Tenant problems - property sale

[Seamus Harper]

We've got a tenant who has been on month-to-month at a gas station that we own. He has been month-to-month since July of this year and never exercised his option to renew.

We're in the process of selling the station and the new buyers are requesting us to have the tenant vacate. We alerted the tenant that he has been month-to-month, and never exercised his option to renew, that we will not be renewing the lease, and provided him with a 30 day notice to vacate. Upon doing so he immediately paid the rental increase amounts for the past three months that were part of the lease renewal, as if to renew the lease indirectly. From what I understand, acceptance of the extra rent is a way for the tenant to claim that he renewed the lease. We want him to stay month-to-month.

We are in the process of returning the funds but according to the bank it can take upwards of 10 days. Are there any other ways to refund him the money where we can prove that we did not accept the rental increases that he paid?

*This tenant has been fairly lousy and we are anticipating he will give us a hard time vacating.