Renting Laws: Underage Tenants and Parental Consent

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Renting Laws: Underage Tenants and Parental Consent

Teresa Bergen · Apr 19, 2022
Teenager consults a friendly adult on the process of underage renting.

Not everybody manages to fit the nuclear family model of parents living with their children until the kids move away to attend college, get a job and their own apartment, or permanently relocate to the basement to play video games full time. Some young people find themselves needing their own place to live while they’re still teenagers. This poses a special set of problems for both renters and landlords.

It’s harder to find a place to rent when you’re still technically a kid, but it’s not unprecedented or impossible. Here are some things to keep in mind when looking:

Age of Majority

The age of majority is the age you’re considered a legal adult, with rights and responsibilities including the legal ability to sign a lease and other binding contracts. In most states of the US, this age is 18. In Alabama and Nebraska, the age of majority is 19.

Don’t get this mixed up with the age of majority for crimes. If you go on a crime spree at the age of 17 (or 16 in New York and North Carolina), you will be judged as an adult. If you haven’t reached the age of majority, you can’t legally sign an apartment lease, which is a problem for most reputable landlords.

The Teenage Brain

Why do people make a big deal about the age of majority? For one thing, medical researchers have determined that young brains are still developing, and so work differently than adult brains. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, “Their actions are guided more by the emotional and reactive amygdala and less by the thoughtful, logical frontal cortex.” This can make adolescents more likely to be impulsive, get into fights and accidents, and engage in risky behavior. According to the AACAP, they’re less likely to think before they act, pause to consider the consequences of their actions, and change their inappropriate or dangerous behaviors. If you’re a landlord, you might see a prospective teen renter as somebody likely to invite sketchy friends to cohabitate, trash the apartment, accidentally burn it down, or, at the very least, fail to pay rent.

Emancipated Minors

Of course, many young people are responsible. Many have to be, because their parents aren’t. In some cases, the legal system recognizes that a young person would be safer watching out for themselves rather than relying on their parents. In cases like these, they might become emancipated minors. According to NOLO.com, “A minor who is ‘emancipated’ assumes most adult responsibilities before reaching the age of majority (usually 18). The law doesn’t consider emancipated minors to be under the care and control of parents. Instead, they take responsibility for their own care.”

Some of the rights that come along with emancipation include living apart from parents and being allowed to enter into legally binding contracts, including real estate purchases and apartment rentals. Minors usually become emancipated through marriage, joining the military, or by getting a court’s permission. These rules vary from state to state.

Presenting as a Responsible Adult

Even if a young person convinces a court that they’re responsible enough to be legally emancipated, a landlord might still have reservations. For one thing, most teenagers don’t have the things a landlord checks to see if a tenant is a good risk: employment, credit, and rental history.

Obviously, you’ll need a source of income to rent an apartment. For most people, that means a job. And since it’s hard to get a credit card before you’re 21, teenagers generally can’t show a credit history.

Young people will probably have an easier time renting a room in a private home before getting an apartment. This will provide a rental history. Prospective tenants could also ask a sympathetic landlord to allow them to move in for a trial period of, say, a month. This isn’t going to work in a hot housing market, but if the minor is looking to rent in a high-vacancy area, this strategy might prove fruitful.

Co-Signing

If the underage renter has a good relationship with a responsible adult, a landlord might accept a co-signing agreement. This means that the guardian, parent, or other reputable adult is accepting the contractual obligations of a lease. In other words, if the young person trashes the apartment or fails to pay rent, the adult is on the hook for it. Court judgments against the renter can wind up messing up the adult’s credit score though, so this arrangement requires trust and respect on the sides of both the underage renter and the adult – and, of course, a willing landlord.

Underage renters will have a harder time finding housing than older renters. It will require maturity, perseverance, enough money to pay rent, and probably a hefty security deposit. If you find yourself in this position of needing to rent before you reach the age of majority, do your best to be tidy, responsible, and not give the landlord any reason to doubt the judgment of your still-developing teenage brain.

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