What's to stop someone renting a flat purely for school admission..?

[eggplanty]

Other than the cost of the rent..?

I met some mums recently who had rented but never moved into a property near a very desirable school. Their children had gotten in.

Based of a few things I have read here schools are savvy to this but these women seemed very brazen, as if it were nothing.

They both owned properties that they remained in and just paid the rent on a small one bed just for admission purposes.

Is this normal in London? Or risky?

In highly oversubscribed areas they may well check to see if people are on the electoral register/are paying council tax/have all correspondence coming to the new address, they may check if the previous property has been sold and so on. Even if the council does not have the resources to investigate everyone, other parents may be suspicious and report you. And if the council finds fraud, the child loses the school place: www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2014/apr/revealed-five-families-lose-school-places-after-admissions-fraud-investigations-0

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/school-cheats-checks-on-lying-parents-top-1000-8723077.html

I'm sure a lot of people do get away with it, but it is very risky. If you've got spare cash to rent a place, why not just pay school fees?

That makes me feel better!

She has three children, she said that paying for one year rent was way less that 3 kids through private school.

Thank you for the articles - very interesting. The first one seems interesting. Only 5 children in camden were removed. From what I hear it seems its really widespread- so most people aren't getting caught...

Why don't you report them op? I can't bear that people will just passively stand back and allow scammers to cheat other kids out of a school place like this.

Also think that a lot of the schools are utterly corrupt re. admissions, too.

At out school you needed to show a Council Tax or utility bill - I.e. you live there. Personally I think if you actually move there (even if for a relatively short time) it's fair enough. You are only breaking the rules if you don't live there.

babybouncer why is that? Is it something you have done?

Mintyy I wouldn't dream of it [bush] I guess I am one of the passive onlookers

Generally speaking, another parent usually snitches on them! Certainly the case in the last school I taught at (oversubscribed primary)

dilys4trevor Interesting. I wonder how the schools view it? What if you own a property and its just empty waiting for you to move back in as soon as you can. Its playing the system, but is it allowed?

Lookslikeimstuckhere and did the students get thrown out? Or were the cases ambiguous enough to allow them to stay in?

My understanding is that it doesn't matter to the school or Council (if your Propert is sat empty). Criteria is that you live at the catchment

Locally, you would very possibly not get a school place in the first instance (lots of pre-checking due to a history of fraud). If you did get a place, then plenty of instances of children leaving the highly popular schools within the first year once frauid is uncovered....

Sorry - bloody phone. Criteria is that you live at the catchment property at time of application and still live there on the day offers are made. They are strict on this but little else. Our school didn't care where you lived the first day school started, for example.

For me, the ballache of it would put me right off for a start! Do many people actually do the temporary move I wonder? I personally don't get into a lather about it. Cynical church attendance, buying a house in the school backyard...it's all playing the system. Just different degrees. Didn't do any house jiggery pokey myself mind.

Used to happen in Chichester area too... Nothing happened to those I know who did it but school later tightened catchment.

Egg, as a school we just reported it to County and left them to it. I was there for ten years and no child was asked to leave school although a couple lost their places for the reasons dilys outlined. No matter how bitterly the other parents complained!

My new neighbours did just this, I looked at land registry records etc sent everything to the council and they still got away with it.
Apparently they couldn't prove the flat was used for convenience for getting a school place- despite a FOI request showed that the Rebted flat had been used fircthevibterview lat 5 years.
Surrey cc are shit

Our local councillor got done for this. Or rather her poor daughter did.

If our council finds out they will withdraw but we are 80 school places short each year it's that over subscribed.

If I found out someone was cheating I'd report. It was a bloody nightmare getting our school place at the nearest school.

It's simple cheating and I am with Mintyy. People should report and LA should act. Mockery of the system

Yes it needs to be reported: For if it is not it has the potential to destabilise the whole system and on top of that create traffic problems near schools.

The french have a phrase for onlookers, op: assister á. You are part of the problem if you are not part of the solution. In failing to report them, you are helping them gain school places freudulently.

What would you do if friends of yours had bought a second, much smaller, home, initially as a rental investment, but then moved into just before secondary submissions because it's in the catchment of a vg girls' school?

I know that what they're doing is wrong, but there are reasons why her daughter would be v unhappy in our local school (tho it's where my daughter will most likely be going). I also like them very much as people and would feel very uncomfortable shopping them. They also don't see what they're doing as wrong as because they own, rather than rent, the house plus they have moved in there (while retaining their old house).

Am I part of the problem?

I don't think councils investigate this sort of thing adequately as I am certain I have seen the behaviour and have reported in the past and nothing has happened (ok, so they may have been investigated but not found to be fraudulent I suppose).

Also, if the school is a church one or VA or academy does this mean they investigate themselves or does the council do it? I imagine many of them turn a blind eye as long as they get the parents they want (one of our local schools I am sure is socially selecting, although it disguised as church attendance despite the fact that hardly anyone is ever actually there...).

Expanding further, our Admissions team don't even answer the telephone after offers have gone out, they are so overworked. Emails take 7 days to reply, phone messages longer. I just can not imagine their fraud teams are getting to it if they are crazy busy trying to find school places for lots of children.