A Minor's Right to Property Their Parents Threaten to Discard

Attorney Answer

Items you bought with your own money are yours — being 17 does not change that, and your parents do not acquire them by telling you to leave.

Minors can own personal property in Idaho. If your parents throw away or destroy things that belong to you, that is conversion, and Idaho law treats it as a claim you can bring for the value of what was taken. The deadline is set by Idaho Code § 5-218(3), which gives three years for "[a]n action for taking, detaining or injuring any goods or chattels, including actions for the specific recovery of personal property." That three-year period is the one that governs — not the four-year catch-all in § 5-224, which applies only where no other section supplies a period.

Because you are a minor, there is a second provision you need to know about, and it contains a trap. Idaho Code § 5-230 pauses the limitations clock for a person who is under the age of majority when the claim arises — but it caps that pause, providing that "the time limited for the commencement of an action shall not be tolled for a period of more than six (6) years on account of minority." So being under eighteen buys you time; it does not buy you unlimited time, and you should not treat this as something you can deal with whenever you get around to it.

One honest caution about what a claim is worth. Used clothing, electronics, and furniture are valued at what they were worth when discarded, not what you paid. Recovering the property is almost always better than recovering money for it — which is why the steps below are aimed at getting your things out of that house now, before there is anything to sue about.

What you can do

1. Make a written list of every item, today, with what it is, roughly when you bought it, and what it cost. Do it from memory now while it is fresh; you will not remember in six months. 2. Gather proof of purchase — receipts, order confirmation emails, bank or Venmo records, photos of you with the items. Ownership is the whole fight in a case like this, and proof of who paid is what settles it. 3. Send a written message to your parents — text or email, so it is dated and saved — asking to arrange a specific time to pick up your belongings, and listing them. Keep it calm and factual. That message does two things: it often resolves the problem, and if it does not, it establishes that you asked and they refused. 4. Ask your local police or sheriff's office for a civil standby. An officer accompanies you to the house while you retrieve your property. It is a routine request and it defuses the confrontation. 5. Bring someone with you and photograph the items as you load them, so there is no later dispute about what you took. 6. If they discard the property anyway, keep the list, the receipts, and the messages. Those three things are your case, and they are worth far more than your recollection of events later.

⏱ Time limits apply. A conversion claim over discarded property falls under the three-year period in Idaho Code § 5-218(3), and while § 5-230 tolls that period during your minority, it stops tolling after six years no matter what. Exactly when your clock started and when it runs out depends on when the property was actually taken or destroyed.