Letting an inherited tenant out of their lease?

[Matt Rothwell]

I'm in an awkward situation right now, I'm currently set to buy a Duplex here in Raleigh that I plan to owner-occupy. It has tenants on both sides, and the one that I plan on living in has a lease that expires mid-July. I'm scheduled to close May 1. The issue that I'm having is that my current apartment that I'm living in has a lease that expires June 1, and temporary housing for a month and a half costs a fortune.

What I'd like to do, since the tenant in there is a student, is ask them if they'd like to terminate their lease and move out at the end of May. I remember being a student and trying to find someone to sublet my apartment for the summer while I went to internships or back home, and I would've loved if the landlords at those places would let me move out early. It seems like a win-win for both parties.

I'd like to propose this to the tenant, but the hangup is that I don't own the house yet, I don't close till the end of the month. I asked my realtor to ask the seller's agent if I could talk to the owner and/or the tenant, but the sellers agent just wrote back a snarky email saying that "I wasn't the owner YET!" or something to that effect.

Is there a kosher/accepted way to do this? My agent joked that I could slip a note under the door, but I don't want to worry about harassment charges or anything. What would the folks of BiggerPockets do?