Moving after offer day - risk of withdrawl?

[OnePearlFish]

Hi, hoping someone knowledgeable can help (perhaps @prh47bridge if still around).

We’ve been offered a place at a local primary based on our current address, where we’ve lived for over 3 years. It's oversubscribed with a small catchment.

We submitted our application in December. In January, a house we had previously offered on came back to us unexpectedly. We pursued it, and exchanged a day after offer day, with completion in July. (July completion was dictated by the upper chain)

The new house is further away (outside the initial offer distance).

Local borough guidance says 'If your child has moved after the offer was made and before the start of the academic year, the offer will be reassessed and may be withdrawn', but the Admissions Code suggests withdrawal is limited to fraudulent or misleading applications.

Our application address was genuinely our home at the time and will continue to be until July or August, depending on the work we do to the house.

Has anyone LAs successfully withdraw offers in these situations? I feel in a very delicate situation and am panicked.

Thank you!

I suppose it depends on the LA but you usually need to prove proof of address over the next month or two (which you’ll still have). I would then not bother updating your address with the school until well into the academic year?

The Admissions Code has the force of law. A place cannot be withdrawn simply because a child has moved after the offer was made. Unfortunately, that doesn't stop some LAs from trying. I have represented parents at appeals where LAs tried to argue that moving after the offer was made meant that the application was deliberately misleading. In every case the appeal was successful.

This move could legitimately trigger the LA to investigate to see if your original application used a false address, but it cannot on its own justify removing the place that has been offered. In the situation you describe, you should not encounter any problems. If the LA does try to withdraw the place I would expect any appeal panel to restore the place.

How would they know unless you tell them?

I would strongly recommend telling them. Not telling them could be viewed as suspicious and as evidence that the application was fraudulent.

If you tell them your moving before her intake , they may turn round and say “ you don’t live in the area now”

I would say nothing, then when they start school (sept ? ) you can tell them you’ve moved.
if they query this just say
we only moved to new house in July/aug
how do they know your a buyer, a renter
none of there business

This is very poor advice.

If OP doesn't tell them, they will clearly find out when her child starts at the school. At this point the LA may conclude that the original application was fraudulent and take the child's place away. OP will be able to appeal, but the question for the appeal panel is not whether the LA was right, it is whether the LA has acted reasonably. The panel may well conclude that OP's failure to tell the LA of her move means the LA's decision to treat her application as fraudulent and take the place away was reasonable.

If OP tells them at the time of her move and they try to take the place away without any other evidence of a fraudulent application, the LA will clearly be acting unreasonably and in breach of the Admissions Code. An appeal panel should have no hesitation in restoring the place for OP's child.