The Supreme Court clarified how to decide with whom to live for children

The niece decided to go to another city to study. They couldn’t get a place in the hostel, so the problem of housing arose. She decided to live separately, rent an apartment with two other classmates. But the owners were in no hurry to conclude an agreement with such young tenants. I had to take a deeper look into the question of how old you can legally rent an apartment. Can teenagers legally rent their own housing by drawing up a contract? I will tell you everything in detail below.

At what age can you start living independently?

The Civil Code clearly states that persons under 14 years of age are required to live at the address of their parents and with them. When parents are divorced, the specific residence is determined based on the decision of the spouses.

According to the Family Code, if a parent decides to register a child in their living space, then the consent of the second spouse is required. As a result, responsibility for the child is assigned to the person with whom the minor officially lives.

At the age of 14-18, a teenager decides for himself where to register and which parent to live with. And in the 18th century. The Civil Code stipulates that only legally capable persons have the right to choose where to live and with the written permission of their representatives.

Until what age are children required to live with their parents/guardians?

By law, until the age of 14, children are required to live together with representatives, i.e., living alone, no matter how much you want, will not work at that age. The law is strict in this situation and determines the residence of a minor only at the registered address of the guardians/parents. It is the latter who bears full responsibility.

At 14, teenagers are absolutely not adapted to independent life, which is why the law limits the residence of such children with their parents. But with their consent, the child will be able to live with his grandparents or other relatives, while receiving education and care from his father and mother. If a child is adopted or is under guardianship, then he is required to live with guardians until he reaches adulthood.

Until what age can you live with your parents?

At what age can you rent an apartment? This is a fairly common question. Many children, when starting their studies, move to another city, rent a house or get a bed in a dormitory. So for kids wondering what age they can live with their parents, the good news is that kids can do certain activities on their own.

If you have any questions, you can consult for free via chat with a lawyer at the bottom of the screen or call by phone (consultation is free), we work around the clock.

Citizens would do well to familiarize themselves with additional information regarding methods for resolving emerging legal issues in this topic. Any citizen can purchase and exercise his civil rights from the moment he reaches the age of majority in accordance with the provisions of the current legislative framework. In a situation where the law allows the possibility of marriage before adulthood, a citizen will be considered able to work until the age of 18. The acquired legal capacity as a result of legal marriage will be retained after a divorce if the citizen is still a child at that moment. When a marriage is declared invalid, the courts may rule that the citizen loses legal capacity from the specified date.

Is it possible to live alone at 16?

When the child turns 16, he also lives with his parents, and they are responsible for the minor. Living independently at this age is quite acceptable, but only with the written permission of the parents. Moreover, registration must be in the dormitory of the educational institution or he must live with an adult under the terms of the power of attorney drawn up by the parents.

If a teenager is under guardianship, then permission from the guardianship is required to live separately. Guardians must comply with the following requirements:

the separate residence of a minor should not affect the educational process;
The guardian is obliged to provide for the minor, take care of him, and give him due attention.

Without consent, children can live separately only after reaching 18 years of age. But in some cases, a minor may be recognized as fully capable. This procedure is called emancipation. If a teenager is only 16, but is recognized as fully capable, then he has the right to live separately from his parents.

Is it possible to live separately from your parents at 16 years old?

Having reached the age of 16, the child continues to live with his parents, who are fully responsible for him.
If you have any questions, you can consult for free via chat with a lawyer at the bottom of the screen or call by phone (consultation is free), we work around the clock.

A teenager can move to live separately only with the consent of his parents, and he must be registered in the dormitory of the educational institution or live with an adult on the basis of a power of attorney issued by the parents. As for wards, in some cases it is possible to obtain the consent of the guardianship authority for a 16-year-old child to live separately from the guardian. In this case, the guardian/trustee is subject to 2 conditions:

A child’s independent life will not affect his upbringing in any way.
The guardian/trustee is obliged to take care of the child and pay attention to him (Article 36 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, paragraph 2).

Without the consent of the parents, a 16-year-old child cannot live separately from them, unless the emancipation procedure is first carried out.
In this case, with the consent of the parents, the child can live independently. From the age of 18, parental consent is no longer required. Emancipation, that is, recognition of a minor as legally competent, is carried out by decision of the guardianship authority with the consent of both parents/guardians/adoptive parents, or by a court decision in the absence of consent.

According to the law, parents/legal representatives are not responsible for the obligations of an emancipated child. Thus, if a 16-year-old child is recognized as fully capable, then he has every right to live separately from his mother/father or persons replacing them. Is it possible for a child to live independently from the age of 17? The same rules apply for 17-year-olds as for 16-year-olds.

At what age and on what basis can you rent housing?

Legislative norms dictate to Russians that only persons who have reached the age of full legal capacity can enter into transactions involving civil liability. Renting an apartment also falls into the category of such transactions, therefore only a fully capable person can do this.

At 16 years old, live separately from your parents: is it possible?

Lawyer: Nikolay Gezha is now offline Good afternoon, Ivan! According to Art. 21 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the ability of a citizen, through his actions, to acquire and exercise civil rights, to create civil responsibilities for himself and to fulfill them (civil capacity) arises in full with the onset of adulthood, that is, upon reaching the age of eighteen. In cases where the law allows marriage before the age of eighteen, a citizen under eighteen years of age acquires full legal capacity from the time of marriage. The legal capacity acquired as a result of marriage is retained in full even in the event of divorce before reaching the age of eighteen. The age of marriage is set at eighteen years. If there are valid reasons, local government bodies at the place of residence of persons wishing to get married have the right, at the request of these persons, to allow persons who have reached the age of sixteen to marry.

If you have any questions, you can consult for free via chat with a lawyer at the bottom of the screen or call by phone (consultation is free), we work around the clock.

In accordance with Art. 27 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, a minor who has reached the age of sixteen can be declared fully capable if he works under an employment contract, including a contract, or with the consent of his parents, adoptive parents or trustee is engaged in entrepreneurial activity. A minor is declared fully capable (emancipation) by decision of the guardianship and trusteeship authority - with the consent of both parents, adoptive parents or trustee, or in the absence of such consent - by a court decision. Articles 287-289 of the Civil Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, a minor who has reached the age of sixteen years may apply to the court at his place of residence with an application to declare him fully capable in the case provided for in paragraph 1 of Article 27 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. An application to declare a minor fully capable is accepted by the court in the absence of the consent of the parents (one of the parents), adoptive parents or guardian to declare the minor fully capable. Consideration of an application to declare a minor fully capable An application to declare a minor fully capable is considered by the court with the participation of the applicant, parents (one of the parents), adoptive parents (adoptive parent), trustee, as well as a representative of the guardianship and trusteeship authority, the prosecutor. Court decision on an application to declare a minor fully capable. The court, having considered the merits of the application to declare a minor fully capable, makes a decision by which it satisfies or rejects the applicant’s request. If the stated request is satisfied, a minor who has reached the age of sixteen years is declared fully capable (emancipated) from the date the court decision on emancipation enters into legal force. Thus, until the age of 18, a person is not fully capable and parents are still responsible for a number of his actions. If the girl moves, the girl’s parents can write a statement to the police about her search and demand her return to the family. Until the age of 18, a non-emancipated person cannot move away from them without the consent of his parents. However, subject to emancipation (I listed the conditions for emancipation above), a citizen can fully exercise his rights and responsibilities independently.

Is it possible to sign a rental agreement with a teenager?

Teenagers have the opportunity to sign a contract when they reach 14 years of age. The legislation explains that upon receipt of a passport, a teenager becomes partially competent and has the right to carry out certain legal or judicial transactions.

But rental real estate, as previously noted, does not apply here. Therefore, concluding a rental agreement with a minor is impossible. Allowed:

concluding a rental agreement with parents, while official permission for the teenager to live separately is required;
the agreement must include the teenager as a tenant in the rented apartment.

It is impossible to draw up a lease agreement in any other way with the participation of a minor.

Child of convenience

Dividing children between parents is one of the most painful and legally complex legal processes, even though our courts consider such cases very often. According to the law, if adults cannot live together and are unable to agree with which of them the child will remain, only the court has the right to decide who to give the baby to. But, as domestic judicial practice shows, in such disputes, often even people in robes cannot always make a legally verified decision on such a pressing issue. Therefore, the interpretation of laws by the Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation may be useful not only for the judges themselves, but also for citizens.

So, a citizen turned to the district court and asked to leave his little daughter to live with him, and not with her mother. As an argument in his favor, the plaintiff told his everyday situation. For five years he lived with a woman without registering the relationship. Over the years, they had a daughter, who was registered in his apartment. When her parents separated, the girl lived in this apartment for several months. Then the mother took the child. But the plaintiff insists that the child live where he is registered.

According to the citizen, the girl would be better off with her father. Since he has a stable job and a considerable salary. The mother is formally registered in the village, but does not live there, but lives somewhere in the city. And she works every other day or two. He gets little. And when on duty, strangers look after the child.

The father’s guardianship supported and said that the father had decent housing, and the mother did not live at the place of registration. Only the little girl’s mother was against the father’s request. As a result, the district court sided with the father. The appeal did not change this decision.

Even people in robes cannot always make a legally verified decision on such a pressing issue

The mother was forced to go to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. There, the defendant’s objections were re-read, and the Judicial Collegium for Civil Cases stated that there were grounds for canceling all decisions in this case, since the Collegium saw in it “significant violations of the norms of substantive and procedural law committed by the lower courts.”

This is what these violations looked like according to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

The mother is actually registered in the village and does not live there. But she, having separated from the girl’s father, officially married someone else and lives with her husband in his apartment, where there are all the conditions for a normal life for a child.

This confirms the conclusion of the municipality at the mother’s place of residence.

The district court, when deciding the dispute over where the child would live, proceeded from the conclusion of guardianship at the father’s place of residence and his work schedule. According to the court, the father has an advantage in living conditions. And the appeal was satisfied with this opinion. But not the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court first reminded its colleagues of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. There, Article 3 states that in all actions concerning children, regardless of whether they are taken by public or private institutions, courts or legislative bodies, primary consideration is given to ensuring the rights of the child.

Our Family Code states that if the parents have not agreed on the child’s place of residence, the court, when deciding this issue, must take into account the child’s attachment to each of the parents, brothers or sisters, the personal qualities of the father and mother, their work schedule and type of activity.

On this occasion, a special meeting of the Plenum of the Supreme Court was held (No. 10 of May 27, 1998). It said the following - if the parents live separately (it does not matter whether they were married or not), the child’s place of residence is determined only on the basis of his interests and with the obligatory consideration of his opinion. The moral qualities of the surrounding adults and the conditions for living and raising a child are important.

The Supreme Court emphasized that a legally significant and provable circumstance is considered to be clarification of the question of whether living with whom - with dad or mom - will most fully correspond to the interests of the little person. According to the law (this is the Civil Procedure Code, articles 67, 71, 195-198), the court’s conclusions about facts important to the case must be convincing, with references to legal acts, and should not be general and abstract. In our case, they turned out to be exactly like that.

This is what the Supreme Court observed in this dispute. Both lower courts said the father's work schedule and salary were "most favorable for raising the child." At the same time, there is not a word about the father’s salary in the case. The question of whether he could support his daughter was not explored.

A young child cannot be separated from his mother except in “exceptional circumstances.” Our court, when deciding where to live for the girl, did not bring up “exceptional circumstances.”

At the time of the trial, the girl’s mother lived with her husband in his apartment. And there, judging by the inspection report made by municipal workers, there are all conditions for life and education. Why the court gave preference to the father’s conditions for the apartment over the mother’s is unclear.

The Supreme Court emphasized that the very fact that the mother does not live at her place of registration in the village “does not indicate the defendant’s improper performance of his parental responsibilities.”

The Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 12) states that a child who is capable of articulating his or her views must be ensured the right to express them freely on all matters that affect him or her.

The child is given the opportunity to express an opinion in any judicial or administrative proceedings where matters affecting his or her interests are involved.

The same is said in national legislation - the Family Code of the Russian Federation. The child's opinion on who he wants to live with is asked by the guardianship when drawing up reports on the inspection of living conditions. Teachers or kindergarten teachers, social educators, and juvenile affairs inspectors have the right to ask the same questions.

In our case, the court did not ask such questions to the guardianship. Just as the court was not interested in the girl’s relationship with her parents, her moral and psychological development. The act of guardianship at the place of residence of the child’s father states that it is better for the girl to live with her father. But this statement is not substantiated.

The Supreme Court cited the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. It states that a young child should not be separated from his mother except in “exceptional circumstances.” Our court, when deciding where to live for the little girl, did not bring up a single “exceptional circumstance”.

The Supreme Court ordered the case to be reconsidered.

Accommodation for a day - is it possible for teenagers?

Renting housing to minors is extremely risky. The consequences of such transactions from a legal point of view for homeowners are not particularly significant. But if minor renters behave unscrupulously, this will cause trouble and cause unnecessary problems for the owners.

The risk of trouble from renting housing to teenagers on a daily basis is especially high. It is better to avoid such transactions, even if the rental income is quite impressive. Most often, teenagers rent housing for a day for the purpose of parties and other hectic events. And this can lead to a lot of trouble, including for the owner of the apartment.

Purchasing an apartment by minors

But what about if a teenager wants to live in his own separate apartment. Is it possible to purchase real estate in the name of a minor? The procedure for purchasing real estate for 14-18 year olds is similar to the process of renting a home. Only when buying an apartment does the teenager himself sign the contract, because according to the law he already has property rights. And the purchase and sale transaction itself is associated with some nuances:

Permission to purchase from parents/guardians and other representatives of the child is required. These persons will sign the appropriate clauses in the fields of the contract and title documentation.
Permission from the Board of Trustees is required. Its representatives will monitor the legality of transactions and, if necessary, protect the rights of the minor.

It turns out that you can buy an apartment in the name of a minor over 14 years old, but only with the permission of the parents/guardian and under the supervision of guardianship. Such teenagers have partial legal capacity, so they will not be able to fully manage their real estate. For example, rent it out or sell it. But such rights will appear with the onset of your 18th birthday.

conclusions

What we have.

Until the age of 14, children must live with their parents/guardians.
At the age of 14-18, a teenager can live separately from his parents, for example, when teenagers go to study in another city, live in dormitories or rented rooms.
A citizen will be able to rent an apartment on his own only after reaching 18 years of age.
For younger teenagers (16-17 years old), this can be done by their parents by concluding a lease agreement with the owners on their behalf.

Moreover, between the ages of 14 and 18, teenagers can sign a sales contract to purchase housing, but only with the consent of their parents/guardians.