School place dilemma! Moving out of catchment temporarily

[Kitser]

Would really welcome any advice with the following:
We have just bought a place in Muswell Hill near a nice school and had planned on moving in this month. My DS is 5 goes into yr 1 in Sept. He is currently attending the school in our old neighbourhood in Camden but is first on the waiting list for the local school opposite the new house so may be offered a place anytime from now.
Our problem is that the house requires much more extensive building works than we had anticipated and it now looks like we will not be able to move in until end Sept. It will be our official residence and we will have mortgage statement, council tax and utility bills etc to show this but we will be living in temporary accommodation when school starts and any possible offer is made. My question is - would Haringey council withdraw an offer in these circumstances? should we reapply from our temporary accom? (obviously ensuring this is also in catchment). Should I contact the council and sound them out? Any advice much appreciated? Cheers

If it's going to be your official residence, then I don't think you need to say anything.

If you do nothing the risk is that someone will tell Haringey that your house is unoccupied which could lead to the place being withdrawn even after your son starts at this school on the basis that your application was misleading. Your application must give the address at which your child normally lives and that is clearly not this house at the moment. I would talk to Haringey's admissions team about this.

I would agree with PRH.
Speak to Harringey and tell them that you are the owner, that it is your full time residence but that building work has overrun because more work was required than anticipated. That you are in temporary accomodation at present but that the anticipated date of moving back in is before the end of September.
I would be tempted to put it in terms of can they note that they should phone you if anything comes up in terms of the preferred school because of being in this temporary accomodation, rather than you are concerned that this will affect any offer. All LAs have people having temporary moves for building work etc, so they must have a general policy on such things.

Sorry for the delayed response - been without internet for 6 weeks! Thanks so much - followed the advice to contact the council and they were fine. Their policy allows you to move out temporarily in these circumstances and - once you formally let them know dates etc - this does not affect school application.