Moving soon but no school - Council not responding

[Alwaysconfusedmum]

We are due to move in next 2 weeks to our new house in East London from west London but council is refusing to allocate school to my kids. They are saying Exchange documents or solicitor letter are not sufficient, the place cannot be allocated until we physically move to the property. Exchange documents are legal documents, how come it’s not sufficient. Or they said we could apply through our current council and request for transfer of school, which mean they’ll be using our current address to allocate schools, again really stupid procedure.

How are we expected to move without the school? Application process and allocation of school can take up to 3 weeks, are kids expected to stay at home for all three weeks which missing work for all this time.

I have checked the procedure for quite a few other councils, they all accept solicitor letter as proof of address. I have emailed council around 2 weeks ago but haven’t heard back or got any acknowledgement.
I am sure there is something wrong …..can someone pl help??? Do we have any right to demand for the place before we actually move.

A number of councils (usually those with over subscribed schools) do require you and the child to be in residence before they will offer a school place, I'm afraid. Some councils will accept documents such as proof of exchange, but others won't.

People often have to move without having a school place for when they arrive, it's pretty standard. You need to push for a school allocation the moment you are in situ, and hopefully it won't take 3 weeks.

I think that the problem is, even after contracts have been exchanged its still possible for someone to pull out & for the house move to not go ahead.

Say you had a certain sort of parent who was determined to get their pfb into a specific school, they may decide to pretend to move house, exchange & secure the school place, & then pull out so bingo they have the school place but are still living where they did before. Some parents will exploit any loophole there is, so councils may now decide that places cannot be allocated without the move being made.

I know you have emailed them but try phoning Admissions & speak to someone.

I'm afraid this is certainly the situation in my London borough. You can only apply when you and the children are physically living at the address. As PP said, this is to avoid fraudulent cases when people say they are going to move and don't. It is also because they have so many children moving into the borough (and out of it) that they can't give you a place but hold it for a few weeks until you are ready to accept it. They must give it to the first child on the waiting list which is usually in order of nearest distance to school (although looked after children and siblings are usually higher priority). You could apply from your current address and may find a school has places. More likely is, as you suggest, that you have to move to the house and then apply with that address and see what the council are able to offer you.

Thanks all.

Is normal to have to be in residence but in London it doesn't take 3 weeks to start at school. Move in Monday, ring council, find out school availability. If you started much later than the following Monday I would be surprised. Your issue will be lack of school places-are there definitely spaces where you are moving?