HELP. AFC pulled my childs application due to addres; do I have grounds for an appeal?

[Crazyoldmaurice]

URGENT HELP! So my deferred 2015 August born daughter (we applied via paper based application as it's the process with summerborn deferrals) was supposed to have her offer today. Had an email stating that because I hadn't verified my address after an email they sent on jan 17th (we moved from our flat to inlaws whilst we sell our flat, been here since november so weve applied for local schools to our current living arrangements) they cant offer me 1 of our 6 choices and have offered her a place in a school to the catchment on our flat which is near 3 miles away! I checked and there was an unread email in my spam folder from 17th Jan 2020 requesting proof of current address which I obviously missed as I had no bloody clue they'd be sending the email to lookout for it! Surely my childs whole academic future shouldnt completely rely on the receipt of a single email and its reply??

As I had to complete the admissions form as paper based surely they would have had to chase my non reply either by letter or a phone call at the very least? They have also said "we received the form today which is the 17th which is late... why is this?" Which is utter bullshit as my other half who works for that council handed it in on Jan 14th by hand and was given a receipt!!! Are my only options now to appeal through the whole appeals process? Seems daft I should have to go through the schools appeals process when the only thing to appeal is our current address!!!

If you haven't confirmed, then yes, you'll have to go through appeal.

A few things going on here ;
1 - the date of application. Have you still got the receipt? They are saying you applied late, you are saying you didn't and have proof. I suspect the issue is that the relevant department didn't get it until the Monday 17th, but if you have proof you delivered it to the council on the 14th that should make a difference (why did you leave it until the absolute last minute?).

2 - address. It is standard to request proof of address, especially in the circumstances - it would be understandable for them to be a little curious as to why you have moved a mere 3 miles away into a relatives house when you have your own flat, and want to use that new address for applications purposes. In some LEAs, they would use your previous address regardless if you owned another property in their area but moved within a certain timeframe before applications.

However, I would also expect more effort to be made in that case than one email, especially as you applied on paper. Are you sure there wasn't a letter sent to your previous address, or to your parents house?

You need to try and talk to someone at the LEA to get an idea of exactly what has happened when, and what they need and why. In reality, they are likely to push you to appeal I suspect.

I don't think you have many grounds for appeal to be honest.

They processed the application according to their rules and have allocated a place near to where your registered address is.

You must have given them an email address so they have not unreasonably used it since it is quicker and cheaper to use emails and provides dated responses on both sides. Many LA prefer to use emails, it stops things getting lost in the post. Even more so since you were offering them two addresses and they wouldn't know which one you were using.

I think they possibly also had suspicions, no doubt unfounded, that you were using your in laws address to your own advantage. To have a "temporary" address from November 2019 to April 2021 , could be seen as trying to game the system by putting you in the catchment of a preferred school.

I think the best thing you can do is

A) accept the place offered so she has a confirmed place

B) go on the waiting lists for your preferred schools, since you want to defer there is a good chance that there will be a vacancy at some point.

Remember that waiting lists often only last until Christmas so you will need to renew.

Hi.

Yes I have the receipt. It was actually the 13th and my partner knows the lady it was given to and it will be logged in their postal log book. We left it so late because we had issues getting our vicar to sign our faith school form for our 1st choice (due to illness and travel over xmas) and as my partner works there we thought handing it in personally would be fine.

I totally get why they would be curious (I did write the reasoning in a box on the application form!) And would have happily provided evidence had I seen the email. As we deferred I did ask afc last year what would be the best thing to do application wise as I knew we would be moving to the inlaws shortly before or after xmas and they said to apply to the 6 choices depending on where we were living at the time.

Definitely no letter received at either address as we were still checking post box every week (sale fell through a few times so the whole thing has dragged) went through a few hoops to defer my summerborn so would have been on the case asap if I had seen the email or they called/written.

I'm hoping we will be able to move before September (3 miles in different direction) as we made an offer that was accepted just before covid lockdown started so I'll have to make a late application if we do anyway I think to the schools closer to that address? I just wanted the security of knowing that if we were stuck at our inlaws in September my daughter would have a school to start at that was within reasonable walking distance as I have an almost 3 year old and a newborn baby (another reason we moved to relatives earlier!)

They are not required to chase up any none replies, or any obvious errors on the application process.

If you received an offer on the 16th April then it was in time otherwise it would not have been sorted yet as a late application

So you moved in with your in-laws shortly before applying and plan to move 3 miles away into a different catchment before school actually starts? It does sound very dodgy. Are your in-laws in a catchment for more popular schools than your flat by any chance? If so they are probably used to people trying to game the system like this and you should have known they would need some evidence. Do you realise that if you had been successful in doing this it would have deprived another child of a place? Accept the place for your flat that you actually own. You can appeal if you want, maybe you will be successful maybe you won't but do think about the ethics of what you are doing.

Why did you leave your flat to move in with your parents? Did you vhange your address on the Council Tax and electoral register? This is the exact reason why you needed to provide proof of address.

@luigilu
@soontobe60

We have a tiny one bedroom flat, 2 kids under 5. One salary. The plan was to early last year sell the flat and buy somewhere bigger, moving in with the inlaws for a few months to save up some money to pay for solicitors etc

This was delayed due to several other factors. Then I fell pregnant again. So we decided in Novemeber to get our flat on the market and move into the inlaws so we could still save some money for a few months after selling the flat, so we could be chain free, so our kids would have a bedroom of their own for the time being with another baby on the way too (who was born 6 days ago). Equally our tiny 1 bedroom flat was damn near impossible to do up and decorate and make it not look like an overcrowded mess with all of our stuff there as well as us. My kids also both attend nursery (4.5 and almost 3) which is closer to inlaws house so made sense that whilst heavily pregnant I could pick/drop instead of my OH having to drive.

So end of Nov we moved into inlaws who are 3 miles away and sold our flat which fell through twice. We found a house we could afford 6 miles away from our flat and made an offer which was accepted just when covid hit so that's obviously going no where until lockdown lifts.

We are living at inlaws, didn't change council tax yet as we still have to pay till we complete the sale. Electoral register was changed so we could both vote.

I was told by afc to apply for around where we were currently living at the time. As it goes weve been at inlaws since end Nov, we are waiting for our flat to complete but dont have anywhere solid to be moving to as of yet until covid lifts. Where exactly was I supposed to "ethically" have applied for a place for?

Because we dont actually stay in our flat anymore for almost 5 months now. We hope to move before September. But equally still had to apply for a place somewhere.

I hope by writing my life story you can see we arent taking the piss; i was told to apply for schools where we are living. And that is here. The schools thing is ridiculous here anyway as all of the schools in this borough are pretty darn good so I'm honestly not fussed what school she goes to as long as wherever we are I can get here to/from.

Do your in-laws have an enormous house? I ask because if you are going to say you moved from the flat because of overcrowding then you are going to have to prove that where you moved to was way better.

It’s going to sound like you deferred in order to play the system. Can you not sell your flat and buy somewhere bigger near the flat and the school you have been allocated?

@savoycabbage

In comparison to our flat, yes! Theres a bedroom for my 2 girls and a bedroom for my oh, baby and me plus 2 living areas a d a very bug garden. Our flat was 1 bed 1 living area, 42sqm so very squashed.

We deferred as she is summerborn as per our parental rights, a lot of hassle for a school place!

No we cannot, totally out priced, a 3 bed terrace near our flat and school place is 150-200k more than the 3 bed terraces we can afford 5/6 miles away. Annoyingly the school we were allocated is a fantastic school and I would have put that as 1st/2nd choice if we could afford to stay in the area.

I hope you get it sorted one way or another, it sounds like a stressful situation especially with a new baby and the lockdown. If you would be happy with a number of schools then it should work out with one of them. I would accept the place you have been allocated, appeal and ask to go on the waiting list for all of the schools you would be happy with. There will be a certain amount of movement between now and September.

A lot of councils do want to see lots of proof that you have really moved as there are people who play the system. As not the case with you and they did not contact you in any way apart from the email you didn't receive fingers crossed your appeal will be successful.

Congratulations on your new baby.

So you've been allocated a school that you like anyway? I just can't see the issue. As you moved out but hadn't sold your own flat the admissions team will see that as giving a false address. Most, if not all LAs make it clear in their admissions arrangements that if you move to temporary accommodation whilst still renting or owning another property they will consider you to have given a false address.

Whenever I've applied for schools for my children we've had to provide the council tax bill number. I think it might be a problem that that won't have your name on

They are not required to chase up any none replies, or any obvious errors on the application process

Wrong. The Local Government Ombudsman some years ago made it clear that the LA must follow up when it makes the difference between getting a place and not getting a place.

If you received an offer on the 16th April then it was in time otherwise it would not have been sorted yet as a late application

Also wrong. Many LAs make offers to late applicants at the same time as everyone else.

@Crazyoldmaurice - The fact you have the receipt shows that you submitted your form on time. If the LA treated your application as late and you missed out on your preferred school as a result you have grounds for appeal.

Also, while the LGO decision I mention above is quite old so the LA may try to argue it no longer applies, I would argue that the LA was unreasonable to rely on a single email to ask for proof of address. After all, email is not reliable. In your case it went into the junk folder. Sometimes it doesn't even get that far - it isn't delivered with no non-delivery notification to the sender.

I disagree with those posters who think you don't have grounds to appeal. I think you have a decent case.