Help! Renting in school catchment area

[Bearclaw678]

Hoping for some impartial advice!

2 years ago we made the move from central london to the commuter suburbs and bought our first family home. We generally like where we are but about 1 year after moving here the nursery our son was in closed down so we had to send him to a nursery in the next town/ village .

We had never ventured to this new town before and were pleasantly surprised. We now spends lot of time there as it has our sons nursery, our friends, our gym and is generally more our vibe. We wish we had discovered it sooner.

we want to sell our home and move to this comparatively priced town but due to the early repayment mortgage charge, stamp duty and current interest rates it would break us at this time. We would have to wait probably 2-3 years when our mortgage expires and hopefully interest rates and the early repayment charges reduce.

we are now at the point where our son is looking to start school/ reception and we are leaning towards a school in this adjacent town where we would currently be out of the catchment area. To be clear this school is not objectively better than the school currently local to us. But as we plan to move to the new town we don’t want him to change schools/ have a longer commute later down the line.

We are considering renting out our home and renting in the new area which would not only help our sons school application but also give us a better quality of life.

Both tenancies would be long term, min 18 months and towards the end of the 18 month period we would aim to sell our own home. The house we rent would be our primary residence.

After reading some threads on here I’m concerned this would be flagged as “fradulent”. Any thoughts?

Can your mortgage not be "ported"? Most lenders allow this and you don't pay thr early repayment charge, they just secure the existing mortgage on the new property. If the new property is more expensive then you get another separate arrangement to borrow the extra.

I don't think your plan is wise. There are an enormous number of additional expenses that you haven't taken into account - just a few biggest ones:
Converting your existing mortgage to a buy-to-let type will incur fees
Ensuring the property meets all the requirements of checks and certifications
The costs of moving twice rather than once before you are settled
It can take months to remove tenants if they don't leave voluntarily. The duration on the contract is neaningless - once they have moved in the tenancy only ends if they choose to leave or if a court grants an eviction order.
There is virtually no point marketing a house with sitting tenants in-place unless you want to sell only to another BTL landlord at below market rate. For a reasonable sale price you will need to get the tenants out first and then have at least 6 months where you are paying both your mortgage and your rent

Exactly. So you either sell now and hope it goes through before the application deadline (or the window to update address abd it still be considered "on time") or apply from where you are. Otherwise you could move and still be allocated a school in your current area.

Given that you definitely want to move, and given the LA’s rules regarding renting, I’d start looking for a new house to buy now and put the new school as your first preference on your school application in January. While you’ll likely still have to use your old address then, you may be able to change it in time before allocations. Or you may get lucky and get a place anyway. But even if you're allocated the school in the current area, it wouldn’t be the end of the world - it’s clearly a commutable distance since you do the reverse now, plus you’d be high on the waiting list for the new school so may very well get a place before September (and if not then, certainly sooner than if you wait to move).