Would we be breaking any rules??

[tryingtobemarypoppins2]

If we rent out our current home and rented a house in our prefered catchment area?? We have tried and failed to move to this area as it is tiny and not much comes up for sale.

Check your LEA rules. There are variations around the country.

You can do this. It's been done before. It is faffy. If this is for your eldest child then you may have to repeat the performance again and again for any other siblings if it is a very popular school.

Is the school really worth is? Do think about this as a friend of mine put herself through hell to get her daughter into the school she thought would be brilliant and now regrets it badly.

If you zoom off back to your original home straight after getting a letter saying you are in that school, I think the LEA could question and possibly remove your place.

If you are intending to rent your home out and live in the new rented place whilst your child is at school you will be fine.

Don't see why it would be a problem - your dc's primary address needs to be in catchment - as long as you are living there that is all that matters.

The risk is that the LA find out and decide your application was deliberately misleading. If that happens they can remove any offer that was made even after your child starts at the school, leaving you with an unpopular school which may be miles from your home.

The LA is likely to check council tax records. If they find that you still own your current home and are renting near to the school they are likely to view that with suspicion, especially if this is a popular school. Indeed, if this is a popular school there is a good chance the LA is keeping an eye open for people renting short term near the school. And other parents may report you to the council if they are suspicious.

So yes you can do this and you may get away with it, but there is also a chance that you will end up worse off than you would have been if you had been honest.

But lots of people own a home and resnt another one (perhaps larger, niver area etc).....why is that dishonest?? We want to live in the village. There is nothing for sale......what else can we do?

It is really a statement of the way things are, that what you might think is perfectly reasonable will be considered very suspicious by the LA. They have regrettably been burned many times before by more unscrupulous parents who are doing it for all the wrong reasons.
The best thing you can do is rent and then get your other house up for sale, as it is at least an indication that you are looking to stay in the rented property. I accept that this may not be possible financially.
Another possibility that at least shows a level of commitment is that you take out a long (1 year plus) rent on the property and also do the same on your owned property