BTL and admissions

[charlottenina]

currently have residential mortgae and planning to buy BTL - can I leave with my DD in BTL as it is closer to my work. Can I apply for school places using BTL address? Does the borough know that this is BTL address? I presume BTL properties will have council tax as normal?

The council will know that you have two properties as you will be paying council tax on both. They may look on the arrangement with suspicion, particularly if you don't rent out your current home or the buy to let property is near a popular school. If they think the buy to let address is a temporary ruse to get a place at a popular school they will use your current address to decide you application. And if, as you seem to suggest, your intention is to use the buy to let property to get a school place then return to your current home you would clearly be breaking the rules and the council would be entitled to remove any school place you were offered even after your daughter starts school.

In addition, if the purpose of the BTL is to rent it out every year to people who want to use it to get a place at a popular school, the address may end up on the LEA's list of addresses from which all applications are looked on with suspicion and are very rigorously investigated.

my btl would be in a different borough, so residential address is in different borough to the shcool - so the council would not see that 2 council tax are paid?

There are other ways of checking. One way or another it is quite likely the council will know that you own two properties.

I do I'd checks through equifax as part of my job. It always throws up btl properties as this is also a flag for Id fraud.

They have other things they can check - GP registration is one, I think.

If you live in it it isn't a BTL