in regards to school admissions...

[queenfromars]

How seriously do LEA's check addresses? If a property remained empty that was used to allocate a place would they actually do anything?

Yes, it is taken very seriously. The place would be withdrawn if it had been obtained fraudulently.

Why do you ask? Are you one of those notorious types to rent a house in the catchment of an "outstanding" school jut to get a place?! Local authorities can and do check.

It varies from LA to LA. Those that have had a lot of problems with people renting or giving false addresses tend to be more proactive investigating such things than those that have not. If you know of a property that was used for an application but remains empty you should inform the LA. They can withdraw the place even after the child has started school.

Certainly not MrsJasmine! Quite the opposite in fact. We missed out on a place due to our school being oversubscribed.
A friend has informed us that they are aware of a family who have bought a house which they used for their application, but have no intention of living in (they intend to rent it out). I dont know if this is true, but there is certainly nobody in the property at the moment - I guess if that is still the case come September then there could well be some truth to it?
I am not sure how the LEA could prove or disprove though, as if they currently own it they would obviously have access to it.

If you wanted to know how seriously your lea regard it by putting in a freedom of information application to ask how many places were withdrawn due to address irregularities in the last 3 academic years?

Forgot to add that if the house was to be empty on both application and school start dates, then it is a clear breech of rules

Where I live, the school applications require the council tax account number. So at least at the time of application, they would need to be listed as the residents and for it not to be an empty property, and not occupied by anyone else.

You should report your suspicions. The LA should be able to investigate. They don't have to prove beyond doubt that the family isn't living at the house used for their application. All they need is enough evidence to give a reasonable belief. They would then have to check whether or not the family would have got a place if the correct address had been used. If not they should lose the offered place.