SOUTH FULTONY COUNTY, Ga. — A senior in South Fulton says his tenants stopped paying rent more than six months ago, and he can’t get them out of the home.
Larney Owens told Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray he started eviction proceedings months ago.
The tenants took down the landlord’s cameras and put up their own.
South Fulton police told him this wasn’t a squatter case, because he did originally provide them a lease.
“We’ve had good tenants, we’ve had bad tenants, but we’ve never had these kind of tenants,” Owens said.
Since July the 75-year-old says he has not received a dime in rent from the tenants in the home where he raised his children.
Owens started eviction proceedings in September, but that was put on hold when his tenant, Tonya Henderson, filed for bankruptcy under the name Tonya Shevette Dean.
We found previous eviction cases for Tonya and Eugene Henderson from 2024 in Clayton County and 2022 in Valdosta - that one for more than $12,000.
Owens says it’s left him behind on his bills.
“I have disconnection notices from Georgia Power, SCANA, Atlanta Water,” he said.
Nobody answered at the home, but Gray spoke with Tonya Henderson by phone.
First, she said she had been paying rent.
“You’ve been paying rent every month?” Gray asked.
“Yes, through the court register. Why?’ she said.
Then her story changed.
“All the money that you owe for rent is in the hands of the court?” Gray asked.
“No, I’m not saying that. We was trying to pay into the court register. The landlord did not want to comply,” she said.
“So, you didn’t pay it to the court register?”
“No.”
A discharge order from federal bankruptcy court does wipe out thousands of dollars in unpaid rent the Hendersons owed Owens, but it does not give them the right to live in the house rent-free.
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