At what age is child custody established? This issue will be discussed in the article later, and first we will understand what it is and what is the difference between a trustee and a guardian. After all, taking care of a child is a very serious act, and before you make it, you need to know everything about this issue.
What is the difference between guardianship and guardianship
Before you find out at what age guardianship of children is established, you need to understand the difference between the above terms.
Unfortunately, in our time, a lot of children are left without parents. The reasons may be different, but the result is one - the child goes to the orphanage. Of course, it would be better if such children were adopted, but not everyone can dare to do such an act.
In this regard, it is much easier to establish custody or guardianship of a child. This procedure is much faster than adoption, and the required documents are less. So what is the difference between guardianship and guardianship?
Child custody is established at the age of fourteen. The trustees are legal representatives of the child and can perform legal actions on his behalf. The trustee is required to help minor children exercise their legal and civil rights.
A person who has issued guardianship has the right to allow or prohibit certain legal actions.
Custody is established over children who have not yet reached the age of fourteen. Guardians are legal representatives of the child. They have the right to take legal action on behalf of the child.
Various codes spell out all the requirements for a guardian or trustee, the age of the child, the duties of trustees and guardians and the rights of the child. Both trusteeship and guardianship can be established over minor children, citizens with limited legal capacity and disabled citizens.
If a person is recognized as legally incompetent, then custody is established over him. Guardianship is in the case of partial legal capacity of a person.
Who is affected by the trustee or guardian
Children who are in the care or guardianship of adults are called wards. These may be minor children in the following cases:
- Lost relatives due to illness or death.
- They have incompetent parents.
- Their parents are absent for a long time.
- Parents deprived of parental rights.
- They abandoned the child.
- Parents shy away from raising a child.
- They are alcoholics or drug addicts.
- Parents create conditions that interfere with the normal development of the child.
- The child is being abused.
It does not matter what form of education is chosen. The differences concern only legal rights, property interests and civil rights. After all, guardianship of children is established at the age of 14 years of the last, which means that their legal rights are different.
Rights of trustee or guardian
Since guardianship is established over children who have reached the age of fourteen, the rights of the trustee are wide. Among them:
- The permission of transactions to the ward up to eighteen years.
- Representation of interests of the child before the state and various organizations.
- Receiving state benefits for children.
- The opportunity to raise a child and educate him.
The rights of a guardian are different in that until he reaches the age of fourteen, he himself will make transactions on behalf of the child.
Duties of the trustee or guardian
Guardianship is established over children who have reached the age of fourteen years, which means that, until adulthood, the trustee has responsibilities towards the child. It:
- Providing decent housing.
- The need to take care of the health of the child and care for him.
- Feed the baby and buy him clothes.
- Medical care for the child and the purchase of medicines.
- Accommodation with wards on the same territory for up to sixteen years.
- The obligation of education and training.
- Support for children, assistance in the performance of their duties and protection of their rights.
- Representation of interests of the child in various organizations.
- Do not prohibit communication with live parents.
- Every year, submit a report indicating all the amounts that were spent on the child.
Requirements for a Guardian or Trustee
So at what age is child custody established? At 11 or 14? According to the law, when a child reaches the age of fourteen. Now you need to find out the requirements that apply to the trustee himself.
So, only a fully capable person can become a guardian or trustee. When choosing between candidates, grandparents, siblings who have already reached the age of majority will have preemptive rights.
But this does not mean that no one will listen to the child’s opinion. At age 14, the child already has its own independent opinion. He is no longer 10 or 11. Guardianship over children is established at the age of fourteen, which means that the child can express his opinion about who he would like to see as a guardian. The opinion of younger children is also taken into account. If a child is afraid of a guardian, then no one will force him to live with him.
Mandatory requirements for a trustee
What are the duties and rights of the guardian? Guardianship of children is established before the age of eighteen years of the child, so the guardian must be fully capable, and most importantly, an adult. There is an upper age threshold of sixty years.
The future trustee must undergo special training, have no criminal record, not commit unlawful acts and have no drives to the police. Also, the candidate for trustees must be a citizen of our country, mentally and physically healthy. The future trustee should not be addicted to drugs or alcohol.
Since trusteeship and guardianship is voluntary, so long as the candidate does not agree to become a trustee, no one can force him, even if the right to guardianship of children is set at 14 years old and the child is about to be fulfilled.
Why a person cannot become a trustee or guardian
There are a certain set of factors that will negatively affect the decision on guardianship:
- A person under the age of eighteen.
- He has restrictions on parental rights or is completely deprived of them.
- A person was previously convicted of crimes against health, human life, or society.
- He was already a guardian, but due to non-compliance with his duties he was suspended.
- Has alcohol, drug addiction or suffers from gambling.
- A person suffers from certain diseases or has some kind of disability group.
- The candidate did not undergo training, which means that he does not have the right to become a trustee. There are exceptions to this paragraph. They concern those who are already a guardian, and relatives of the child.
If the guardian is over sixty
So, it was determined at what age guardianship over children is established, obligations of trustees and requirements for them. But what if the trustee has already crossed a sixty-year milestone?
The Civil Code of our country establishes certain requirements for trustees, all of which are indicated in article 35. With regard to age, only the lower threshold is defined - eighteen years. To what age guardianship of children is established, the Code has not defined.It turns out that there is no upper bound. But in practice this is not entirely true.
The 60-year limit is an unwritten rule that guardianship authorities apply to protect children. The fact is that people over sixty are not able to fully fulfill their responsibilities towards children.
With age, problems with health, memory and mental activity occur. And since trusteeship is taken over small children, then you need to deal with them, spend time and energy. Another reason for the failure of the guardianship authorities is that a person who has crossed the sixty-year milestone, unfortunately, has a great risk of becoming seriously ill and dying. This will be a serious injury to the child. He will not only lose a loved one, but he will have to learn to live with new people, get used to new circumstances.
Based on this, the guardianship authorities try to enable the child to be under guardianship until adulthood. That is, a guardian person must be physically and mentally active, be able to support a child until the last eighteen years of age.
According to the Family Code, guardianship of children is established at the age of eighteen years of the guardian. It turns out that a well-feeling and neat-looking person will not be able to refuse custody.
In order for the decision to be positive, you must submit an application to the guardianship authorities. All kinds of certificates must be attached to it, which confirm physical and mental health, characteristics from work and from neighbors, and more. For a working person, you still need to provide a certificate in the form of 2-NDFL.
If people over sixty are appointed guardians, then these are the grandparents of the child, since they have priority right.
Termination of custody or guardianship
At what age is child custody established in the Family Code? It has already been said that the children must be fourteen years old. But at what age it stops and for what reasons, we will discuss further:
- If a person took custody of a child, then with the achievement of the last fourteen years, it ceases and automatically passes into the form of guardianship.
- The concept of guardianship of children is established at the age of fourteen. It ends at eighteen. If a child is studying full-time, then it can be extended to twenty-three years.
In addition to the natural causes of cessation of guardianship related to age, there are also those described in the Federal Law "On Guardianship". Among them:
- The expiration of the contract.
- Emancipation.
- Parents wrote a statement asking them to stop guardianship. This applies to cases when parents went on a long business trip and appointed a guardian themselves.
- Death of trustee or ward. In this case, a death certificate is provided.
- The trustee became incapacitated.
- Voluntary refusal of guardianship.
- The trustee has been discharged due to their violations.
- Other reasons.
Who is considered partially competent or completely incompetent
When a person cannot understand what he is doing and manage his own actions because of some disease, he is recognized as incapable. It does not matter at what age guardianship and trusteeship are established over children; in any case, such a person is not trusted to take care of a child.
A person who has a drug or alcohol addiction is recognized as incompetent. In addition, a player or a person who, with his addictions, can cause material harm to a child, is also considered incompetent.
Recognition of incapacity can only be achieved through a court in civil procedure.
Disposal of a child’s property
Any property possessed by the child is transferred to the trustee according to the inventory. It is composed of guardianship authorities.The guardian must protect this property, take care of it and make it profitable.
The trustee may dispose of the finances of the child only with the consent of the guardianship authorities. You can spend money only on the needs of the child.
The only exception is the cost of living for the ward. To spend this money, you do not need the consent of the trustees.
Any transaction related to property must be approved by the guardianship authorities. This includes the sale of property, rent, exchange, gift, pledge and other operations.
If the child has real estate or expensive property that requires management, then the guardianship authorities can conclude a power of attorney agreement with the property manager. The latter must also coordinate all transactions with guardianship authorities.
State benefits
Do not think that the maintenance of the child lies entirely on the shoulders of the trustee. Trustees are paid state maintenance.
When establishing custody, a lump sum is paid. It reaches fourteen thousand rubles per child.
For the guardianship of a very small child (up to one and a half years), two and a half thousand rubles are paid each month. This figure is relevant only for one child. If there are two or more children, then the amount doubles.
In addition, the amount paid every month for the maintenance of the child, which is due until adulthood or the completion of full-time higher education.
Trustees are entitled to additional benefits, cash payments, or in-kind assistance.
Special cases of termination of custody
It was indicated above that at the age of fourteen, guardianship of children is established. The duties and rights of the guardian were also reviewed. But there are exceptional cases where trusteeship ends earlier.
This may be the situation:
- When a minor child marries.
- When a child is adopted or returned to parents, guardianship also automatically ends.
- Putting a child in a specialized institution, for example, for treatment or just in a boarding school, also ceases custody.
Conclusion
The issue of guardianship and trusteeship cannot be taken lightly. The decision to take the child must be balanced and deliberate.
Otherwise, you risk breaking the child’s life. After all, this little man has already experienced great stress when he lost his parents or relatives. For the same reason, guardianship authorities try to protect the baby from repeated experiences. Each trustee has duties and rights. Guardianship over children is set at the age of 14 to 18 years, when the child is in dire need of adult care.
Even despite the fact that the fate of children is already unenviable, there are people who try to profit from subsidies from the state, taking the child under guardianship. This is fundamentally wrong. First of all, a child is not a toy. He feels everything and understands how they relate to him. Secondly, the guardianship authorities work quickly, quickly bring such violators to clean water and cancel guardianship. And thirdly, you need to understand that on someone else’s grief and suffering, especially children's suffering, you will not be able to improve your own financial situation.
If adoption is a very difficult and complicated procedure for you, then consider guardianship or guardianship. Thus, you will help one (or maybe not one) child to feel what a family is. It is important to love the baby, and not to use it. And then you will return a hundredfold for a good deed and a happy childhood. Children should not be alone, there should be an adult nearby who will help and protect. After all, children are the most defenseless people on the planet and, moreover, our future.