How to tell tenant they have to leave

[Jared Lundy]

I am pretty new to RE investing and I am in the process of buying a little rental. There is a tenant in the rental who has lived there for 13 years but is only paying $400 month but there is no lease in place.

The owner has told me that they have never had a problem with the tenant but the owner feels the tenant is vindictive and will trash the place if the tenant finds out they have to move.

According to the owner the tenant cannot pay the $750 - $800 month rent that the house can rent for. 
I am putting it under contract today and the tenant still has no clue the house is being sold. How do I go about telling the tenant and getting them to move out of the home they’ve lived in for 13 yrs hopefully without them trashing the place?

Thanks

[Paul De Luca]

@Jared Lundy

Is there a security deposit that will be transferred to you at closing? If so, you have some leverage there to ensure good behavior. If not, at some point the tenant is going to find out anyway so if possible you should schedule the inspection to occur when the tenant is there so you can talk to them to gauge their reaction. There's really nothing you can do to stop the tenant from trashing the place, that's out of your control. But I think you could at least soften the blow by telling them in person, giving them enough time to move, and maybe even offer to pay their moving costs to sweeten the deal if you feel it's necessary under the condition that they move out quickly and peacefully.