Admissions address when moving out of house for renovation

[glorious]

We're about to move from !ondon to Cambridge and the place we've bought needs some substantial work which we'll need to move out for. If at all possible we're planning to get this done by Christmas so that come January we will be living in the house, which will be our permanent address.

If the building work runs over and we're still in a rental place, am I right in thinking that we should use the permanent address on the application for DD's reception place? That would be my preference because it's where we'll be living when she's at school (this is absolutely not about playing the system - the house just needs so much work).

I'm just a bit nervous that having a rented place as well might complicate things. I suppose to be safe we could try to rent something that's in a very similar location anyway so that it doesn't make much difference which address we need to use, but then again there aren't that many rental places in the immediate area so I'm not sure that will be possible.

Help!

Check the admissions criteria. It is usually the address you are living in when you apply which could be the rental address if you are still there on 15th January.

In most local authorities if you own one house and are renting another in the vicinity then it's the house you own that is used. It's much more frequent that people try to play the system the other way around (which you clearly aren't). Check with the specific LEA but you should be OK.

Thanks. The policy says:

What is my child’s home address?
It is very important that the address you
give on your child’s application will be your
child’s permanent or main residence at the
time school places are allocated on 18
April 2016. This should also be the
address where your child will be residing
when they start school in September
2016.

So that sounds to me like it would be the house and provided we're in by April it shouldn't be a huge issue but I'll give them a call

Based on what the policy says it would be your permanent house, not the rental property, provided you have moved in by the time of allocation (April 16th) and remain in that house when your child starts at school in September.
I have checked the Cambridgeshire admission criteria for 2017-18 entry and confirm that is what it says. However what is on the website for Cambridgeshire is not what many LAs say. For many that is that you have to apply from the address you are living in at the point of the last day of on-time applications which is January 15th. If you then move you have to inform the LA of the new address.If you decide to change the preferences then it will count as a late application or you can just inform the LA of the new address for communication purposes only.
What cambridgeshire are saying does have some advantages as it gets over this problem of moving between January and April but there is then a gaping hole over people who might expect to move before the April date but for all sorts of reasons do not. They have then used the wrong address for their application.

Thanks admission that's really helpful

We were in a rental house during the whole dec-june period while our house was renovated - same la as you. I had no issue moral or practical giving our permanent address - it was where every official agency (doctor, nursery, etc) had us on record, where we still paid council tax, and where we were going to be living in September. If anything it would have felt fraudulent to give our rental address, as it was very definitely not our permanent one by their definition.

Thanks zoe, and I presume they didn't raise any issues with you? I agree it would feel wrong to use a rental address in the circumstances. We may never actually move into this house before renovation which probably doesn't help, but would register to vote from there, GP, bank statements, all that stuff. Hopefully that would help.

No issues at all, no, and they have definitely checked up on various people I know after really quite minor discrepancies (e.g. registering with a different address at a children's centre 3 years earlier!). Hard to know how they could have found out, though. We were back in well in time for the reception teacher home visit, which I was relieved about!

That's great to hear, thanks. Yes I'm sure you were! I think I'd have moved into a building site if required!