Disgruntled parent accusing us of fraud

[PMP3]

Hi

Thanks for reading this, I’m totally stressed out.

There’s a parent who’s very upset her DC3 didn’t get into the same school as her DC1+2 (out of catchment, where admissions favours in catchment before siblings out of catchment). She’s basically tried to pick holes in everyone else’s applications as she things she’s number 1 priority in the waiting list. She’s targeted and reported, we think, several people challenging various points as fraud such as time spent at each parents not being correctly disclosed and a few for temporary addresses.

We fall under the temporary address group she’s targeting. We moved into our previous rented property in October 2020, having sold our old house (about 10 miles across the city). We had been buying, but the purchase side of our chain collapsed and as we knew we needed to leave our old home to be living in the area we wanted to settle (where I grew up) we still sold and moved into rented accommodation. We immediately started looking to buy again and had an offer accepted on a house closer to the school. We thought this would be exchanged by the cutoff date for applications but it wasn’t, so our old address was used for the school application. We got into the local school and since then have completed and moved in to the new house, closer to the school.

It didn’t cross my mind that we could be seen as doing anything wrong here, circumstances dictated we had to rent and with buying closer to the school I didn’t even consider this as an issue. I have kept the admissions authority up to date with our move already.

Is there any way the place could be withdrawn? We’ve moved closer so would be higher priority to when we originally applied, and surely if our application was reassessed we’d be top of the waiting list even if our place was withdrawn?

Sorry for the wall of text, this has just really stressed me out in an already stressful year.

[diddl]

If she's out of catchment & the school prioritises catchment, how on earth has she managed to get two kids in?

[UserAtRandom]

The key point is that the address you applied from (the rented house) was your only property at the time as you'd sold your previous house. If you'd rented whilst still owning this house, you might have been subject to some scrutiny. However, in your scenario you only rented/owned a single house at any one time. It's quite clear you were temporarily renting while looking for somewhere locally to buy and were definitely going to move as you'd sold your old house. You have to live somewhere :)

[UserAtRandom]

@diddl

If she's out of catchment & the school prioritises catchment, how on earth has she managed to get two kids in?

She may have lived in catchment when she applied for them?
Or there may simply be more children in catchment now, which wasn't an issue with her older children.

[CagneyNYPD]

Ignore. Keep your paper trail of house selling, renting, buying etc. Keep evidence of council tax payments and dates.

She is panicking and looking for a way out. That's not your fault. She presumably lived in catchment to get her eldest child in the school, then moved out of catchment. That's the risk she took and it has backfired.

Say nothing. Don't engage. She will probably get a place soon enough anyway. But give her a very wide berth in the future.

[BrittanyKAMA]

I would be LIVID if I was her. But on the face of it, I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong.

[RB68]

The rented was the only house you had at time of application. Jeez if you couldn't do that no person in rented would be able to apply at all

[Muchasgracias]

OP you’ve done nothing wrong. If you had temporarily rented close to the school and then bought several miles away once your child was in, that would look dubious, but it’s not the case.

Brace yourself for the school clique. The reporter sounds like a nightmare and is likely being egged on/fed info by her cohort. Rise above all that. There will be other lovely parents to befriend.

I do also have some sympathy for the reporters situation. There’s been a recent exodus From cities to country villages and it must really grate that she has no place for her her third child. But, that’s not your problem and she is completely out of order in how she is handling it.

[RB68]

LIVID or not she is wrong to be targeting OP as she has done nothing wrong and she is harassing her. The school is clearly oversubscribed. If she wanted all three at the school she should have stayed in the area herself. It is only a courtesy that siblings out of area are allowed in

[poppycat10]

How does this disgruntled parent know all the ins and outs of your house moves, rentals etc. Even via simple chats at the nursery gates.

Yet another lesson in not oversharing with people you don't know that well.

But it doesn't sound like you've done anything wrong, OP.

[thinkIamdone]

@BrittanyKAMA

I would be LIVID if I was her. But on the face of it, I don’t think you’ve done anything wrong.

Why? She took the risk, when she put her first children in a school out of her catchment area, that subsequent children wouldn't get in. Surely children in that catchment area must take priority?

[SirDidymus]

Absolutely bloody ridiculous than anyone thinks someone else's living arrangements are any of their business like this.

Laugh in her face and tell her to fu*K off, OP. Don't give her another thought after that.

[themalamander]

You've done nothing wrong. You sold a house and rented in the new area. You didnt own a second property. You didn't keep your old house and rent close to school just for the application period. You sold a house and physically moved into the catchment area and rented. Then applied to school whilst house hunting. Nothing wrong there at all.
Moving after the application intonation new purchases house is just a move from rented to owned. Totally normally thing to do to. You can show that you sold your home, moved to the area and rented whilst house hunting and then you bought a house even closer to school after being accepted.

You'll be fine. Dont worry at all.

[PhillipPhillop]

Whilst you haven't done anything wrong you can see how frustrating it must be when someone from out of area starts renting in catchment a few days before the application deadline and so snaps up a place that is now denied to a local resident. I think you can understand their anger to a certain degree.

[Whitchurch]

@PhillipPhillop

Whilst you haven't done anything wrong you can see how frustrating it must be when someone from out of area starts renting in catchment a few days before the application deadline and so snaps up a place that is now denied to a local resident. I think you can understand their anger to a certain degree.

What's that got to do with anything? Op didn't do that.

[PMP3]

Too many posts to respond to individually but in an attempt to provide answers:

From my understanding, I don’t think she ever lived in catchment. I think she was lucky to get her first in, but then after that it’s unusual for out of catchment siblings to not get in. AFAIK she lives in the next village, which has an amazing school (probably better than this one and definitely more oversubscribed!).

It’s hard to keep a house move secret, most of us walk for pickups and I suddenly started going into a new house on route!

The school is technically oversubscribed, but always has space for the catchment kids. The number of out of catchment varies, and this year there is loads of out of catchment siblings as for the last couple of years there has been a huge distance (in the miles!) where kids out of catchment with no siblings got in. This obviously means that more out of catchment siblings want places now!

[MiddleParking]

@PhillipPhillop

Whilst you haven't done anything wrong you can see how frustrating it must be when someone from out of area starts renting in catchment a few days before the application deadline and so snaps up a place that is now denied to a local resident. I think you can understand their anger to a certain degree.

The other mum isn’t a local resident. That’s why she’s not got her child in. OP is, which is why her child has a place. There’s nothing understandable or acceptable about this mum’s gripe with OP - she’s the one that’s taken a risk that hasn’t paid off, it’s not OP’s fault. If she’s that bothered she needs to move in catchment herself.

[BelleBlueBell]

@poppycat10

How does this disgruntled parent know all the ins and outs of your house moves, rentals etc. Even via simple chats at the nursery gates.

Yet another lesson in not oversharing with people you don't know that well.

But it doesn't sound like you've done anything wrong, OP.

Do you have experience of a small village school

People actually talk to each other, talk about other parents and tend to know lots of stuff about each other imo

Anyway, if she reports you the LA will look into it and if you did everything right they will see that. I wouldn't worry unless you think you may have made some kind of mistake in the process.

[PhillipPhillop]

Why? She took the risk, when she put her first children in a school out of her catchment area, that subsequent children wouldn't get in. Surely children in that catchment area must take priority?
Or, she applied for her eldest in her own catchment but no places so offered out of catchment, got a later sibling place but now can't get youngest sibling in! This is what can happen when out of catchment siblings are lower down the over subscribed list. A bit of sympathy if this is the case

[SpringtimeSummertime]

If they choose to look into it they will find that you have done nothing wrong.
As others have said, she’s ridiculous.

[KihoBebiluPute]

You haven't done anything wrong so your place is not at risk at all. There is a huge amount of fraud of this type though and if she isn't breaking any laws in her researching who has got the places then it is fair enough for her to be holding the LA to account to ensure that they are being rigorous about applying the rules. If her child has missed out on a place due to the LA being lax about checking up on people's circumstances then she has every right to kick up a fuss about that. If any fraud did take place then I hope she succeeds in finding it but in any case that won't affect you.

As pp say rental tenants have to live somewhere and are regularly required to move house when they don't plan to and the system which uses the address a tenant lives in on the application deadline day is perfectly reasonable.

[PMP3]

@PhillipPhillop

Whilst you haven't done anything wrong you can see how frustrating it must be when someone from out of area starts renting in catchment a few days before the application deadline and so snaps up a place that is now denied to a local resident. I think you can understand their anger to a certain degree.

Whilst I have, in the last year, just moved back to the area, I am now a resident too.

I have bought our forever house in the village I grew up in.

The person complaining doesn’t live in this village at all, and has a space in the school in her village....

I get it’s frustrating, but people do move when they have kids for lifestyle reasons and school application is a factor. We are tied here (if we want our child to grow up with friends) for the next 12 years so we wanted it to be a location we are happy in with family and childhood friends close by. In the past we lived closer to our jobs and basically spent our time driving back to this village...

[apalledandshocked]

Apart from anything else, people who rent because they cant afford to buy, or who have to move because of relationship breakdown/money issues/etc etc would be totally fucked under that system surely?

[Nith]

Why? She took the risk, when she put her first children in a school out of her catchment area, that subsequent children wouldn't get in. Surely children in that catchment area must take priority?

She may not have been out of catchment at that time, or they may have changed the eligibility criteria subsequently.

[AbsolutelyPatsy]

put it out of your mind, you have not done anything wrong. you dont need to convince anyone.

[aliloandabanana]

Surely if she's going through a class of children and reporting the parents to the local authority for fraud one by one, they will realise she's doing it maliciously and stop investigating?! They don't have unlimited resources to deal with spurious claims by disgruntled parents.