What legal rights and responsibilities do Utah parents have to their adult children?
Oct 30, 2023, 7:00 PM
What age should children move away from home? One Italian mother believes that it's certainly before 40. What do Utah parents think? (Canva)
(Canva)
SALT LAKE CITY — What age should children move out of their parent’s house? One Italian mother believes that it’s certainly before they turn 40.
A 75-year-old woman from Pavia, Italy has sued her two adult sons, 40 and 42, to have them removed from her house. CNN reports that in court papers she has referred to them as “parasites” and “bamboccioni,” which translates to big babies. The Italian woman claims that her sons “had been living in the family apartment without contributing financially or helping around the house.”
Ultimately the judge sided with the woman. Her sons have until December to move out.
Can Utah parents legally evict their adult children?
What if this happened in Utah? What legal rights and responsibilities do Utah parents have to their adult children?
KSL Legal Analyst Greg Skordas said, assuming their children don’t co-own the property, Utah parents have every right to evict their adult children from their homes.
“I mean, they’re treated like tenants just as anyone else who would be in the house, even if they’re not paying rent, or being responsible that way,” he told KSL NewsRadio’s Dave Noriega and Taylor Morgan. “If you wanted to take steps to have them removed and have them evicted from the home,” you could Skorad says.
According to Skordas, parents in Utah do have a moral and legal obligation to care for their children until they reach the age of majority, 18.
“After that … they’re on their own and parents don’t have any legal matters,” he said. “Once your kid’s 18, you don’t, you don’t really under the law owe them anything.”
However, Skordas said, the state assumes that parents will care for their children until they graduate high school.
“Technically, we usually assume that 18 or until a person graduated from high school, whichever comes later,” he said.
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