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The threat my dad always used on me was, "get a job, or get out as soon as you're 18". I'm a dad now. I have one "child" who is 37 years old who doesn't work, and who I'd like to kick out, and another who's going to turn 18 in a few months. I don't want to repeat the mistake of my first, on my second.

So, as the bill payer, the meal provider, the transportation, and so on, I appeal to you: is it as easy as "kicking them out the door" on the day they turn 18 years old?

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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it belongs on parenting.stackexchange.com even with the tangential legal question.
    – BlueDogRanch
    Jun 21, 2018 at 21:11
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    @BlueDogRanch - No; I'd kick them both out if I could. The only thing holding me back is the law. Hence law.se
    – Ken - Enough about Monica
    Jun 21, 2018 at 21:14
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    @horsehair the law is only an issue if one of your kids is going to sue you for access to your house after you change the locks. How likely is that? Also, legal advice is off topic here; you should engage the services of a lawyer. But as a general question, "what does Massachusetts law say about parents evicting their adult children?" should be fine here.
    – phoog
    Jun 21, 2018 at 21:36
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    See Thirty-year-old evicted from parents home.
    – Tim Lymington
    Jun 22, 2018 at 13:21
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    Stop transporting, block the wi-fi/internet, block the cable (if you have it) in their rooms, lock the fridge. If they want the privileges, get a job or make an education plan.
    – mkennedy
    Jun 22, 2018 at 14:22

1 Answer 1

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Generally, you would have to bring an eviction action just as you would for an ordinary landlord-tenant relationship.

This means given written notice served as required by MA law of a deadline to leave, and then if the child did not leave, filing an eviction lawsuit and serving the papers on the child, and then attending an eviction hearing, and then, if you prevailed in that hearing as you probably would (probably with horrible TV and newspaper publicity that might go viral in social media), and then, arrangements would be made to remove him and his stuff from the house on an appointed day with law enforcement and movers and you would change the locks. It would probably take a few weeks start to finish. It is not something that a non-lawyer should try to do themselves. A lawyer would probably charge you a few thousand dollars for this proceeding.

The main exception would be that generally a parent has a duty to support an adult disabled child who cannot provide for himself.

You probably do not have the legal right to simply kick out your child without an eviction action, although few adult children would choose to push their legal rights not to be removed in that manner if they were.

The fact that a child would likely end up homeless in some circumstances if you did this is something that most parents would not be at peace with and would regret later even if they felt good about the decision at the time, but that is a parenting decision and not a legal one.

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