The short version
- Usually yes — against you. A minor's contract is voidable rather than void: the minor may undo it, the adult counterparty may not, and until the minor acts the deal runs normally.
- The right to undo it, called disaffirmance, runs through minority and for a reasonable time after the birthday. California states it in one sentence at Family Code § 6710; most states reach the same place at common law.
- Keeping the benefit after majority ratifies the deal. Georgia codifies the point: a person who retains the property or keeps enjoying the consideration after turning 18 has affirmed the contract and is bound by it.
- Eighteen is not the line everywhere. Alabama and Nebraska set majority at 19, and Mississippi's general definition of a minor is under 21 — though for contracts affecting property it is 18.
Two things are true at once, and the second is the one that costs money. A teenager who signs can usually get out of it. The business on the other side of that same signature cannot get out of anything.
Voidable is not the same as void, and the difference is who holds the option
A void agreement is a nullity for everybody. A minor's contract is voidable, which is a different animal: formed, enforceable, binding on both sides — but one party holds an election to undo it. California states the rule as plainly as any state. Under Family Code § 6710, "a contract of a minor may be disaffirmed by the minor before majority or within a reasonable time afterwards".
Read that from the adult side. You have signed a twelve-month deal with a seventeen-year-old creator. She can end it in month two, or three months after her eighteenth birthday. You can end it only on the terms the contract gives you.
One page, two different documents
What the minor holds
- A right to undo the deal, at any point
- No notice period, no form, no reason required
- A window that survives the birthday
What the adult holds
- Full performance obligations from day one
- Only the exit rights the contract itself grants
- The risk of having already delivered
The signature binds one of you, and which one was settled before either of you read it.
Some contracts sit outside a minor's capacity altogether. California Family Code § 6701 says a minor cannot give a delegation of power, cannot "make a contract relating to real property or any interest therein", and cannot contract about personal property not in their possession. That is a capacity limit, not an option to unwind.
Which birthday counts is a state question
Most of the country removes the disability at 18 — Florida's formulation is typical, with section 743.07 removing "the disability of nonage" for everyone 18 or older. A handful of states sit elsewhere.
| Where | Majority | The wrinkle |
|---|---|---|
| Most states | 18 | The disability of nonage is removed by statute on the eighteenth birthday. |
| Alabama | 19 | A person is "relieved of his or her disabilities of minority" at 19 under Code § 26-1-1. |
| Nebraska | 19 | Everyone under 19 is declared a minor by Rev. Stat. § 43-2101. |
| Mississippi | 21 generally | Code § 1-3-27 defines a minor as anyone under 21 — but where a statute concerns contracting about property, the line is 18. |
Majority is not the only exit. Marriage removes the disability in many states — Florida § 743.01 does it for anyone who is or has been married — and courts can lift it on petition, which Florida allows from age 16 under § 743.015. Emancipation is a court order or a statutory status, so ask for the document.
Necessaries is a much narrower exception than it sounds
Every state keeps some version of the rule that a minor cannot disaffirm their way out of paying for what they actually needed. The trap is assuming "necessary" describes the goods. It describes the minor's situation. California § 6712 removes the right only where three things line up:
- The contract is to pay the reasonable value of the thing — not the price you negotiated.
- The things were actually furnished, not merely promised.
- The minor was not under the care of a parent or guardian able to provide for them.
Georgia points the burden at the supplier. Under Code § 13-3-20 the contract binds the minor as if they were 18, "except that the party furnishing them to the minor shall prove that the parent or guardian of such minor had failed or refused to supply sufficient necessaries". That is not a defence you assert. It is a case about a family you know nothing about.
My 17-year-old signed a lease. Is it binding?
On the landlord, yes. On the teenager, no. In California it is worse than voidable: a lease is an interest in real property, which § 6701 puts outside a minor's capacity entirely.
Shelter is the classic necessary, so landlords reach for that argument. It works where the rule points — a minor nobody is supporting, housed at a reasonable rent. It fails for a seventeen-year-old with a bedroom at home who signs a student flat with friends, because there the parent is providing.
Which is why letting agents rely on none of this. They put an adult on the rental agreement as a joint tenant, or take a financial guarantee from a parent.
Photo releases, brand deals and the teenage creator
A release is a contract, so one signed by a sixteen-year-old is voidable like anything else. Two further layers sit on top of that.
The first is that some states require the parent's consent in terms. New York Civil Rights Law § 50 makes it a misdemeanour to use a living person's likeness or voice for advertising or trade "without having first obtained the written consent" of that person — "and if a minor of such minor's parent or guardian". That is a statutory condition, not a courtesy, and a shoot released only by the teenager is exposed before anyone disaffirms anything.
Model release template
Full text, free to read and copy, with parent or guardian consent as a separate signature — the part that carries the weight when the subject is under 18.
The second layer is that the parent's consent does not convert the child's promises into adult ones. It satisfies the statute and binds the parent. The minor's own grants stay voidable. What a release actually buys you is covered in the guide on model releases.
Only a court genuinely closes the door. Several states run approval statutes for minors' entertainment and sports contracts, and approval is what removes the infancy ground: California Family Code § 6751 says an approved contract "cannot be disaffirmed on that ground either during the minority of the person entering into the contract, or at any time thereafter". New York's Arts and Cultural Affairs Law § 35.03 caps such a term at three years, or seven with qualified entertainment counsel.
Can a minor cancel a gym membership?
Yes, by two separate routes people confuse. The first is disaffirmance, which is about age and belongs to the minor alone. The second is a health club cancellation statute, which is about the industry and belongs to everybody: New York General Business Law § 624 lets any buyer cancel within three business days of receiving the written contract.
Whether the waiver in the same membership pack survives is a separate analysis, set out in the guide on whether liability waivers hold up.
Turning 18 does not close the door. Keeping the benefit does
The common misconception is that the eighteenth birthday converts a voidable contract into a binding one automatically. It does not. The window runs on for a reasonable time afterwards, deliberately unfixed.
What ends it is conduct. Georgia Code § 13-3-20 states the mechanism: where a minor received property or other valuable consideration and, "after arrival at the age of 18, retains possession of such property or continues to enjoy the benefit", the contract is ratified. Keep the car, keep the account — the election has been made, in favour of the contract.
The window, and the act that shuts it
Signature
Contract formed
Binding on the adult at once, voidable at the minor's election.
During minority
Disaffirmance available
No notice period, no form, no reason.
Majority
A reasonable time begins
Not a fixed number of days, and still open.
After
Ratified by conduct
Retaining the benefit affirms the contract for good.
A parent's signature binds the parent, not the child
This is the answer to whether you have to co-sign, and not the one most parents expect. Co-signing does not repair the teenager's promise. It adds yours beside theirs, and yours is the one enforced.
Berg v. Traylor, decided by the California Court of Appeal in 2007, is the clean illustration. A mother and her ten-year-old son both signed a management agreement. The son disaffirmed the contract and an arbitration award made under it, and succeeded. The judgment against the mother stood: "a disaffirmance of an agreement by a minor does not operate to terminate the contractual obligations of the parent who signed the agreement".
The principle is codified for negotiable instruments. UCC § 3-305(d) lets an accommodation party raise the defences the accommodated party could raise, "except the defenses of discharge in insolvency proceedings, infancy, and lack of legal capacity". Infancy never travels to the person who signed underneath.
What it costs to make a minor's signature stick
- Free
Take the signature and accept the risk
Fine for small transactions performed on the spot. Reckless for anything with a term.
- One extra signature
Add a parent as guarantor or joint party
Enforceable against the adult whatever the minor does.
- Delay and a fresh document
Re-paper it after the birthday
Beats relying on ratification by conduct.
- Filing, guardian ad litem, term cap
Petition for court approval
The only route that defeats disaffirmance, and only for the contract types listed.
Most deals land on rung two, which protects you against the parent rather than the child.
The conclusion is not "avoid minors". It is that a minor's signature is worth having as consent and worth nothing as security. Take it for what signatures do, and take an adult's signature for anything you would sue on. If you are already on the wrong side of one, the general routes out are in the guide on getting out of a contract you signed — infancy is simply the route only one of you can use.
Sources
- Cornell LII — age of majority
- Florida Statutes ch. 743 — removal of disabilities of nonage
- Cal. Family Code § 6710 — right of disaffirmance
- Cal. Family Code § 6701 — contracts a minor cannot make
- Cal. Family Code § 6712 — the necessaries exception
- Cal. Family Code § 6750 — contracts eligible for court approval
- Cal. Family Code § 6751 — effect of court approval on disaffirmance
- Georgia Code § 13-3-20 — minors, ratification and necessaries
- Alabama Code § 26-1-1 — age of majority
- Nebraska Rev. Stat. § 43-2101 — age of majority
- Mississippi Code § 1-3-27 — definition of minor
- NY Civil Rights Law § 50 — written consent, and a minor's parent or guardian
- NY Arts and Cultural Affairs Law § 35.03 — judicial approval of infants' contracts
- NY General Business Law § 624 — health club cancellation
- Berg v. Traylor (Cal. Ct. App. 2007)
- 20 U.S.C. § 1091a — no defense of infancy on federal student loans
- UCC § 3-305(d) — accommodation parties and the infancy defense
General information, not legal advice. This guide explains how these documents and rules generally work. Law varies by jurisdiction and changes, and none of it is applied to your circumstances here. For anything consequential, consult a licensed attorney where you are.
Frequently asked
Is a contract with a minor void or voidable?
Voidable, in almost every case. The contract is validly formed and binds the adult party in the ordinary way, but the minor holds an election to undo it. A few contracts are outside a minor's capacity entirely — California, for instance, bars a minor from contracting about real property or giving a delegation of power — and those are a stronger form of invalidity.
Can a minor cancel a gym membership contract?
Generally yes, by disaffirming it on the ground of age. Many states also give every member, regardless of age, a separate statutory right to cancel a health club contract within a few days of signing — New York allows three business days from receipt of the written contract. What the club can keep for sessions already used depends on the state's restitution rule.
Do I have to co-sign for my teenager to sign a contract?
You do not have to, but a business will usually insist, and it should understand what it is getting. Co-signing does not repair the minor's promise. It creates a parallel obligation on the adult that survives whatever the minor later does, which is why the adult is the party actually sued when the arrangement collapses.
Can someone disaffirm a contract after turning 18?
Yes, for a reasonable time after the birthday. There is no fixed number of days; courts look at the type of contract and what happened after majority. The window closes on ratification, which is usually conduct rather than words — keeping the goods, continuing to use the service, or carrying on with payments once legally an adult.
Is a photo release signed by a 16-year-old valid?
Treat it as unreliable on its own. The release is voidable by the subject, and several states require the written consent of a parent or guardian before a minor's likeness may be used for advertising or trade at all. Get the parent to sign in their own right, and check whether your state has a court-approval route for likeness contracts.