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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    4

    Default Can I Hold Belongings to Force a Roommate to Pay Back Rent?

    My question involves a roommate in the State of: California

    I let a 17 year old relative stay at my house with a verbal agreement for her to pay $500 a month. She didn't have a job until the 4th month and once she got her job we agreed that she would pay me $125 weekly, which would add to $500 monthly. Her paychecks were smaller than she hoped, so she was only able to pay $100 each week for the first 2 weeks. The third week she quit her job without notice, or even calling in, and decided to move out and wanted to take off for a couple days.

    I had her sign over her paycheck to me as rent ($161.44) , since she was leaving and had not payed yet. I told her I wanted her out immediately since she quit her job without notice and decided to move out without giving me any notice. When her friend didn't show up to pick her up, I drove her to her parents house, and with her she took some of her things, and packed up the rest and left them at my house, which she would eventually get. The next day she apparently stopped payment on her paycheck, and got a new one reissued to her, so she defaulted on rent for the rest of the month. So basically for 4 months, she payed $200.

    My question is can I legally hold the rest of her things to collect unpaid rent?
    She has tried several times to get them, but she would tell me she would come and then never come. Today she finally came, but today I found out she stopped payment on the check herself, and she had been lying to me about this the whole time, and I refused to give her her belongings until she pays me back for the rent. She said she would get a police escort and I told her she should. I have since moved her things into the garage.
    The sewing machine is the only thing of hers that I actually bought, can I legally keep that? I can prove that I bought it, although at the time I bought it for her. But now that she's screwed me over, I'm done being a nice aunt.
    Please help!
    Can I put a lien on her bank account or do anything like that to collect money owed?

  2. #2

    Default Re: Can I Hold Belongings to Force a Roommate to Pay Back Rent?

    She can certainly have police accompany her to your residence to retrieve her belongings. However, ultimately this is a civil matter, and not a criminal one, so while police might be standing by to prevent any conflict while she gathers her stuff, police can't force you to open your home to her or grant access to her belongings. If you simply refuse, police will tell her to take you to court and get a court order for return of the stuff (at which point the sheriff's office WILL be able to enforce the order of the court).

    Now, let's say for the sake of arguement that she goes to court. Unless she has been emancipated (declared to be a legal adult) by a court, she is legally a minor - meaning, she doesn't have the legal ability to enter into a binding contract such as a lease or rental agreement. Minors don't have this legal right because minors are young, inexperienced, make rash decisions, and lack the ability to understand the long term consequences of their actions (at least that's the basic legal premise behind all of this). Same reasons why minors can't open credit card accounts, etc. - because a promise to pay from a minor is basically worthless and non-enforceable.

    So you have problems on two levels. First, you don't have a written agreement with her. And two, even if you did, minors generally can't be held to contracts - which is why they have a very difficult time renting from apartment complexes - because the complex knows they really can't hold them to anything.

    Experience would suggest that a court would order you to facilitate the return of her property within a time frame (maybe 10 days) and might suggest to the minor that repayment of rent should also occur - but won't likely legally hold her to it since the error in creating this errant contract is actually yours (sometimes it really is the nice aunt trying to help out who finishes last, I'm afraid).

    As for the amount, you stated:

    She didn't have a job until the 4th month and once she got her job we agreed that she would pay me $125 weekly, which would add to $500 monthly. Her paychecks were smaller than she hoped, so she was only able to pay $100 each week for the first 2 weeks. The third week she quit her job without notice, or even calling in, and decided to move out and wanted to take off for a couple days.
    So she got to live rent free for 4 months (never never never let someone move in and rent from you without a written lease with a specified amount AND until they already HAVE a job!) and after that point she owes $25 from week one, $25 from week two, and $125 from the partial week 3 - for a total of $175.

    So if all of this hassle is worth $175 and the space taken up in your garage by her stuff, then by all means belay the issue and let her take you to court - where she'll get an order to get her stuff and you'll still be out the $175 and get to hear a judge tell that you were being nice by letting her live there, but that you should not to rent to minors.

    (If she DOES happen to be legally emancipated, the only thing that really changes is that you'd have a shot at $175 of unpaid rent - but even that's not guaranteed.)

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2005
    Location
    Michigan
    Posts
    28,906

    Default Re: Can I Hold Belongings to Force a Roommate to Pay Back Rent?

    Quote Quoting aardvarc
    View Post
    Now, let's say for the sake of arguement that she goes to court. Unless she has been emancipated (declared to be a legal adult) by a court, she is legally a minor - meaning, she doesn't have the legal ability to enter into a binding contract such as a lease or rental agreement. Minors don't have this legal right because minors are young, inexperienced, make rash decisions, and lack the ability to understand the long term consequences of their actions (at least that's the basic legal premise behind all of this). Same reasons why minors can't open credit card accounts, etc. - because a promise to pay from a minor is basically worthless and non-enforceable.
    We go through this same discussion periodically, so maybe I should post an article about it.

    Most contracts minors make are not automatically void. They are usually voidable. There's a significant difference.

    A void contract is unenforceable from day one. A voidable contract may be voided, usually at any time until the minor reaches the age of majority, but the parties must be put back into their original position. If a minor buys a car on an installment contract, drives it for six months, then voids the sale contract, the minor must restore the seller to his original position - compensating the seller for depreciation and wear and tear. (The specifics of the compensation due to the seller may vary somewhat by state.) For a rental (or similar contract), voiding the contract doesn't undo prior months of rental, but instead releases the minor from further obligation. The minor can ratify the contract upon reaching the age of majority, including by acts such as making payments, and upon ratification the contract is no longer voidable.

    A minor's contracts for "necessities of life", including shelter, are generally binding. But in a lease situation that can be tricky, as arguably any time the minor has a different place to stay (particularly if it's a return home) a rental agreement for an additional room or apartment is no longer necessary for their support. This is one of the big reasons no sensible landlord will rent to a minor without, at a minimum, an adult cosigner, and why many landlords won't rent to minors at all.

  4. #4

    Default Re: Can I Hold Belongings to Force a Roommate to Pay Back Rent?

    Excellent points Aaron, thanks for the clarification!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Can I Hold Belongings to Force a Roommate to Pay Back Rent?

    Well in this case, she doesn't have a room or a real place to stay. Which is why I gave her the opportunity to live with me. Her parents live in a trailer hitch parked on a commercial street parked outside their shop with their two cats. She slept on the dining table. So my place is a big step up. Before living with me, she stayed with different people in high school and would occasionally go back to the trailer, and before that she stayed with my mom and sister, who never required her to pay rent as she just slept on the couch.
    My question is can I sue her parents for the rent that my niece promised to pay? They also promised her money every month to help her out, and only ever gave her enough to eat. Nothing for living expenses.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2007
    Posts
    9,096

    Default Re: Can I Hold Belongings to Force a Roommate to Pay Back Rent?

    By the way, I suggest wholeheartedly that you change your sign in name.

    I am hoping you didn't know this, but that phrase is an old racial slur.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Can I Hold Belongings to Force a Roommate to Pay Back Rent?

    Another thing I want to add is that her and her mom receive SSI funding, and the mom gets money specifically to help her pay for her daughter, amounting to about $400 a month. So that is another layer, in that the mom who is legally responsible for the child, did not adequately help pay for her child's basic necessities. She gave about $100 for food per month, and aside from one month when she gave me personally $150 to cover one month's utilities, that was all. When the teen ran out of food or needed money for the bus, I was the one to help pay for those.
    Can I sue the parents?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Posts
    4

    Default Re: Can I Hold Belongings to Force a Roommate to Pay Back Rent?

    eeks well I had no idea! the word just popped into my head...i have no idea how to delete...i'm looking and looking and i can't even delete the account!

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