Furious at catchment t areas Post Reply

[Bonjourmama]

I have just trekked across the ocean to be with my husband's new job. We spent a fortune on securing a house in Honeywell catchment (paid 10x house price outside area). Not even 100% we will get a place as 300m away. I am so mad as I see that to get into a good school you would have to live In a house that costs 1.5mill euros plus but now I see that you can rent for on,y 1.5k a month. I feel so let down and realise that I should have just paid for private as difference minimal. I am the only one feeling very confused and short changed by the uK system here??

[prinsloo]

Yes the catchment area is very small and a lot of the real estate agents will sell you on a place by saying that it's in the catchment area for Belleville and Honeywell. Are you on the waiting lists? It seems to be moving lately so hopefully your children will get into the schools shortly. Good luck.

[papinian]

Bonjourmama: Please trek back across the ocean tout suite. You should have done your research before forking out £1.5m. You shouldn't come on here and rant about how your children should get into HW when those of people renting should not. Many of those renters will have been living BTC for a lot longer than you and your husband. Your hyperbole does you a disservice - prices BTC are not 10x house prices outside the area. At most, catchment area has a 10% effect on house prices. A bit sick of immigrants fresh off the boat whining about state services to which they've never contributed. What exactly could an English person who moved to your country expect?

[Sw11_123]

Good grief, whilst the poster has highlighted a problem that may have touched a nerve or 2 does she really need such a reply???

The lists change all the time and your purchase of a house in catchment area is probably an agent mislead as it is so difficult to assess given how popular these schools are, yes you can rent in the area and this isnt always a 'cheat' way of getting in the school just a sensible choice for someone who is renting in London with kids.

Just keep in touch with the schools and you may be surprised how much change there can be in the wait lists and rest assured you are already in a much better situation than many (although granted you may not want to hear that!).

(historic posts on this site may give you some insight into why school catchment areas may lead to some interesting responses but hopefully no more abusive ones!)

[AbbevilleMummy]

I think if you do a bit more research you'll find that the situation isn't as extreme as you think.

House prices have gone crazy in the area due to such a high demand for family houses which means that there is now not a huge difference between price inside or outside catchment. In this area, it is now extremely difficult to find a family house below £1m no matter how far it is from Honeywell.

As for rental prices, your £1.5k per month is way off. I doubt you'll find a nice family house anyway in London for that. And inside catchment it's more like £4k per month, especially at this time of the year.

So yes, you may well end up having to pay for private, but even if you had gone down that route in the first place, you probably wouldn't have ended up paying much less to buy a house.

[juliantenniscoach]

This is one of those posts that is going to wind a lot of people up. You maybe frustrated about the competition for school places but get in line, there are dozens on this site alone in the same situation.

Bonjourmama, if I were you, I'd delete your OP and rewrite it because it is factually incorrect and reads as if you are somehow "entitled". Not great.

[Jen66]

To have put all your eggs in one basket with Honeywell was a bit daft. it must be the most oversubscribed school in England.

Like others have said though £1.5k a month in rental will get you a 2 bed flat in Streatham, not a family house between the commons.

[clapset]

Awesome post. If you want to sell your house I will give you 1M Euros ... that's a loss which you can set off against future profits you make from actually working out where you are in the world of 0.5M Euros! Deal? Sorry couldn't help it. Why can't people just stop bleeting on this site about how hard done by they are. Including me ... shut up clapset!

[juliantenniscoach]

Genius