Am I mad?

[Pilo]

Single parent here. In October I need to apply for my DDs secondary school, and I’ve realised it’s extremely unlikely we’ll get in to our local catchment school due to numbers, distance and it being a ‘bulge’ year for applications. We’re likely to get given a failing school further away in a roughish area and I’m worried about it, obviously.
Instead, I’m thinking of renting out my house and renting somewhere near a much better school for 12-18 months. To fund it, I’d have to take £10-12k out of my house mortgage, to give me enough to cover the difference in rent and a buffer in case something goes wrong like the boiler blows up or something. I’ve got minimal savings and a largish mortgage on a house but the value on this has gone up by around £100k in the past 4 yrs I’ve owned it.

I’ve also realised that I’d be paying 40% tax on my rental income too, as the rules on tax relief for landlords have changed significantly. Financially it’s a killer really.
Any thoughts? Feels like a mad move but the alternative seems pretty poor. She’s my only DD so I want to do my best for her. Her dad won’t help so it’s down to me.

Is there no way at all you could sell your current house and buy somewhere nearer instead, even if it’s not as nice/big as your current house wouldn’t that be better?

I would do whatever I could do legally to get my kid into a great free secondary school

I'm pretty sure this isn't allowed - I think the only way you could do it is to sell up completely and then either rent or buy near your chosen school. If you retain the house they'll look into it further. I take it your plan is to move back to your own house once you've secured the place? Not really in the spirit...

If you still own and use the original address (ie doctor, electoral roll, council tax) it is unlikely LA will accept another for admissions purposes.

I think you may find it isn't allowed. You may need to sell up and move instead.

Is there a risk and you move (buy or rent) and your child doesn’t get in anyway. That happens in the oversubscribed schools in my area. Moving to the area doesn’t guarantee a place.

To answer a PP, no I wouldn’t necessarily move back to our house. But I’d want to get a school place before selling up our home and uprooting us. It’s important to make clear that we’d be living properly at our new rental address, registering with a new GP and so on. At the moment I’m locked into a mortgage fix though, so I don’t want to lose even more ££ in redemption fees by selling up.

I’ve checked with the council and I’ve been quite open about moving and what they’d need from me, which is a tenancy agreement and utility bill for the new address, and a closure agreement for my current owned address ie end of gas bill or similar, plus letting agreement for the tenants in my house.

We would basically be living ‘properly’ at our new address. The dodgy or unethical bit, depending on your viewpoint, is when people rent a small 1 bedroom flat just to get the address and have no intention of ever living there. We wouldn’t be in that camp.

It was more the financial aspect I was worried about, rather than the school place/address angle, but hopefully the above makes our position clearer on that.

If you've done your "homework" as you've described and would genuinely then sell up rather than move back it sounds a potentially worthwhile option. Make sure you've considered carefully what information you have on the target school and that what makes it a much better school is likely to work for your daughter.

The other thing would be to check that you can get permission to rent from your lender. Hopefully if the timescale is time limited like this they will be amenable.

I would do it. Whilst it’s a large upheaval overall it’s a small sacrifice to make for the best free education for your daughter. I would suggest you move as soon as you are able to so that you have all the required documentation for your new home address such as council tax bills etc. PPs have noted this isn’t allowed but if you have properly rented out your current home you would have no post etc going there and all to the current home. You may need to produce a rental agreement to show you have rented out your old home. If you are no longer living there and someone else is whilst the local authority may not like it there’s nothing they can do. A fraudulent application would be one where someone rents a second home but doesn’t move into it or doesn’t properly move in and keeps their first home. I live near a grammar school which only accepts from certain postcodes and on application you can state you will move by x date (I think January in the year they’d start) into those postcodes so the local authority there obviously accept but they do say it needs to be a proper move and the evidence I’ve noted above will be requested.

Sorry I hadn’t read your update. Financially only you can decide if you can afford it but if you can afford it I would do it. It’s better than sending her to the failing school and then potentially regretting not making the move or trying to scrimp money together for private fees if that could ever be an option.

I think your better option would be to wait and see if your daughter gets into her first choice school and if she doesn't then you have a right to appeal.
This is a massive upheaval just for a chance to get into a school, what if you do all that and she doesn't get in?

I would do whatever I could do legally to get my kid into a great free secondary school
I didn't and that was the best decision I made.

OP, unless the other school is indeed very very bad and none of school years are likely to be there too, I would ignore your plans.

Being a landlord is a nightmare. Gas, electricity, EPC checks. Then you'll have to decide whether to pay for an agency or manage yourself. If using an agency, that's another 10% of fees, in addition to the 40% tax. Add the above checks, insurance, a buffer for repairs, will the 40% or so left even cover the mortgage? Would you be able to get a BTL mortgage? If not, will you get permission to rent?

Then you have to consider the sad facts of being a landlord. What happens if they stop paying? Sublet and get dodgy people in. Neighbours complaints, police involvement. What if they destroy your house. Then you have to be 100% certain you are doing everything by the books. A small tiny error protecting the deposit could see you having to pay them up to 3 months rent. How would you cope with the above?

Then you might find that they are not moving when you've given them notice to move back, what happens then?

Few schools are so bad that it would be worse on your daughter than having a stressed, helpless mum in financial difficulties. At worse, you can put her on the waiting list for the other school. Even if oversubscribed, most will be able to offer a place after a few months.

You can transfer your mortgage, even if it's in a fixed rate, if you sell house. I did it years ago with one I had just fixed. They allowed me to hold it for a short period between selling and buying my new place as well (I moved back into parents house for a few months as it was a move back home from the other side if the country so there was a 5 month gap.) So if you sold you wouldn't necessarily have to pay redemption fees.