Help please on school admission nightmare!

[user1482261175]

Hi,

New to Mumsnet, but looks like this might well be my last and only hope for good advice!

Long story short, I am petrified today after talking to school admissions at my local council -- was told we would have to sell the property we own at our previous address prior to applying schools for my son at our current address, which is an impossible task given the deadline of 15th Jan 2017!

We moved to the area we are living at now, a little over 2 months ago, knowing it being a better area to raise family etc. We are renting here atm, but had been looking to buy for over a year and did not manage to find anything suitable (and within budget).

Problem is we do own the previous property we lived in, and thought it might represent a problem when it comes to school applications, so have called the current council before the move. We were told back then that we will need to provide evidence that the previous address (which we own) is either sold or rented out. We had since put the property on rental market immediately after moving into the new area, and have now someone living in there on a long-term (12 months) rental contract.

This morning, I called our current council to ask for what kind of evidence I would need to provide in order to support my son's school application, for example, whether I need to upload tenancy agreement of the property that we own to prove we are not living there at the moment, hence our current address is our main residence, and to my complete shock, I was given a blunt NO(!) and that I will need to actually sell that property (not rented out) to prove the current address is our main residence!

I am still pretty much in shock, and do not know what to do since selling our previous property is certainly not an option, and we can not move back as well since it is currently rented out!

Please any help would be hugely appreciated.

@PinkSwimGoggle, exactly what we thought, but seems such common sense do not apply here -- guess we are just victims of the long-abused system :( :(

@Girlwhowearsglasses, thanks! we shall most definitely be speaking to the school preference adviser.

It makes perfect sense if what you are trying to do is stop Mr and Mrs Jones and family temporarily moving out of their 3 bed semi for a rented one bed flat a few miles down the road to get their eldest into a good school, then moving back home again.

Sorry OP - hopefully the distance will be enough but I think you should think carefully about applying for schools in your old area.

As BarbarianMum says, councils have introduced these rules to make sure parents don't rent temporarily to get a place at their preferred school. However, if the house you own is 15 miles away and is rented out for 12 months, the council's position makes little sense.

You need to speak to someone senior in the Admissions team tomorrow, explain the situation in detail, explain the advice you were given originally and see if they will agree to use your rented address. If they do, make sure you get it in writing this time!

Unfortunately the admission guidance does not give any real help in this situation. The only bit that has any relevance is para 2.5 which says "Admission authorities may need to ask for proof of address where it is unclear whether a child meets the published oversubscription criteria." That is a "may" not a "must" so is not an actual requirement.

The situation you have OP is one that is created by LAs or admission authorities becoming somewhat paranoid about the home address of the pupil, which in some instances is well founded. The address that is key is the address where the pupil is living on the last date of on-time applications, in other words January 15th 2017. For your child that is clearly the new address, whether you are buying the house or renting it, it is not the original house which you have rented out.

I would hope that the information that you have been given on the telephone is someone at the LA who is simply not understanding the situation.

I would write to the Admissions Manager at the LA concerned and explain the situation enclosing a copy of the written rental agreement for your current house and for the rental agreement for the current house. I would not ask them to use the new address but state that because it is clear that you are in the new address and that the old address has somebody else living there, long term that you are using the new address and expect the LA admissions team to use the new address. That puts the onus on the LA to come back and say no, which is more difficult in the face of what makes sense rather than the stupidity of the situation you describe. You need to say that you need confirmation in writing by January 10th.
If the worst comes to the worst and they say no, then I think you then have a perfect case and written documentation to take to the Schools Adjudicator, saying that their stance is ridiculous in the face of the facts and asking them to intervene. In some circumstances the LAs decision is sensible and does stop some obvious "cheating" but as you describe it, their lack of common sense comes to the fore.