Q: Am I legally allowed to lock the door to my room if I pay my parents rent to live there(age=20)
I'm 20, almost 21, have a job, going to college, was briefly in the military, came out, had nowhere to go, had to move back in with parents, I pay my mother 200$ a month in rent to live there and she tells me suddenly I can't lock my door because it's her house and disrespectful, I'm 20 for gods sakes I NEED my door locked because nobody in the house respects my privacy otherwise. Do I have any legal rights as a tenant in a situation like this? Do I actually count as a tenant if I never signed anything?
A:
You are a tenant-at-will (also known as a month-to-month tenant). Because you don't have a lease, your mother (as landlord) doesn't have to provide a lock on your door and normally you would need the landlord's permission to install one. If you do so anyway, she can evict you.
Note that the landlord-tenant acts in the several states are generally written with renting exclusive occupancy rights in mind. Room and board, or living in a bedroom which is a part of a larger residential unit is usually not what the legislators had in mind when the LL/t act was written, so these laws are applied on an ad-hoc, make-fit basis.
If you and your mother can't agree on a written lease with the provisions you like, I suggest that you move.
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