Annarbor.com- Demens and BooBoo sued for $10,000 in back rent

Submitted by NorthSideBlueFan on

http://www.annarbor.com/news/michigan-football-player-and-former-teammate-sued-for-allegedly-not-paying-thousands-of-dollars-in-r/

Ugh. I HOPE it is simply a misunderstanding. Ignore Lee's headline that add's an extra 0, as it is only $10k not $100k.

Not to be a rumor monger, but maybe this has something to do with the PT issue?

Don

October 22nd, 2010 at 6:50 AM ^

Where in hell is a college kid going to come up with 10K all in one chunk? You know Booboo ain't gonna be paying his share, so Demens is on the spot.

johnvand

October 22nd, 2010 at 6:58 AM ^

Need more details.

When you sign those leases it is worded that each signee is individually responsible for all the rent should another signee die, disappear, go batshit crazy and assault pizza delivery men, etc.

I HOPE it is just the fact that when Boubicar was thrown off the team and lost his scholarship, he also lost his rent stipend, and Demen's stipend wasn't enough to cover Boubicar's half.

Hopefully parents/guardians can cover this.  Otherwise Kenny is screwed.  That's the problem with co-signing contracts with people you're not 100% sure you can trust.

Baloo_Dance

October 22nd, 2010 at 7:36 AM ^

They each would have been on the hook for $10,020 over the course of the year. 

Not trying to put it all on BooBoo, but if he got tossed on the team in September, that would be $6,800 right there.  And his track record indicates he may not have been the best tenant beforehand.

rbgoblue

October 22nd, 2010 at 8:32 AM ^

Having spent the last 3 years leasing in the Ann Arbor housing market, I dont know where on central campus 2 tenants would have to find a 2 bedroom for $850.  It would have to be a real dive, and I just can't see two division 1 athletes, having a stipend to cover their rent, settling for.  Paying $850/month each would seem much more reasonable for a 2 bedroom house or apartment.

MGoPacquiao

October 22nd, 2010 at 9:03 AM ^

$1700 for an on campus 2 bedroom is reasonable?  I've been out for about 5 years, but damn, I thought all of the new apartment buildlings going up were supposed to help solve the ballooning rent problem.  I haven't been on another campus (other than in a large city) that pays as much for shitty housing like we did in Ann Arbor.

For Demens, Student Legal Services will be his best friend for awhile.  Hopefully he gets a good settlement.

robpollard

October 22nd, 2010 at 9:29 AM ^

Jimmy McMillan, who is on the "Rent is Too Damn High" ticket, is an actual candidate and he went off on a wonderful soliloquy during the NY Gov debate last week (where every party, no matter how small, gets a place on the stage).  Then, through the wonders of the Internet, someone mixed his actual words into a scene from the movie "Up."  If you like well-spoken crazy, enjoy! Maybe he can represent BooBoo in civil court.

jmscher

October 22nd, 2010 at 9:59 AM ^

I haven't paid rent in ann arbor since 200 but I had a two bedroom in U towers that was 900, which seemed a bit steep at the time, but 1700 is crazy insane.  Though you want to talk about high rent i live in nyc now, boom.

jwschultz

October 22nd, 2010 at 9:29 AM ^

WW already provided the link to HVC's website; my brother lived down there (off State, just north of Eisenhower) for about 6 months and I assure you that it would be reasonable to find a 2-br apartment for $850 there.

I'm wondering whether this news is related to any spitefulness or misunderstanding related to the recent bankruptcy/foreclosure/change of management that the Hidden Valley Club apartments went through in the last year or so.

I guess I'm also wondering why this didn't come up any number of months ago, instead of right now when Demens has finally seen some meaningful playing time and earned himself a spot on the field.  If the suit wasn't filed until September 27, that rent had been piling up for a long time.  HVC knows that college players don't get to renegotiate any contracts in the middle of the season, right?  

meals69

October 22nd, 2010 at 9:36 AM ^

I guess I'm also wondering why this didn't come up any number of months ago, instead of right now when Demens has finally seen some meaningful playing time and earned himself a spot on the field.  If the suit wasn't filed until September 27, that rent had been piling up for a long time.  HVC knows that college players don't get to renegotiate any contracts in the middle of the season, right?

 

i believe you hit the nail on the head sir!

jshclhn

October 22nd, 2010 at 7:02 AM ^

I don't understand how this happens with the stipend system.  Did Boo Boo and Demens just choose not to pay rent for a whole year?  Was there something more important to spend their free money on?

Offhand, this doesn't look good - pretty sure the NCAA would not approve any sort of loan to Demens or anything like that.  

Best case scenario is that the apartment complex really didn't hold up its end of the bargain, and this case either gets settled or drags out for a couple years.  

blueheron

October 22nd, 2010 at 7:23 AM ^

How long before they're identified as members of "RICHROD'S *FIRST* RECRUITING CLASS (!!!)?"

He'll get blamed for this somehow; it's just a matter of details.

meals69

October 22nd, 2010 at 7:36 AM ^

The question is: how does a land lord let college kids get 10k behind on their rent?

When i lived off campus, depending on where ya went, total rent for a place was in the$ 700-900 range split between the residents. And i dont think theres any land lord out there that'll let a group of kids not pay their rent the ENTIRE school year and get behind in the 5-figure range...i say that's epic fail on the land lord's part.

meals69

October 22nd, 2010 at 7:44 AM ^

Oh, i'm sure they would for a month or 2...once you get to about 3 months behind and havent payed ANY rent...some eyebrows should get raised and by the 4th month with still NO rent payed at all, some eviction notices should be getting served. To let them go the ENTIRE school year and pay no rent whatsoever puts at little of the blame on the land lord. Whether they play football at Michigan or Tiffin....they're still college kids.

mikefromaa

October 22nd, 2010 at 8:24 AM ^

Kenny probably thinks it is the end of the world right now, but in the grand scheme...who doesn't have bad credit coming out of college?  Worst case scenario they put him/his parents on a payment plan and they pay what they owe over time.  If they kicked Demens off the team for reasons of poverty, now THAT would be a pretty good lawsuit...

meals69

October 22nd, 2010 at 9:41 AM ^

this being a civil suit, i'd be surprised if kenny felt any reprecussions from the team, at least not as severe as the banhammer. and your worst case scenario is most like what'll happen. the court can't possibly expect a college kid to come up with $10k out of now-where. plus he could declare bankruptcy after the judgement and owe little if anything on it.

CAHLChamp

October 22nd, 2010 at 10:06 AM ^

a couple of things stand out to me.  One, the way Ohio law is interpreted, typically you cannot evict (although you can sue for back rent) if you let a tenant continually not pay their rent, so I also wonder how a landlord could let something like that kind of debt rack up.  Two, I ran into a situation once where one roommate was writing rent checks to the other roommate, but the other roommate was not paying the landlord.  The first roommate had no idea he was behind on the rent until he came home to a notice from the sherrif that he was being evicted.  Obviously I have no idea if this is the case here but it is not out of the realm of possibility a similar situation may have transpired here

MechEng97

October 22nd, 2010 at 7:52 AM ^

After reading The UFR last night I thought "Watch something bad happen with him" because that is just the way it has been for us the last 2.5 years...I cannot believe that this comes out the next day..so typical.  It's just like food for the haters - here we go....

STW P. Brabbs

October 22nd, 2010 at 6:53 PM ^

My understanding is that they do not, which is why the basketball team no longer has the likes of Webber and Battier.  But regardless, Kenny's from Oak Park, so the odds of his parents having at least a bit of scratch are pretty good. 

Maizeforlife

October 22nd, 2010 at 8:22 AM ^

This same thing happened to me when I was a student and all five of my roomates either dropped out or transfered to community college over the summer leaving me with a 6-person house and no roommates.  I ended up settling with the landlord for my portion of the back rent and then they went after each person individually for their share.

SysMark

October 22nd, 2010 at 8:54 AM ^

If they owe all 12 months that would mean there was no first month's rent or security deposit upfront?  Not like any lease I ever signed.  The landlord has to explain that part.  Hard to say much without seeing the documents.

Mercury Hayes

October 22nd, 2010 at 8:55 AM ^

Could we start a collection to pay his back rent or is that illegal? I feel like it's probably illegal. But if not let me be the first one to say I'd contribute $25 - $50 to help him out as long as he keeps plugging the god damn running lanes.

Okay, now that I've gone back and read that I'm am almost asured that can't be legal.

Dear NCAA, if you are reading this I just was talking about Chris Norman not Kenny Demens. I get my Big 10 linebackers messed up.

STW P. Brabbs

October 22nd, 2010 at 9:35 AM ^

Maybe we could just get him some kind of a gig at a local car dealership, where he gets paid a couple thousand a week without actually having to do any work.  Wait ... that doesn't sound quite right ...

Maybe we could see if there's someone with connections to the NFL who could loan him some money, with the understanding that he or some of his teammates would be open to a future business relationship with said benefactor after graduation ... nope, something feels wrong here too ...

Maybe Demens, who's pretty fit and everything, could just put an ad up on Craigslist and charge money for the privilege of his company for the night?

Any NCAA gurus in here who could tell me whether any of this might be kosher?