So she’s kind of been reluctant in people knowing where she lives. And from my understanding you can just leave if you want but when it comes to her house. And since yeah it’s her house I do wonder where the boundary lays. So I am an adult yes and my mom is out right now with my sister taking care of me and staying around the house which has me worried but she said she would be back either Sunday or Monday and I’m planning on taking my chances Sunday. But seriously what is the rules as it comes down to there are cameras my sister has access to so I think she might see me leaving anyway and question me on this. So what exactly are my rights as an adult? Can someone pick me up in the driveway and we just leave together and then come back home? I do think even if I leave and come back home that can show some form of trust and then I can eventually tell my mom what I did when she gets back home. I even hope I can use my recent birthday as an excuse to start dating. But the main point I want to bring up is if I can tell someone where I live and have them pick me up outside the house?
Could we have the whole context please?
Why are you, a 25-year old, without driving licence in a car dependant zone? What do you do as a job? Do you have friends? Do you have hobby where you meet people?
You sound like a prisonner at your mother’s house and your date sounds like a little issue compared to the everything else (like loneliness, no freedom to go where you please, maybe no occupation?, vulnerability to your family ….)
Are you in the US?
Based on the use of “mom” and “OWI”, almost certainly.
You don’t sound like an adult.
Elsewhere you say you’re 25. As long as you’re in a free country and a judge has not pronounced you incapable of taking care of yourself, then yeah. You can leave the house without asking permission.
So first of all, your mom is reluctant in letting others know where she lives. It has nothing to do with rights but with decency and respecting her wishes.
As when it comes to your rights, actually you have very little as an adult. Technically now your mom could say that you have to move out and if she did that you would be on your own even if that would mean being homeless.
Since you are so eager to go on a date, asking about your rights wrt your mom I think you likely don’t understand why your mom is concerned and sound like an easy prey to someone that can just use you and you will deeply regret shortly after.
Why not meet someone in normal circumstances (like school, work etc) instead dating strangers?
Remember that having additional privileges is a small part of being adult, much bigger are responsibilities that you get and consequences of bad decisions that you make.
Don’t start your adult life with something you might regret.
It’s funny that kids wish they were adults while adults wish they were kids again.
This is wrong. Because OP is now an adult they are legally a tenant and thus OP’s mom would have to formally evict OP.
Not true in a lot of places.
Legally, yes. Normally, no.
Found the sister.
I agree. It all seems off.
There’s no legal reason you can’t do whatever you want.
There’s also no legal reason for your mom and sister to let you keep living there.
The worst-case scenario is that your mother kicks you out of the house. Which, in my opinion, wouldn’t be a bad thing for you if they do this because they’re upset you went on a date.
You only live once
She can’t just kick OP out, OP is an adult and thus legally a tenant. If OP’s mom wants OP gone, she has to go through the formal eviction process and serve proper notice.
Depending on where OP is, that’s not strictly true. If you are in a situation such as this, at least within the UK, you are not strictly entitled to the rights of a tenant if you do not pay rent nor do anything in lieu of rent.
Basically in the UK if you do not have a tenancy agreement, cohabitation agreement, or license to occupy, then it can start getting very complicated. If they were named as a property owner, or had a common understanding of financial interest in the property, they might be able to fight for a stake of the house, but that isn’t really the point here. In the end whether they can be kicked out legally is a complex issue (at least in the UK) and not really a question we could answer here.
Sure, but I think it’s reasonable to assume OP is in the US, given that they used mom and not mum. At the very least, it’s unlikely they’re in the UK (or Australia or Canada).
Edit: OP also mentioned their mom had an “OWI”, which is an American term.
Fair indeed.
Point still stands (at least depending on state) that without a residential lease agreement in the US then generally you would be considered a guest in your family’s house if over the age of 18. As such OP could be fairly easily evicted.
Nope, it defaults to an informal tenancy if they’ve been living there long enough (usually something like 3 months), and this includes the time when they were under 18. So if a child grows up in the home, they automatically become a tenant at 18. This is also regardless of whether they actually pay rent.
You don’t need a written contract for there to be a contract in place.
Informal tenancies seem to be state-dependant from what I can find (more concrete in california and florida), though I’d be fascinated to see if this has been legislated or litigated upon more generally. Of course verbal contracts are valid contracts, but that’s the sort of thing that would probably have to be sorted out in court.
In the end as advice for OP, I stand by the opinion that “they can’t kick you out without notice” is not a good idea to base one’s decisions on. You could be kicked out, whether it is legal or not, and the legality of such a no-notice kick out on a verbal and informal contract is certainly not an entirely non-disputed concept in all states.
OP could get kicked out, and maybe they could take their mother to court to try and get that solved eventually, but in the immediate they would end up houseless and in a pretty dire situation.
Do you ever leave the house? Like to go to work or the library or to hang out with friends? Just leave as if you’re doing one of those things, and then meet your date somewhere.
If you never leave the house, that is something you might consider addressing before you start dating. There can be lots of reasons to leave the house that don’t involve an unwitting stranger getting pulled into your rather unique family situation.
Second. Even if you’re an adult, you’re in your mother’s house. It sucks but it’s her rules. If she doesn’t want people coming to her house, then respect that. Get picked up somewhere else.
As stated in the above post, don’t involve someone else by giving them permission that your mother would not give.
For sure, best case it’s like this, just respect for homeowner’s property.
Also questions of abuse and confinement possibly? Which if present, needs to be addressed. And relying on an Internet stranger for an escape is 1) super unfair to the internet stranger or 2) a great way to land in an even more abusive relationship.
This one is firmly above lemmy pay grade. OP might need local support resources that can help them within their specific legal and cultural situation.
I would have downvoted this if I didn’t worry about OP’s safety
TL;DR You are almost certainly a tenant and have the rights of a tenant, but common sense says you should respect your mom’s wishes and not give out her address online.
Because I’m annoyed that people assumed I was wrong and that you must be in some other jurisdiction, I’ve dug in deeper and I’m going to give 4 specific examples for jurisdictions you might live in based on your use of “OWI”.
Wisconsin - an adult child is a tenant, and must be formally evicted. Source
Michigan - an adult child is a tenant, and must be formally evicted. Source
Iowa - an adult child is a tenant, and must be formally evicted. Source
Indiana - an adult child is a tenant, and must be formally evicted. Source
These are the 4 states that commonly use OWI instead of DUI (technically Wisconsin uses something slightly different but I think they commonly say OWI - this source lists these 4 states, while this source has a full list of the specific legal terms for every state).
Your mom could evict you for breaking her house rules, but she can’t just immediately throw you on the streets. She has to serve proper written notice and go through the courts to get you evicted.
In practice, it might be hard to enforce these rights, but they are your rights. If your mom kicks you out or changes the locks the police should be called to mediate your entry. At the very least you should be able to collect some belongings eg clothes, toiletries, legal documents (birth cert and SSN card). Furthermore, if you are unable to properly assert your rights as a tenant, you likely still have a strong civil claim - you would be able to sue your mom for an unlawful eviction and claim back what you spend on last minute accommodation.
However, it’s generally better not to get kicked out in the first place - in particular you need up front money to pay for last minute accommodation and the cost of filing a lawsuit. Such a lawsuit may be small claims, where the filing fees are relatively low and you don’t need a lawyer, but the specifics of this vary by state much more than adult child tenancies (for example, Iowa is up to $5,000 for small claims, but Wisconsin can be up to $10,000 for money and Wisconsin has no limits on rent claims).
Disclaimer: IANAL - I Am Not A Lawyer, if you want proper information you should try to get a free consultation with a lawyer local to you that deals with tenancies.
Setting aside all the legal stuff, you should consider what your behaviour looks like to your mom. If you want to demonstrate that you’re a responsible adult that should be trusted, you probably shouldn’t be trying to “take your chances” and circumvent your mom’s rules. She doesn’t want random people knowing her address, so don’t give out her address to random people you meet online. You would be better off meeting them in a public place with other people around, but at the very least you could meet on a nearby street rather than letting them come all the way to your mom’s.
Going through OPs past posts, it’s interesting…
I hope you find the help ya need.
Interesting may be an understatement…
You seem to be very intentionally dodging the question everybody in this discussion has been asking: Why are you, an adult, being taken care of by a family member?
Aside from very literally answering the question by saying, “Well my sister is taking care of me because Mom is gone,” you haven’t addressed the subtext of that question: why do you need taking care of at all? Do you have some form of condition that requires you to have a caregiver as an adult?
Please make careful note of sentences I have written that end in question marks (“?”)—those answers are important.
I don’t get it either as I can be trusted home alone I feel.
I am sorry. You need help that we cannot give on a message board. You need to find a trusted person you can tell your story to. You should ask them for help.
Good luck.
Being trusted in a particular location does not depend on your feelings but on whether or not your behaviour demonstrates that you have earned that trust. Looking for boundaries - how much you can get away with - does not demonstrate you can be trusted, unless you frame it from the other person’s perspective, for example you could ask your mom if she’s comfortable for dates to pick you up from a few houses down the road, and if not how far out you should go. This lets her set the boundary she’s comfortable with and you can gain trust by respecting that boundary and not attempting to push it - in fact go the other way and add 25 yards to it.
Mr. F!
The fact OP posts this question tells me she’s not ready
This seems like something you all should be discussing in family therapy.
If you’re an adult then legally you’re a tenant, and you have all the rights of a tenant living with a landlord. Given that you almost certainly don’t have a written contract, there aren’t really any additional terms she can impose that go beyond a standard tenancy agreement.
To be clear, most jurisdictions treat a tenant living with a landlord slightly different to a tenant living privately in a separate property. So if you want to look up your rights for where you live you need to make sure it’s for that kind of cohabiting situation.
However, your mom can’t just kick you out, legally. She has to formally evict you using the same process any other landlord would evict their tenant. If she did kick you out or change the locks, you would be within your rights to call the police and have them mediate to grant access to your home.
As a tenant, you are allowed to have guests over. Not just waiting outside or on the driveway to pick you up, but inside and maybe even occasional overnight stays. Although again this may be where living with the landlord makes it slightly different.
All of this is underscored by the non-legal parts - your relationship with your mother and your continued tenancy. She can evict you, and if you fall out then she may well do that. Just because the law is on your side doesn’t necessarily mean your mom will want or have to maintain a relationship with you. A balanced position might be to assert your rights while trying not to be a dick about it and offering a fair compromise with your mom. I would say meeting your boyfriend in your driveway is a reasonable compromise, however she might not see it that way.
A lot of places don’t work like you’re describing.
I’m guessing you don’t have a car. Is there somewhere nearby you could walk to or bicycle to, for someone to meet you and pick you up? Then you would only be on camera leaving the house, not breaking any house rules. This isn’t about law, this is about your relationship with your mother. You can do what you want, but different actions may have different results in your family dynamics.
