Relocating for school?

[SeaSunbeach]

We have just accepted an offer for an excellent school for my child which is 50 minutes drive away, or more than one hour in bad traffic. DD is quite young to be travelling by herself. Given that the school run is going to be super stressful we are considering relocating and renting out our lovely house and renting close to school. We don’t want to sell because we would like to return to the house and our area in six years when she finishes the school.
According to my calculations after paying tax etc we will be able afford a fairly decent apartment close to school. It sounds ok on the surface but I can’t bear the thought of someone ruining my nice house and having to pay for redecoration. Has anyone done this before: renting out your place to move for the school?

There’s another thread on here at the moment discussing the fact that parents don’t make friends with each other at secondary level. Even more so with a private school where they live over a very wide area, I’d imagine. Something else to consider.

I don’t know the costs, but it might be less painful socially and financially to pay for a taxi for DD to the school (shared if you can find another local pupil), or perhaps to the nearest station, for a year or two until you feel comfortable with her doing the journey alone. Rather than uprooting to an area you don’t want to be in and don’t intend to settle in long term, and letting renters into your much loved house.

We did exactly this except we actually bought a property close to the school and woth same intention. It was a 5 year plan. y9-13. DS left school last summer but 4 years in we realised we preferred living in the town and not at our rural property we thought was our forever home.

I have to say when we decided to sell (after the tenant gave notice - same tenant for 4 years) the property did look a bit jaded and sad but I am sure had we moved back we would have revived it again.

It was absolutely the right thing to do. DS could stay on at school for after school activities, meet friends, even use the library. It also helped that DH now had a 10 minute commute to work rather than an hour.

Renting gives you the flexibility.

@Unfucked that’s a very good point, thank you. We are thinking to rent out our house and to use the proceeds to rent the apartment.. otherwise we would have to pay all the electricity, water and heating bills twice. @minipie taxi seems a good option for the first year. However, would not want her to travel alone on a taxi. I wish there were more female nanny drivers or taxi school run drivers. Might be cheaper in the long run.

Don’t forget if you’re renting elsewhere for more than 3 years and then decide to sell your own home you’ll be liable for CGT!

Where do you live that your DD can't travel safely to school - Gotham City?! I can understand that you might want to drive her at the beginning or perhaps even for the first year but I really can't comprehend a 15-16 year old being unable to do the school commute on her own - and surely unless you live very rurally there will be others doing the same commute? Moving house for 6 years to a flat seems a rather dramatic step. Regardless of how well any tenants look after your home you will have to redecorate (in fact you'll probably have to do it between tenants)and in your calculations you need to factor in costs for someone to manage the property (or your time and effort to do so), paying the mortgage for any periods the property is empty, long-term storage for some of your furniture - unless you are able to fit all your household furniture into the flat, checking with your mortgage company as you may need to change your mortgage to allow renting - hopefully you have considered all this?

@SeasonFinale thank you for sharing your experience. Do you think you lost on the value when you sold after then tenant? Of course we have to factor in the market growth.. I hope to be able to sell the house after the tenant. Right now it’s a very loved condition but won’t be able to sell that well. Hope that when prices rise again in a couple of years we will be able to sell even after tenants.

You’re overthinking this. Stay where you are and sort out suitable transport for your DD. Especially if you’re both working from home for the foreseeable - do you want to be doing that in a 2-bed flat? Are you sure there isn’t a school bus? As pp said all the private ones around here have bus routes to areas up to an hour away.

The seeing friends thing is a red herring because you’ve no idea where her future friends will live.

I took public transport to school on my own from age 10-18. 30 mins on the train plus a 5-10 min walk each end. As pp said, there was a whole load of us who took the train (although I was furthest away) and it was fun, socially.

Are there no other girls going to this school from your junior school? If you could carshare with another parent that would help a lot until the girls are independent.

@Unfucked thank you, didn’t realize it’s three years even if it’s your only home you own?

Seasunbeach if you used a local taxi service you will probably be able to arrange to have the same driver every day or at least the same 2/3 drivers. And you could ask to meet them in advance, ask for DBS checks etc.

By age 13 or so your DD will probably be wanting to go into town and meet her friends so will be travelling independently in London by then, so this really is a one or two year issue IMO.

I agree you’re over-complicating this.

@unfortunateevents we live in a city but the school is in outskirts where the public transport is not that good and there are very scary park parts between the bus stop and the school.. at least I would not want to walk there alone at 5 pm in winter .. regarding the costs - yes, we are aware of them all! Seems like a lot of costs!

@minipie @unfucked @CityDweller
I think you are right, that’s very helpful. Taxi seems a good idea with checking the drivers first.

I think people who educate at the London schools don’t realise what public transport is like in provincial areas, so I get the OP’s reluctance to rely on it.

Oh I assumed OP is in London Unfucked but that’s possibly just my London centric ness showing

@minipie @Unfucked we are in London, yes:)

If you’re in London I definitely think you’re over-complicating! There will probably be loads of girls making the same journey.

@Unfucked hope so! Thank you!

i think you're being too precious about this, if you're not willing for her to use public transport and don't want to drive both ways every day then you shouldn't have applied to the school! If the parks are between the school and the main bus routes then you can pretty much guarantee that other girls will also be doing that walk.

Bit harsh, @emmathedilemma There are sought after “destination” schools all over the UK, and loads of people apply speculatively never thinking their kid will get a place.

If your daughter is clever enough to get into one, of course you’re going to consider turning your life upside down to facilitate it. A one hour commute to St Paul’s is easy for an 11 year old; change the school to Withington or Red Maids and it’s not quite so straightforward.

Thank you @Unfucked. That’s true @emmathedilemma, we have applied to a number of schools and got into several nice schools that fit my daughters interests and talents. Of these this particular one suits her best. So we are happy to rent our house and rent elsewhere if it makes sense financially. That’s why this thread really, it’s not about our school application but about relocating and renting a place.

Hah Unfucked, I actually lived v near Withington - walking distance really - but often took the school bus with my friends, who lived about 45 mins away ie travelled away from home further along the route so I could spend the time socialising with them, then caught a public bus back to where I lived near Withington!

Anyway in light of my experience OP personally I would wait a year & see.

There may be other students near you and lifts could be shared perhaps. I would also suggest asking about school buses, most private schools have multiple routes and it might mean perhaps a 20 minute journey for you rather than 100 mins round trip.

The better private school in my county picked up opposite me at 7.10am!

[quote SeaSunbeach]@Unfucked thank you, didn’t realize it’s three years even if it’s your only home you own?[/quote]
Don't worry about CGT. It will depend on how long you lived there too. There will also be reliefs (private residence relief, letting relief and another one I can't recall the name of) you can claim against any potential CGT liability. We had owned the property for 18 years and rented it for 4 years. With reliefs and CGT allowances we owed zero CGT.

The property was of the type and in a location that was quite desirable so we don't believe that it lost any value when we marketed it.