Can teenagers rent apartments

Answer 1

Might depend on where you live and what the age of majority is there. Getting financing (mortgage) to buy the apartment might be difficult at 17 years of age as you wouldn't typically have much, if any, credit rating. Des Perado

Answer

No. The legal age of majority in most states is 18. In Alabama and Nebraska it is 19, in Pennsylvania and Mississippi it is 21. Anyone under the aforementioned ages is not legally able to enter into contractual agreements, this would include the leasing, renting, or purchasing of real property.

Answer

Yes, how about if that 17 year old is being thrown out of their house and has no where to go and stay. The only thing that person has on his/her head is to get enough money to try to get his/her apartment. To try to live foward. To try to get their life happy without there family that denieds them. They can just rent the apartment, they don't have to exactly buy the apartment. How about if it was you that wanted a place of your own?

Answer

No, a 17-year-old is not of legal age and cannot enter into financial contracts. The personal situation of a minor concerning family problems is a matter for the state's department of social services.

Answer

I say YES!!!!!! Any age teen should be aloud to get their own place if they have family problems or things of the such. Someone in the family could at least cosign or something just until they are of age to get it under their name. If not, then I'm sure something could be arranged. I am a teen myself and I know how it feels to not have a place to stay and feel secure. Jesus will take care of you but you should still be able to be provided with a place to take care of yourself instead of being forced to stay somewhere that is only going to cause more trouble to approach.

Answer

As far as I know this was not meant to be a discussion about whether a teenager should be allowed to live on their own but a Q/A about whether they CAN.

In most cases, the answer would be NO (this depends on your country and the age of majority. I am assuming, since you asked, that in your country you are considered a minor).

However, under certain circumstances, you can become an emancipated minor, which would grant you the privilege to do so.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emancipation_of_minors

Answer 2

It depends on what state the two 17 year olds live. They need to check to see what their state's "Age of Majority" is. Most states have laws that establish 18 years of age as the age of a person who can legally enter into contracts. If that is the case here, then it is possible to as the landlord to take the tenants' co-signer (18 years or older with the financial qualifications).

Answer 3

when I moved into my first apartment one of our roommates was 17 and we were told we could do 1 of 2 things... Have someone else co-sign until she turned 18 then have her take their place on the lease, or have her parents legally sign over guardianship of her to us and she would be a dependent living with us until she turned 18 and we would then put her on the lease.

in the end, her mom co-signed and she took her place 3 months later when she turned 18.

Answer 4

The state law in Texas has changed several times on this very matter since I lived there, but it used to be that, as a 17 year old, you did not have the rights of legal adult in all manners of the law, renting included. You can, in Texas, be but on trial as an adult at 17, and you are legally of the age of consent at 17, but you cannot, for example, buy a pack of cigarettes or vote at age 17.

I researched the Texas law before answering this question just to double check, and I could not find any documentation stating that the law has changed since I was last a Texas resident. It seems the law still remains that you cannot rent an apartment in your name at age 17 unless you have an adult who is willing to co-sign for you (and, I'm unsure as to whether any adult will do, or if it has to be specifically a parent or legal guardian). The adult who co-signs is essentially, by doing so, making a legal note of promise that states they will be held responsible for any damages or unpaid fees that the minor renting the apartment may accrue, if and only if that minor fails to pay these fees himself.

For instance, if you rented an apartment and had your mother co-sign, and then you skipped out on the last two months of rent and broke your lease by moving out in the middle of the night, leaving the apartment in disarray in the process, if you could not be located or if you were unable to cover the fees for the penalties and damages accrued, it would then fall upon your mother to pay the penalties and rent balance.

Damaging the property or skipping out on rent, or even breaking your lease without going through the proper channels, can also damage you and your co-signer's rental history credit (as in Texas there are renter's history reports, like financial credit reports but concerning your history as a renter of property rather than your financial history) and a bad renter's history can reflect poorly on you and your co-signer to the point that other apartment or rental properties may decline your request to rent with them.

Your co-signer must also have a good financial history, and a high credit score(especially if your credit history is bad or non-existent, which would be pretty normal for a seventeen year old) so if mom and dad have too many unpaid credit cards, don't count on them to be viable co-signers. Some places are stricter than others about credit scores and co-signers. It helps if you -- not mom and dad, but you -- have a stable job with steady income in an amount with exceeds the price of the apartment, monthly. If you lack in any of these areas, get a co-signer who excels in them. Printing off bank statements to show apartment renters helps, too -- especially if you're trying to show you can make rent on your own without parental-financial assistance.

If you are in a situation where you need to rent an apartment at age 17 and CANNOT elicit help from a parent or guardian to act as a co-signer, then the only legal way to rent the apartment (other than waiting a year) is to be legally emancipated. Emancipation is a legal process by which you are formally divorced from your parents.

I was emancipated in Texas at age 16, with my parents help, so that I could enroll in college early. It is much more simple, as a legal process, if your parents are aiding in the emancipation -- it's all legal formality and it takes about a week and then you're free to rent your own place without a co-signer, assuming you have decent credit or some amount of cash you can put down for a deposit or show in a bank account. If you have a home situation where your parents have been abusive or negligent, or otherwise endanger you, you can petition to be emancipated on those grounds, without your parents aiding in the process. I have no idea how long or involved of a process the minor-petitioned emancipation would be, as I did not have those issues and had my parents support in the legal matter. So, if that's your case, you should get legal advice on what the process of minor-petitioned emancipation involves. If your parents are willing to help you become emancipated, chances are they are willing to co-sign for an apartment, which would be simpler all around.

Those are the only ways to rent an apartment in Texas at age 17. If none of these means work for you, you might consider becoming roommates with someone who pays rent in full to the apartment complex (and is of age, and is the only name on the lease) and then you might pay him or her to half the rent to live with them. However, you'd be paying rent for an apartment that you had no legal claim to -- keep that in mind. You wouldn't be a name on the lease, so you'd have no formal legal ownership of the rental property, even if you paid the rent to the lease holder. You cannot be a secondary name on a rental lease agreement if you're underage unless the primary name on the lease is someone to whom you're related and someone who is legally of age. When you're 18, you can rent where you want and be roommates with whomever you want, so I suggest waiting it out if you can.

Answer 5

Well...under the current confines of the law, no. A minor cannot enter a legally binding contract. It basically nullifies the contract. However, if the minor has been emancipated, then I believe that the constricts of the law does no pertain to the minor in this exception.

In the UK, people are fully 'of age' at 18 years, so can make contracts, rent apartments etc.

Answer 6

A rental agreement/lease is a legal contract, and unless the 17-year-old has been emancipated in some manner (ie marriage, court order, etc) they are not legally capable of entering into a legal contract.

Answer 7

umi dk what u r asking by that but i do know that a 17 year old and a 18 year old can live togethr and have who ever they want to live with them so do what ya want lol

Answer 8

No, you have to be 18 to sign any Contracts (cell phone, Lease, etc.).

Answer 9

Not legally, You need to be 18