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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
Learning
Cost of legal guardian
Hello, I am operating a homestay in British Columbia, Canada and my homestay company has asked me if I would consider being a "legal guardian" of a teenage boy from Korea - in addition to providing the basic homestay service. This would be for two high school semesters (almost 1 year). They have offered to pay us $150 (Canadian dollars) more per month than our base homestay fee for this extra "legal guardian" responsibility which they have indicated would include going to the meet-the-teacher meetings at his high school and making sure he is doing the correct homework assignments and generally being more responsible for his well being.
If he becomes sick I would be the one to make sure he receives the attention he needs such as a visit to the clinic or hospital. Generally I would be looking out for his well being more than if I was only providing the basic room and board for the homestay. Being a legal guardian would almost be like having another child in our family.
I am happy to be the legal guardian and I feel I can fulfill this duty well because we are already experienced parents of children. However I am not sure what the standard "rate" for being a legal guardian should be. Most likely I will accept, but initially, I thought that the extra responsibility of being a legal guardian would be worth more - such as $350 to $450 more than the base homestay fee - of course I could be mistaken on the standard rate for this because I have never acted as legal guardian before. Yes, maybe $150 is a standard rate for this kind of extra responsibility but I do not know. What are other legal guardians being paid for this type of responsibility?
What is considered an average fee or a "reasonable" fee for this extra responsibility of acting as legal guardian? Is $150 more per month too low, too high or average?
PS Our base homestay fee is $850 (Canadian/month) for a teenage child which includes room and board. The additional legal guardian fee would be $150. Therefore the total would be $1000 per month. I don't question the basic homestay fee (the $850) - I only question whether the extra $150 is average for acting as legal guardian because I have never been a legal guardian before.
We were also concerned about legal issues such as what would happen if the child became injured in our home and his parents sued us but I have been re-assured by the homestay company that isn't an issue because they couldn't sue us unless we were extremely negligent parents - and we are not negligent parents at all and so we are confident there is no chance we could be sued - besides - we don't have much money to sue over anyways
Thank you for any suggestions
Mike
If he becomes sick I would be the one to make sure he receives the attention he needs such as a visit to the clinic or hospital. Generally I would be looking out for his well being more than if I was only providing the basic room and board for the homestay. Being a legal guardian would almost be like having another child in our family.
I am happy to be the legal guardian and I feel I can fulfill this duty well because we are already experienced parents of children. However I am not sure what the standard "rate" for being a legal guardian should be. Most likely I will accept, but initially, I thought that the extra responsibility of being a legal guardian would be worth more - such as $350 to $450 more than the base homestay fee - of course I could be mistaken on the standard rate for this because I have never acted as legal guardian before. Yes, maybe $150 is a standard rate for this kind of extra responsibility but I do not know. What are other legal guardians being paid for this type of responsibility?
What is considered an average fee or a "reasonable" fee for this extra responsibility of acting as legal guardian? Is $150 more per month too low, too high or average?
PS Our base homestay fee is $850 (Canadian/month) for a teenage child which includes room and board. The additional legal guardian fee would be $150. Therefore the total would be $1000 per month. I don't question the basic homestay fee (the $850) - I only question whether the extra $150 is average for acting as legal guardian because I have never been a legal guardian before.
We were also concerned about legal issues such as what would happen if the child became injured in our home and his parents sued us but I have been re-assured by the homestay company that isn't an issue because they couldn't sue us unless we were extremely negligent parents - and we are not negligent parents at all and so we are confident there is no chance we could be sued - besides - we don't have much money to sue over anyways
Thank you for any suggestions
Mike
Top answer
Mike wrote on 19 Sep 2004: [nq:1]Hello, I am operating a homestay in British Columbia, Canada and my homestay company has asked me if I would ... is no chance we could be sued - besides - we don't have much money to sue over anyways [/nq] I'd say that before you get yourself into anything that has consequences you cannot forsee (and you've mentioned at least one such), that you have all of your liabilities as a legal guardian spelled out. There must be some other way to work such an arrangement.
- Mike wrote on 19 Sep 2004: [nq:1]Hello, I am operating a homestay in British Columbia, Canada and my homestay company has asked me if I would ...
- is no chance we could be sued - besides - we don't have much money to sue over anyways [/nq] I'd say that before you get yourself into anything that has consequences you cannot forsee (and you've mentioned at least one such), that you have all of your liabilities as a legal guardian spelled out.
- There must be some other way to work such an arrangement.
- Can't you just get some kind of parental power of attorney from the child's parents, a legal document that allows you to act on the child's behalf as if you were the child's legal guardian in specific and restricted cases?
- If you are someone's legal guardian, then I suspect you assume a **** of a lot more responsibilities for that someone than if you merely had a power of attorney.
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4 Answers
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Mike wrote on 19 Sep 2004:
[nq:1]Hello, I am operating a homestay in British Columbia, Canada and my homestay company has asked me if I would ... is no chance we could be sued - besides - we don't have much money to sue over anyways
[nq:1]Hello, I am operating a homestay in British Columbia, Canada and my homestay company has asked me if I would ... is no chance we could be sued - besides - we don't have much money to sue over anyways
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[nq:1]Hello, I am operating a homestay in British Columbia, Canada and my homestay company has asked me if I would ... sued - besides - we don't have much money to sue over anyways
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Thank you for all these helpful responses. Obviously it would appear that there are more risks and implications than I had originally thought (or had been led to think) in accepting the position to be a legal guardian. I am sure glad I asked this question on this newsgroup. I will seriously reconsider - in fact we probably will not be legal guardians now (unless everything is spelled out clearly i
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I could be mistaken and this is not legal advice but the term your Homestay company should be using is legal "Custodian". When you host a minor in Canada you are the Custodian of that child whether you sign papers or not. The "legal" issue comes about when the Canadian Embassy in the child's country wants proof that there will be an adult looking out for the childs best interests while in Canada.
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