Lawyers analyse child’s ‘new room contract’ with 9-year-old sister

Avatar photo

By Aishah Hussain on

‘Would a Haribo rent be a sensible consideration?’

Image credit: @JodiNewtonLaw

A lawyer mum has taken to Twitter to share a funny bedroom ‘contract’ between her son and daughter, and other lawyers have given their thoughts on its “legality”.

Jodi Newton, a medical negligence solicitor at Osbornes Law, tweeted: “Thoughts on the legality of this contract I have found between my 11 year old son and 9 year old daughter concerning an agreement reached about who takes the loft room in our new house?”

The three-clause kiddy ‘contract’ hands ownership of the loft in Newton’s new house to her son, and once signed, her daughter cannot say that her brother does not own it.

Twitter lawyers joked that the typed note had no consideration (“both literally and metaphorically”) or witness and that there may be “some form of duress due to the ages of the parties” involved. One Twitter user wrote: “Would a Haribo rent be a sensible consideration?”

The latest comments from across Legal Cheek

Other lawyers piled in giving their ‘advice’:

There were further amusing suggestions from lawyers that the children should hold the room as joint tenants or that the daughter should ensure a “transfer undertaking when her brother goes to university (to study law)”. Another Twitter user suggested that they test it in court “with Mummy LJ and Daddy LJ presiding together with the President, Grandma LJ”. Others said that the parents taking up the new room would constitute — cue nerdy contract law joke — “frustration”.

Simon Mallett of KBW Barristers Chambers tweeted: “Unreadable signature — instantly deniable and unclear what is being offered — masterly agreement — they both have a very bright (and worrying) career ahead.”

For the latest news, commercial awareness insight, careers advice and events:

Sign up to the Legal Cheek Newsletter

Related Stories

Barristers to share Gray’s Inn with 300 kids as new primary school gets go-ahead

To open amid top chambers next year, with kiddies lunching in historic hall

May 17 2021 1:16pm

Home-working Serjeants’ Inn QC drafts hilarious ‘legal notice’ to kids

Prompting other lawyer parents to do the same

Mar 27 2020 11:51am