Renting near sought after school

[boyngirl]

Suspending any moral opinion (well you don't have to, but I'm after information! I do realise it's not very noble and we are still debating it), what are the rules about this?

It's prohibitively expensive to move near the north London comp we want dc to go to so renting near to the time is one thought. (Another is downsizing to flat, another getting huge mortgage then moving after they're in.)

How long do you have to have lived in the area? Do you have home visits to check you live there or just produce paperwork? Do you have to have sold your other property or give reasons as to why you own a property out of the catchment and are renting elsewhere?

Thanks v much in advance for any advice.

So you thought it was good! Well all I can say is as long as you are actually living in the rented house then you are o.k. Go for it, it@s a lovely school.

I dont think this is as easy as it seems to do this nowadays.

I have heard of schools requiring evidence of:-
The sale of the previous house.
Being on the electoral register at the rental.
There are probably other things they check too seeing as this type of thing is becoming more common.

Hi fortune, no not Wren actually! We've seen quite a few in this and other boroughs.
Squish - yes i can imagine. And selfishly don't know if I want all the worrying that comes with it. It would be sort of 'proper' renting though ie we'd live there for a good amount of time.

As I said, if you are actually living in the rented property then that is your actual address, you will also have the evidence, ie tenants agreement and so on. Many people have more than one house. What people don't like is when someone lies about living at an address and they are not. Call the school in question and their borough's admissions and ask what evidence you would need as you are going to be moving into the area. This way you do not need to worry about anything.

If you are genuinely living in the rented house, and have all your paperwork clearly showing that - electoral register, child benefit, bank accounts, utility bills, then I don't see that there should be any problem.

AFAIK the rules are only there to prevent people from renting a house/flat which they do not then actually live in, in order to commit fraud.

There might be any number of genuine reasons why you want to live in rented accomodation even though you own a property elsewhere - like maybe you rent out the other property.

you would also have to be pretty sharp in finding a property, if you haven't found one already as the forms have to be in very soon.

Your situation is the same as someone who has been living in the catchment area for many years, sends their child to the local sought after school and then moves two months later to another address 1 mile out of catchment. why should there be any difference.

I would imagine you have to be living there at the time the application goes in, until at least a week or two after the time your child actually starts at the school - in my area that would be a full year at the minimum.

As soon as the child is in the school then you are free to move (consult the school first, each one is different) and yes I suspect you would have to be in the property at the time of handing in the form as utility, council tax statements and tenancy agreements would be dated.

As others have said as long as you are actually living there you will be fine.
In our LEA address is classed as the date that allocations are made.So you would need to be living there from the time you date the form until the date places are allocated

Just looked up the county council's position on this in our area - it says renting is no problem provided that the rented home is intended as the child's permanent place of residence.

I think in theory you could be caught out if there was evidence you intended to move back out as soon as the allocations were made, though I guess this is subject to issues of proof?