As a minor child, you cannot legally sign any lease, contract, legal document, agreement. You cannot open a bank account in your own name. And no 18 y.o. roommate can assume legal liability under the lease. Lease are "joint & several liability" - if one does not pay in full, the other must. You cannot sign any lease, not even with a roommate, until you are over 18, AND meet all additional credit, employment, etc, requirements of a landlord. Your parents must cosign your lease.
Even once you are over 18, if you don't meet employment/income verification, credit requirements (you won't), as a student, LL has every right to insist that parents (or court-appointed legal guardian while you remain under age) sign the lease. Court-appointed legal guardianships automatically expire on 18th birthday except in cases of incapacity.
Live in the dorms! It's cheaper & more convenient anyway.
Whether a landlord would rent to an underage minor is normally up to the landlord or the property manager.
I personally would never rent to an unsupervised minor under any condition, even though the parents signed for the rental unit.
There are too many variables, with roommates, who caused damages to the rental unit between the roommates, and the parents taking sides with their children, squabbles between roommates about guest staying over, parties and other experiences I have encountered with students.
It might be that there are good ones that would be good tenants, I have yet to find any.
Paying the rent each month is a plus, however, constant complaints from other tenants about loud noises, a lot of foot traffic to and from the rental unit, cars parked in reserved parking, MJ smells from the unit and to the parking structures are not desirable, as they would keep others from renting in the rental complex.
I hope this has been of some benefit to you, good luck.
"FIGHT ON"
Generally landlords are willing to rent to unaccompanied minors with a co-signer in a college town, and having an 18 year old roommate is a plus. The only warning I can offer is that some colleges actually require freshman to live on campus unless your family is local, thus living in an apartment may not even be an option. Good Luck.
I wouldn't see why not. If your parents cosign plus you have a roommate who is 18 then you should be able to. I also live in Nebraska.
It's 18 in every state. LL may allow it in a college town.
Yes this is common in College towns where the apartments are close to campus.
As long as they get the first/last months rent ,a security deposit and someone pays the rent every month they shouldn't mind.
Neither one of you will be able to rent. You are not 19.
So I will be graduating from high school early (17) and am going to start college. I won't live in a dorm for reasons that are unnecessary to mention, and already have my eye on a few apartments that are one block from my college. I know that currently I would need my parents to cosign, not only because the legal age is 19 in Nebraska but because of my lack of credit. I'm going to have a roommate who is 18 and have financials figured out, so my question is would it be allowed? Would landlords let me live there without my parents even though their names will be on all legal documents? Thank you!!
