Getting Emancipated from Overbearing Parents

I've never really been interested in any legal matters. I've never really had any reason to be. But right now me and my twin sister are having troubling times at home. My parents are controlling and overbearing, but they've always been like this even with my older sister. Her mistake was her choice to run away and live on the streets. I don't want to do that and neither does my twin. We want to be as smart as possible when going about this. We want to move out of our parents house, but we know my parents won't consent. We're about to be 17, we both have steady jobs, and we have a car. We know all about paying bills and managing our money. Like I said, its troubling times. My dad has always been a drinker, but in the past couple years he went from a 12-pack every night to a bottle of whiskey or any other hard liqour he could get his hands on. A few months ago he was coming home from a Nascar race and got pulled over and arrested for drunk driving. This isn't even close to the first time. He now has a blow machine on his car and is just waiting for his court date. We don't know what's going to happen. I just need as much help with finding legal information from Texas saying we can leave home. I want to know if we need to file to be emancipated or even limited emancipation or if we don't need to do any of that. Any help would be more appreciated than you know. Thank you.

You need to be living apart from your parents, and fully capable of supporting yourself.

At sixteen you have to be living apart from your parents. Texas does not impose that requirement at age 17, but it does require that the minor be self-supporting and managing her own financial affairs.

So at 16, do I need to be living with another adult or can me and my sister move out on our own?

If you are living with another adult who is supporting you in full or in part, then you are not self-supporting and therefore do not qualify for emancipation.

When I said we are about to be 17, I mean we turn 17 in 18 days. Will getting emancipated even help me in the state of Texas? Won't I legally be an adult when I turn 17? Will we be able to sign a lease and have an adult co-sign or will we need to figure out something different?

You are not an adult at 17, it's still 18 even in Texas. We don't emancipate the abused, we find them alternative custody.

Despite what you think you learned about hat term from your 8th grade history class, emancipation is not the procedure for escaping parental enslavement, but the recognition of an independent youth that they need relief from certain things like the inability to enter into contacts.

By the way, ask yourself the question, how many slaves were freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation. The answer may surprise you.

No, you are not legally an adult when you turn 17. There is an anomaly in Texas law that means if your parents know where you are and that you are safe, law enforcement is limited in their ability to return a runaway 17 year old home. That anomaly does not mean you are a legal adult (that does not happen until you turn 18); nor does it limit your parents' ability to bring you back home themselves.

A landlord may agree to rent to a 17 year old. He may not. He is not obligated to, with or without a co-signer. If he doesn't want two unsupervised teenagers living in his space, he is free to reject you regardless of co-signatures or even parental permission. His space, his rules.

Are you and your sister earning enough so that, between you, you are able to pay EVERY PENNY of what it costs to pay rent (market rate, not a token for living in someone else's house), utilities, food, clothing, medical care, insurance, transportation, school fees and supplies, staples, and all the other incidentals of life, all without any help whatsoever, while simultaneously going to school and getting better than average grades? You are getting better than average grades, aren't you? If the answer to either question is no, then the state will not consider emancipating you.

In fact, he'd be a fool to do so. While he might have a recourse against you for any potential contract breech since this is for a necessity, he has additonal hoops to show that the amounts are market value, etc...

School grades are not directly a factor in the emancipation decision, although they can be relevant to a court's assessment of such factors as a minor's maturity and ability to manage her own personal affairs in the manner of an adult.