This story has been updated.
A couple in Syracuse, New York, took their 30-year-old son to court this week, hoping to force him to finally move out.
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According to Syracuse.com, Michael Rotondo had received cash offers and multiple orders to leave his family home, including five notices over the past few months beginning on Feb. 2.
In a response filed last Wednesday, Rotondo said the notices didn’t give him a reasonable amount of time to move out. He said he “wasn’t going to leave without a legal battle.”
State Supreme Court Justice Donald Greenwood actually praised Rotondo for the legal research he’d done, but ultimately said that he would have to move out of his parents’ home. He eventually asked the parents’ lawyer to come up with an eviction order to sign.
During the proceeding, Rotondo asked for six more months before the eviction. Greenwood said that was an “outrageous” demand, citing a relevant appellate court decision that concluded family members don’t receive special treatment, besides in rare circumstances.
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The 30-year-old refused to speak directly to his parents, Mark and Christina.
After the eviction proceeding, Rotondo spoke to media outside the courtroom, criticizing the judge’s eviction order. He plans to appeal.
"When asked if he considered spending as much time looking for a new place to live as fighting the eviction, Rotondo replied that he wasn't ready to leave home," Syracuse.com reported.
But on Wednesday, after the family drama unfolded in court, Rotondo told CNN he doesn't want to live there anymore.
“I don't have the means to do that tomorrow,” he said, blaming the wait on a custody battle he’s waging over his own son.
“I'm getting my son back, that's what I'm doing,” he said. But Greenwood and his parents both say he can do that somewhere else.
Rotondo, who lives in a bedroom in his parents’ house and has his own business, said he and his parents don’t talk, but there hadn’t been any incidents. He noted in court that they provide housing, but he doesn’t rely on them for food or laundry services.
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He asserted that he was entitled to an additional 30 days, giving him enough time to file an appeal and delay the eviction. On Wednesday, Rotondo told CNN he intends to ask for three more months.
“It's time. He's 30. And not paying rent. You need to be independent,” Syracuse resident Lashea Wright told News 8.
According to the 2017 "Young Money Survey," a 15-minute online self-reported analysis from TD Ameritrade, 48 percent of post-college young millennials who participated in the survey moved back in with their folks after college, possibly due to high student debt.
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But young millennials (ages 20 to 26) on average said they would be embarrassed to still live with their parents at age 28.
According to TD Ameritrade, young millennials on average hold $10,205 in student debt, which they expect to pay off by age 35.
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