Do we have to get off the housing ladder in order to secure a school place?

[Tiptappety]

We are considering moving homes to be closer to DH’s work. We are a family of four in a two bed flat which we are rapidly outgrowing.

The problem is this:

we are tied into a fixed rate mortgage and as we have recently had another child we would not fit the mortgage affordability criteria to keep the same size mortgage we currently have. We are left with the option of letting our current flat and renting a house near to his work 14 miles away (we can’t rent a house in our current location as it’s prohibitively expensive for us). This would be a medium term solution (2-5 years) until we buy a house in the area.

According to the Primary Admissions Booklet by the LEA where we would move to (DS due to start school in September 2015) because we own a flat and would be renting a house this would not be considered a ‘permanent address’. It clearly states ‘Schools will not accept applications from temporary addresses if the applicant retains another property’. As we would be moving less than one year prior to the admission date we would have to send them either a solicitor’s document confirming completion of the sale or a copy of the closure of tenancy - we would have neither of these so how could we prove it’s not temporary?

I understand completely why the LEA goes to these lengths, however, for us this would be a genuine move and there would be nothing fraudulent about it (in fact we would be moving DS from nursery at a school we are really happy with so we’re definitely not moving in order to ‘cheat the system'). DH is not worried and says it’s to discourage cheaters and as we’re not it would be fine but I’m not sure we wouldn’t get caught up in this bureaucracy. It’s making me think twice about moving, which is going to be stressful enough as it is!

Has anyone had to do this? How do we prove we are genuine if we can't provide those documents?

But it won't be a temporary address and give that you'd be moving 14 miles away I'd say it was pretty clear that once you'd got the school place you wouldn't be moving back and giving yourself a 30 mile round trip twice a day!

Email the LEA and make it clear you will be moving from an entirely different area and ask if in those circumstances will they regard your rental as your permanent address as you clearly couldn't commute from your flat.

Am not sure if I understand why you can't sell your flat and then rent a new property to live in until you can afford to buy again. That would fit the admissions criteria. If you offered to move out quickly so that a new buyer can move in, that would speed up the sale and prevent you being stuck in a chain.

Presumably the mortgage has redemption penalties which makes selling an unaffordable option.

As long as you can prove you live at the new address eg council tax bill, utilities etc etc then it should be fine.

I think this is about being totally upfront about this situation with the LA and putting in writing to them exactly what you are doing.
However you are not in a good situation time wise. You need to have moved and rented and be in place before the 16th January 2015 plus you need a long term renter for your existing property. Even if you do manage this time scale the LA are rightly going to be very suspicious but as long as you have a 12 month rental agreement on both properties then you should be OK. I would however be very, very careful to make sure that all correspondence with the LA is in writing and that you do get a very clear confirmation that they are treating you new rental house as your main residence. If they will not do this and stand by their very stiff policy then you will need all this evidence to take to appeal and show that the LA were being unreasonable in the circumstances. Which I think they would be if you have been through all the circumstances of the move - be open about the mortgage situation etc.

Hi, thanks for the replies, I guess communication with the LEA is going to be key if/when we do move and I will definitely take your advice. I know the timing is terrible and may well be impossible anyway so I'm tempted to delay the move for that reason but I know if we move later we will have to complete a late application when all offers will have been made - not sure which will be the more stressful! It also seems unfair that the requirements by each LEA differ - our current LEA doesn't require any extra documentation regarding addresses, despite competition for places being very fierce. If we were moving into this area we wouldn't have these concerns....