Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Flip

Original poster

Can we move house a month after DC starts school without having place withdrawn? New address is further away

21 replies

Strawbsy · 08/08/2013 20:58

Hello,

My title sounds terrible and I expect I'm in for a flaming.

We moved into a rented house last month in the catchment of a very popular school that we wanted DS to go to. The council called today and offered him a place for September. We're couldn't be happier that a place came up so quickly.

BUT, we also just found a perfect flat to buy. It's large with a garden but a project that needs lots of work. This makes it within our price range and a bedroom more than we thought we could afford. The flat is further away from the school and almost definitely wouldn't have secured us a place for DS.

The councils do investigate families renting close by to get a place at a good school and I know that for this school they do a home visit to check you live where you say you live. I am worried DS school place will be withdrawn if the council see we moved out a few weeks or a month after he started school. What would you do? I am obviously working on the assumption that we offer on the great flat and it all works out.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

ThreeBeeOneGee · 08/08/2013 21:45

Hypothetically, if you had to choose, would you prefer

to keep his school place and lose out on the flat
or to lose the school place and be able to have the flat?

It might be that you can't have both, at least not without a lot of stress & uncertainty.

pusspusslet · 08/08/2013 22:43

I don't know, but I wish you the best of luck. No flames here.

It seems wrong to me that people have to go through this sort of agony to secure an adequate education for their children

MirandaWest · 08/08/2013 22:59

Did you sell a house and then rent or have you been renting all the way through? It's unusual to get rental terms of less than 6 months so renting for a short period could look suspicious (although I am in no way saying that it is iyswim).

The process with buying a house can often drag out for a few months though even when it is seemingly straight forward so it could take longer than you'd think anyway.

prh47bridge · 08/08/2013 23:53

The place can't be taken away simply because you move. In this situation the risk is that the LA may decide that you rented temporarily in order to get a place in which case they may withdraw the offer.

PiratesMam · 09/08/2013 09:16

It does look suspicious OP. It depends on which council it is - some go to more lengths than others - and if anyone reports you.

my2bundles · 09/08/2013 10:18

If someone rents in order to secure a school place then moves away I would report them. if it had happened to a place for one of my children i would not take it lightly I dont see why families who have lived in an area longterm should lose out on a place to someone doing that. if you are genuine then good luck, if not then you dont deserve the place over someone else.

clam · 09/08/2013 10:31

If you don't have links to any other property in the area (as in you own another house but let it out for instance) then I can't see the problem.
Surely councils can't be so intrusive into how people live their lives? What you suggest sounds a perfectly reasonable thing to be doing.

PiratesMam · 09/08/2013 10:42

I don't think it's a reasonable thing to do at all. The OP moved into an area a few months ago in order to secure a place at the desired school, and is now going to move out to an out-of-catchment flat now that they have secured said place. This was clearly a temporary arrangement for the benefit of the school application and never a permanent address and so I fail to see how it is fair. I can't see your current or future neighbours looking kindly on these actions.

What is your local school to your potential new flat like?

Your council might give you the new flats distance to your desired school and you never know, you might still be within the furthest distance offered this year so far, so then your conscience would be clear.

clam · 09/08/2013 10:51

People move for all sorts of reasons though - house re-furb being one of them. If they're not tied down to having bought a house somewhere specific already (and are renting in catchment in addition) then why not make sure their current rental is in an appropriate location for schools? It's no different from the considerations potential buyers make when selecting a neighbourhood. Or are renters not allowed the same luxury?

PiratesMam · 09/08/2013 10:57

But the OP has said that they moved to the flat because of its proximity to the school and is now moving fairly immediately having secured the place. I agree with you that there are scenarios in which people might HAVE to move temporarily, but in this instance the move and location seems to have been prompted by the school application. I don't think I'm suggesting renters are penalised - if anything they have an advantage as it would be much more expense and hassle if a house owner decided to do this for such a short amount of time; in fact it takes so long to sell/buy a house it would be virtually impossible!

PiratesMam · 09/08/2013 10:58

Also to add - only moved in last month, OP says.

clam · 09/08/2013 11:33

Yes, and home-owners might also move to a house "because of its proximity to a school." What's the difference, apart from the fact it's quicker and easier with rentals? If they don't own another home in the area, then why not?

redskyatnight · 09/08/2013 12:34

Little bit confused by this.

you only moved into your rented place last month, but expect to move out next month. I've never known any rented place with such a short rental timescale.

you've just found the house you wanted to buy, but think you'll be moving next month. I've never known a house purchase happen so fast.

Where were you living before in relation to both of the properties?

I have to admit moving to a very short term rental and then buying a property straight away seems very suspcious - just because of the usual rental and housebuying time scales as above!

GhoulWithADragonTattoo · 09/08/2013 13:06

I wouldn't even dream of buying the house in your shoes. It's far to suspicious and I think Council could well withdraw your place even if in fact this was all genuine. My advice is rent the flat for a year and enjoy it and then start looking for somewhere to buy after that once your DC is securely settled in school.

GreenEggsAndNaiceHam · 09/08/2013 22:27

It depends on the council.

In my area you would probably keep the school place, this year at least. You would also be very, very unpopular in the local community.

Why not keep your child at their private school until you are able to send them to a local school. If your child is finding school hard the local sought after school may not be the best bet anyway.

clam · 10/08/2013 00:13

Was just talking this evening to a member of the SMT of a highly-sought-after school just north of London (with its own admission criteria) He said that they've often checked the addresses of certain obvious dodgy applicants and refused admission, but sometimes, even if they know there's an issue, they can't do anything if the family can produce relevant documentation.

zipzap · 10/08/2013 09:24

Could you afford to carry on renting where you are for a year or so while you do up the other house and maybe rent it out for a while?

It sounds like you moved In good faith to this flat expecting to be there for longer and that you were hoping to find a place to buy that was within the catchment area...

Also go back to the application info - I would have thought that they should have written down what they do if you end up moving after your application goes in and before & after school starts...

prh47bridge · 10/08/2013 09:51

Most LAs don't write this down. The rules are that they cannot withdraw the offer just because you move before school starts. However, if they think your application was false or misleading they can withdraw the offer. In this situation the LA may think that the OP rented temporarily in order to get a place with no intention of remaining there long term, in which case they are entitled to withdraw the place.

stopthinkingsomuch · 11/08/2013 20:36

I think a lot of this depends where you are situated and what the admissions are like. We were with family for a bit until we could find a rental and the LEA placed my 2 children in the nearest school to that. We were very up front that we were going to move but we had no idea of a) how long it would take for us to find appropriate rental b) if there would be a school with 2 places available close to that. It was better to place the children and we've continued to drive into catchment for them to be schooled.

I have to say the lady I spoke to was very helpful. The fact was she had the headache of finding us a place somewhere in the area that if our places were withdrawn it would have created a new problem. Although you may only have 1 child to move schools there might not be a place locally in any case and would be happy to keep dc where they are. Perhaps call and feel it out.

stopthinkingsomuch · 11/08/2013 20:37

p.s we were not trying to play the system we were merely stuck between moving back to UK, family, shipping, rentals etc. Will be moving into catchment in due course to ensure children can follow to secondary schools.

katydid02 · 12/08/2013 07:37

Why not talk to the local authority and explain all this?
As long as you can back it up with solicitors letters you should be fine.

Flip

Swipe left for the next trending thread