Worried, house purchase fell through

[sarahj878]

We are SSTC on our house and we’re SSTC on the house we were buying before we were gazumped by a private buyer and the vendor dumped us. We need to apply for primary school place for my little boy this year and we cannot find anywhere to live within any of the areas between mine and my husbands jobs. I’m panicking - don’t know whether to stay put in a house we don’t like, and got a good price for for the next few years so my son can go to one of the many lovely local primary schools here, or whether to move to our empty relatives house and sit tight to wait for the right house to come up. Having already sold we’d then be in a really good position. But due to the stamp duty exemption ending in March this could
cost us a lot of money and/or the right property might not come up for AGES due to the recession and then my son might end up in a rubbish primary school miles away from where we end up living. Argh what to do!!?

I’d go into rented in a good catchment. Houses do come up in recession too and if the market is slower, you can get a good deal.

Sell your house and move into rented in the area / catchment you want to be in. It puts you in a much stronger position to have no chain both in terms of making offers and actually having it complete. Best thing we ever did (and now live in our dream house in our dream location).

Thanks, the difficulty we have is that there are literally zero rentals in the area we want and houses come up to buy infrequently anyway. We could live rent-free in an empty house owned by my husbands family which we know we’re really fortunate to have the opportunity to do. It’s in a great school area however it is a very long commute for my husband. Add to that my husband and I work in different counties the area we want to buy in is smaller because it has to be within commutable distance for both of us. I’m scared that we will sell, move to relatives and apply for school there knowing we will be moving then be in a rubbish position to get a school place in the following school year wherever we move to.

You've got 4 months for a rental to come up in the area you want (and I'd suggest you can't be picky about it, if this is an infrequent occurrence) before primary school admissions have to be in.

I can't see why (other than obviously free rent, but doesn't sounds like money is necessarily a huge motivating factor) you would move to relative's house in a location that is inconvenient for your husband and not the right area for school. Also bear in mind, it's normally very hard to get into a popular school outside of the normal admissions round.