Is this a lawful demand re offer from school?

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catcool
Posts: 159
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:50 am
Location: surrey

Re: Is this a lawful demand re offer from school?

Post by catcool »

When did you rent your own house out and rent nearer this school. Was it before or after you filled in the school's Supplementary application Form and what address did you put on that?. Was it your current rented house or the house you own that is further away . Did you put the rented address on your CAF, if so, if the school noted you have been using two addresses over a short period of time you may have given them cause to be concerned that you are only renting locally to get a place at the school.

As other have said you need to speak to the school as they are their own admission authority .

They are probably putting together evidence to see if you are using an address of convenience and may, if they are not satisfied with your replies,withdraw the offer . You would then still have a right of appeal . .
Daogroupie
Posts: 11099
Joined: Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:01 pm
Location: Herts

Re: Is this a lawful demand re offer from school?

Post by Daogroupie »

You have rented out your house in order to rent a house closer to the school enabling you to obtain a place at Clement Danes under the distance criteria.

In doing so you have taken a place from a local resident who would have been offered the place that was offered to you.

In my dd's Y7 class at DAO 5 families rented a house closer to the school and secured distance places which were then not offered to local families.

All five families had returned to their home some miles away by Xmas so they were not really distance families at all.

DAO has now prevented any family from doing this by introducing a requirement to sell any property owned within 50 miles if you are applying for a distance place.

Once you have lived in the house for three years that requirement ends.

Continuing to own another property that you used to live in makes it look as if you are just moving into the area to get a distance place and that you will be moving out of the area once you have secured the place.

If that is not your plan then I would suggest you sell your property.

If you are planning to stay as a local resident then there is no issue.

In my dd's year everyone knew who the "cheaters" were so if you are planning to stay and become a local resident then I suggest you take the steps to prove that and satisfy the requirements the school are putting in front of you.

Your dd will be going to school with local residents who have friends who did not get a distance place because of the parents who rent property close to the school.

You need to be aware of this and do what you can to prove your long term commitment to the area. DG
Moon unit
Posts: 654
Joined: Fri Mar 07, 2014 9:14 am

Re: Is this a lawful demand re offer from school?

Post by Moon unit »

It’s the interpretation of what relinquishing all ties to the previous address means.
I can understand they school might feel if you are relinquishing all ties to the property a buy to let mortgage would be appropriate as you wouldn’t be going back to that property at any stage.
Either that or selling it would be the only way to demonstrate you have no intention of going back to your previous home.
streathammum
Posts: 1252
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2016 6:02 pm

Re: Is this a lawful demand re offer from school?

Post by streathammum »

onesie1001 wrote:We would have to ask the tenant, however, that would then prohibit us from selling the house at the end of the initial 2 year period and therefore not allow us to buy our own residential home. And for how long? The whole 7 years we plan for our DD to attend the school?

What exactly would prove that the move was not easily reversible? If the house was not owned but it doesn't say that in the criteria.
You said before that you kept your old house as an investment decision, so surely it doesn't matter that you won't be able to sell it after the two years are up. If the old house is properly an investment, rather than somewhere that you might live, why would it affect whether or not you can get a residential mortgage somewhere else?

I'm sorry that the replies here don't sound very sympathetic. You may well have been genuine in your intention to buy a house nearer the school if you got a place. However, what you have done is keep your options open - you kept hold of a property that you previously lived in and took out a rental on a property that you thought would probably get you a place at the school. I'm not surprised the admissions authority are suspicious.
kenyancowgirl
Posts: 6738
Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:59 pm

Re: Is this a lawful demand re offer from school?

Post by kenyancowgirl »

Whilst you may well be doing this in good faith, look at it from this point of view:

Assumably, the school would be querying, if it is an investment property, you have a mortgage on it still? And, if you have tenants in situ for 2 years, your morgage lender is happy that a) you have not already switched to a BTL (or similar) mortgage and that b) they could not get access to the property for 2 years if you fail to keep up the repayments? The fact that this ties in with you renting a property within catchment for exactly the length of the tie in with your previous property is bound to raise eyebrows at the Council/School - it has raised enough eyebrows on here and we rarely have to deal with address fraud! If you haven't done a) you could find yourself in hot water with your provider anyway, btw, as all your insurances would be null and void for one and mortgage lenders take a dim view on people not using the correct mortgages (you wouldn't want that if you are going to try and get anohter mortgage, for example).
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