# Adult living at home: What are my rights?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adult-living-at-home-what-are-my-rights/198903>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 1, 2003, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adult-living-at-home-what-are-my-rights/198903 "2003-09-01T02:46:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2003, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adult-living-at-home-what-are-my-rights/198903/21 "2003-09-01T15:42:20Z")

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IANAL etc.

> [@](#):
>
> Hypothetically, would Hayduke’s level of protection increase if he agreed to pay a nominal amount of rent each month?

Yes, because his legal status changes from “member of household” to “tenant.”

> [@](#):
>
> Suppose you have a pair of incredibly nosy neighbors… so nosy that they sneak on to your property one night and peer in your back window, only to see you loading your fully automatic weapons while smoking crystal meth and cheating on your taxes. Scandalized, they rush back to their house and call the police. Based on their call, the police obtain a warrant and search your home, find the incriminating material, and arrest you.
> 
> Is the Fourth Amendment implicated here?

My admittedly limited understanding of the case law is that no, it is not, because the nosy neighbors are not the police or agents of the police.

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**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2003, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/adult-living-at-home-what-are-my-rights/198903/22 "2003-09-01T15:53:40Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Hayduke Lives!! \*  
> \*\*I’ll be 18 in a little bit. But I still live with my parents, and probably will for at least the next 6 months.
> 
> When I’m legally an adult, what are my rights regarding my privacy and that sort of stuff? Will my parents still be able to snoop through my room to see if I have drugs? I’m talking legally.  
> Do they have the legal right to do that when I’m no longer legally a child? If it helps the answer any, I won’t be paying any board or rent. But I don’t see how not paying them gives them the right to rummage through my shit while I’m gone. What’s the law? \*\*

That you would even ask this as a question indicates your youth. Trying to stand on legal search and seizure code regs as a non-rent paying 18 year old living in your parents home is absurd in a real world, practical sense. Your history with them is going to govern whether they stay out of your room or not, not the threat of legal action and/or whether you are paying them rent or not. If you came back to their house after being away as an adult the expectation of privacy context would be different, but as it stands you’re still just their kid and they might well toss your room if they suspected you were doing bad stuff.

If you want real privacy move out. If you need privacy because you may be induging in herb occasionally or holding your stash there _please_ move out. Depending on the nature of the drug laws in your state your parents may wind up fighting not to lose their house if a sufficient quantity of drugs is found on premises.

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