Mom is charging me $600 a month for rent, soon to be $700. Is this legal? : legaladvice

Authored by reddit.com and submitted by TitchyBeacher

So my mom and I have been having a pretty serious feud for the past 10 months or so. At one point she decided to start charging me $600 rent every month to live under her roof. She says it also covers medications, health insurance, food (though sometimes she refuses to let me eat), and she also claims that it is compensation for her having to live with me. Also, my health insurance is about to get more expensive, so she'll raise my rent by $100.

Is it legal for her to do this to me? I'm still a minor, and since I'm in school, I have to find a way to get my schoolwork done while working enough hours to pay for the rent.

Should I try to find a new place to live with a lower rent (and yes, I am aware that anything that cheap will be pretty low in quality) and then get emancipated, or should I just wait and see what happens? My dad doesn't want to interfere, but he's told me that he doesn't think she's spending my money. If I wait until I turn 18, she might give me my money back as 'seed money.' If I get emancipated, I'm afraid she'll keep all of the money because she feels that I don't deserve it.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know, and fast. I'm almost out of money.

I am 17 years old and I am located in Adam's County, Colorado.

Edit: Thank you guys so much for your support. I had no idea that my situation was this bad, but the number of people who have expressed concern for me has shown me otherwise.

citrus_sugar on October 24th, 2018 at 11:13 UTC »

The saddest part about all these abused kids is they don't realize it's abuse at the time, sometimes ever, since this is the only reality they know.

more-espresso-plz on October 24th, 2018 at 09:58 UTC »

When I was in high school my parents made me pay rent. $450 a month for my room. They were gone most of the time so I also had to buy my own food and other supplies.

As a teenager I did not think much of it. I saw it as me having a house to myself 50%+ of the time. Now that I am an adult I know I would never charge my underaged, high school child rent nor leave them alone for sometimes weeks on end.

I graduated at 17 and when I turned 18 I moved across the country. That was 13 years ago—I have seen my mother once since then, at my step fathers funeral. I do not miss them, I grew up without them.

Whoever this child may be, when they move out and on with their own life they most likely will never see their parents again.

__

Edit: A reply below about how I made $450+ a month.

40hrs a week at a local dive/sports-bar washing dishes, $7.25 an hour.

My parents knew the owner and his alcoholic wife. They got me the job.

I would work from 5:00 pm to about 2:00 am, five nights a week—sometimes six+ if the other dishwasher called out. Which he did. A lot.

This was Michigan back in 2003-2005.

Nzgrim on October 24th, 2018 at 07:42 UTC »

Reading through the post and the replies, the mother is on a pretty serious power trip. Asking for rent, refusing him food... Though the most WTF one for me is that she wants him to burn his pants and buy new ones himself. Apparently because they stink of the fast food place where he works. Just ... what? Washing them is not an option? And if it's so bad that washing doesn't help (which I frankly doubt), then just throw them away FFS, why burn them?

This just reeks of emotional manipulation and abuse.