't try to trick the system if it's something illegal.

Please stop criticising someone that asked for advice, like they have already committed a crime!

I asked if this can happen, I challenged it, I got the answers I wanted. I understood it's illegal and end of story.

OP posts:
alwaysbreaks · 15/12/2023 13:51

Blimey OP if your children have your brains I doubt they are going to get into a grammar school so I’d just move 😂

QueenMegan · 15/12/2023 13:52

Our area is in an outstanding school catchment. Due to this houses are over priced. There is a flat over a launderette close by where 7 children were registered as living. As obviously kids talk and they were reported. They didn't lose their place not sure what happened to parents.
Is it worth it? It's fraud

saffy2 · 15/12/2023 13:53

Schools require definitive proof that you live at the address. Council tax, bills etc. we moved during the primary allocations and I had to provide bills etc along with our completion email along with details of how long we’d been on the market to show we didn’t just move to get into the school!

QueenMegan · 15/12/2023 13:55

You sound utterly niave if you base your decision on an ofsted report because mostly sadly sustained excellent ofsteds drive house prices. So I'm surprised the cheaper area is so.

snoopyfanaccountant · 15/12/2023 13:55

I'm in Scotland and when I registered mine for primary school I had to show proof of address via CB letter and a recent utility bill. Would go to the hassle of re-registering for CB at an empty house? If no one is living in the house a CT bill would show no charge in many areas and would be picked up on by the school. Is it really worth all this hassle to commit fraud?
If you have the money to buy a house in the area, do it and live in it - move your DC to a school near it rather than commuting half an hour each way.

Pipsquiggle · 15/12/2023 13:55

Mirabai · 15/12/2023 13:39

You might as well spend the money on private school if there’s no good comp and they don’t get into the grammars.

@Mirabai IMO the problem with private schools in grammar school areas, they tend to be pretty mediocre as the grammars have creamed off the bright local DC.

Unless they could send them further afield

TiredCatLady · 15/12/2023 13:56

This is so batshit, I really hope it’s not real.

Dogsandbabies · 15/12/2023 13:58

I am a school governor and part of admissions. We check applications against council tax information. So it would be flagged if you are not in the council tax bill of the rental or even if you leave it empty and appear in two houses.

Roundycippae · 15/12/2023 13:59

You could try but you have to live there, pay the council tax, bills, make sure stuff is in your name despite having tenants and any tenants who pay council tax, vote or have kids will flag up.
And it’s fraud. If I heard of someone doing that I would report them- so you’d have to keep it quiet but you may have parents wondering how you got your kid in that particular school out of catchment. When theirs didn’t get in. And telling the school/s or council.
Good luck. You’ll need it.

threelittlescones · 15/12/2023 14:01

This is one of the most "Mumsnetty" things I've ever read on here. Buying an entire second house as a backup to get into a school 😂

For what it's worth though, crack on. I don't think you'll get taken to court over it.

Dogsandbabies · 15/12/2023 14:02

We moved 30 mins away at the end of year 4 to enter the grammar catchment we wanted and drove back and forth to primary school. It was tough going with a full time job and toddlers but it worked out amazing in the end. We have a great house and all the children are in excellent schools.

Roundycippae · 15/12/2023 14:03

‘Please stop criticising someone that asked for advice, like they have already committed a crime!’

It’s an emotive subject. We ALL want good education for our kids, and shitbags gaming the system cos they have a bit more ££ and taking school places they aren’t entitled to is infuriating.

I don’t of a single parent who wouldn’t turn you in if they knew of your plan.

Africa2go · 15/12/2023 14:09

OP I haven't read the whole thread so it may have been mentioned already but schools here now require utility bills from the last 3 months in your name - showing the energy / water consumption - for exactly the reasons you've mentioned - that people keep an "empty" house just in case, live somewhere else, but put all the bills in their name thinking thats enough.

As others have set out, if you want to be in the area of a good comp / secondary school, you move before you apply for secondary schools and suck up the commute back to primary school for a while.

Don't play the system - you'll get found out (even if you think you can hide it from the Local Authority, children will talk about where they live, parents who suspect you're living elsewhere will report you).

YYURYYUCICYYUR4ME · 15/12/2023 14:14

As a governor, of an over-subscribed primary school, we checked and visited each applicant! Yes, we caught out a few who'd used friends / relative's addresses.