Applications for primary - advice please.

[FrozenYogurt]

Hi,

We are currently on an overseas sabbatical for a year, planning on coming home for the start of term in Sept next year.

We own and maintain our house back home, paying the council tax, etc. it's not rented out and we've bit told anyone official that it's empty for this year.

My question is can we apply for school places (deadline this Jan) using our UK address even if we're technically not living there at the moment?

Any advice would be so helpful, I don't want to call the council in case they somehow use the information against us. Thanks.

I suggest reading the guidelines on your council's website. I would have thought it fine to apply using your UK address. From memory, there is a section on changing address on my council's website, and if you're applying for a school place based on an address you'll be living at when the child starts school (e.g. if you're buying a new house and want to use that address in school apps), you just need to prove that you'll be living there. I know it's not the same situation as you're in, but it seems to show that the council just want to ensure that when school starts you'll be living at the address you use in the application, which you will be.

Brilliant, thanks for your reply. It looks like we can legitimately apply from our UK address as it is our permanent home residence in the UK.

I doubt you can use an address you are not living in. I would call the council withholding your number and check. If you are found to be fraudulent after the places have been allocated they can take the place from you.

Are you paying council tax at the full rate not the discounted rate for an empty property?

I think you should be ok but how will you get hold of the written correspondence that they send to you there while you are away?

You cannot normally apply if you are not resident in UK (unless you are returning Forces/Crown servant).

Can you get back before the end of January, so there is no way LEA can reject your application (or remove an incorrectly offered place later on)?

Or at least come clean with LEA, so if they decide they can accept the application, there is no Damoclean sword hanging over your offer (for if a school is oversubscribed, and other parents notice that you applied in non-resident circumstances where you should not have done so and report you, the place could be removed even after DC have started).

We were able to but it was 10+ years ago.

It sounds like it depends if a sabbatical counts as an extended holiday or a move abroad - if it is the former then your house is still your primary residence.

I tried to find definitions and the closest I got were the The principles of residency for council tax

"Residence implies a degree of permanence.
...
Temporary absence does not cause a person’s residence to change whilst they are away from home. For example if you needed to go into hospital or went on an extended holiday, you would still be classed as living at ‘home’. But if you had to leave home and live permanently with relatives or in a rest home, your residence would be classed as having changed to your relative’s or rest home’s address.
...
In deciding if a property is the sole or main residence of a person who is not actually living there, it is relevant to take into account whether the person:
intends to return to live there
could physically return there
is prevented by any private agreement or law from returning.
For example, if you were to let the property to a tenant, you could not live there during that tenancy. Your ‘home’ for the duration of that tenancy would be elsewhere."

I've known people use parents/ex husbands etc address for secondary school if the school catchment for that school is better. Obviously not to be recommended and sometimes caught out by a visit to the primary bad a conversation with the child. My point is though, that you clearly 'can' as the system allows you do and morally fine too as you will be living there and will be needing it. I would ring no one (in case you don't like the official answer) and just apply.

Thanks all for your replies - really helpful. I don't think we can get back for January, but I will check officially and anonymously and see if we can use our UK address.

To answer a pp above, we pay full council tax, and have our mail forwarded to my parents.

It is unlikely you will be able to use your UK address if you are not actually living there. The rules used for school admissions are different to those used for Council Tax.

Your LA will have a Primary School admissions booklet on its website (possibly called Starting School in X or similar). Take a look at that to see what it says. It will probably say that you must use the address "where the child lives" or something along those lines. Note the use of present tense. Since your child does not currently live at your UK address that suggests you are not allowed to use that address.

The problem with checking anonymously is that you won't get anything in writing. If they say you can apply using your UK address you MUST get that in writing so that you have evidence of what was said in case they do something different.

As tiggytape says, you may have a choice between returning early and applying on time or sticking to your plans and making a late application.

How long is the sabbatical and what is it's nature? For instance if it were a one year university posting and you came home to the UK house each holiday you'd be more likely to show that was your main residence than if you have a permanent job in the US and have been out there for 5 years with no visits to the house.

What's the alternative if you can't get back for January and can't apply whilst being temporarily abroad? To me it's a no-brainer, you are coming back to live in your house, your child needs a place at the school if your choice, apply!

I've seen so many threads on here of parents trying to report other parents who play the system and get the school to renege on their offer and it always seems like the schools choose to allow the place to remain. You are not even playing the system, it's just a temporary logistical issue. I'd be amazed if you had a problem.

If the sabbatical is only for you could your DP come back with DD by mid-January. OK the family would be apart for a while but it would mean your DD's school place would be secured. You could probably mange visits afterwards.

I am also a bit puzzled as to why it would not work. Surely your house is still your main residence, you are paying council tax, your stuff is in there, presumably you're registered with the GP, you just happen to be abroad at the time of school application. How would the LEA know this? Are we no longer allowed to go away around the 15th of January when applying for primary school? When we applied for a primary school place this year all we needed to provide was the council tax bill or a letter by our solicitor confirming that we bought out house.

imme - you're not allowed because it's cheating. If you're on holiday for a couple of weeks obviously that's fine. The OP may well not get caught. On the other hand the family living just down the road whose child didn't get in will know that OP's house has been empty all year, raise that at appeal, the LEA may well make inquiries locally, private investigators are a possibility, realise that the child was clearly not living there and withdraw the place.