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Lets say 17 year old Alice signs a contract with Bob in which Bob agrees to perform some service and Alice agrees to pay Bob only after the service is performed. Bob performs the service per the contract, then Alice comes back and says she is a minor and attempts to void the contract without paying bob. Does bob have any recourse to get payment for his services?

There are a few variants to this basic premise which may have different results.

  1. Alice intentionally mislead Bob about her age despite bob putting in a sincere effort to confirm she was old enough to sign the contract. I assume at that point Alice is guilty of fraud?

  2. Bob made a presumption of Alice's age and so Alice was not intentionally misleading, but Alice still signed the contract with the intent of voiding it without making a payment?

  3. Bob made a presumption and Alice was an ignorant teen who signed the contract in good faith, then her parents came in and voided it afterwards? In this case is Bob just screwed?

As a more concrete example of 3 lets say a bank makes a mistake and sends Alice a preapproved credit card. Alice accepts it and uses it without understanding how credit cards work or that she will have to pay it back. When Alice starts getting Collection calls her parent's attempt to void the contract due to Alice's age.

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A minor or their guardian can legally void any contract up to some time after their 18th birthday. (USA, other countries are similar). Nothing you can do.

So you need to take this into account when you enter into a contract. Kid mows your lawn and gets paid is absolutely fine risk wise. Worst case your grass doesn’t get cut. You pay then they mow the lawn, thats risky. You might lose your money. So you wouldn’t do that.

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