No rental agreement, far out property, afraid to lose tenant

[Rick Sollman]

We have a rental property located a good 40 minutes from us, out in the sticks. Our tenant has been with us for many years, but has managed to miss well over a year's worth of rent payments over time, and is yet again late. It has been years since a rental agreement has been signed so it has reverted to a month-to-month. The resident has invested a very large amount of their personal money into property improvements, without any agreement on compensation. They very likely did not obtain permits.

Because of the property's location, we know that as soon as the property is vacated, it will be vandalized. We would like to sell the property, because we do not feel like the tenant will be consistent with payments moving forward, and we could use the equity. Obtaining another tenant is not very likely, as the demand is very low in that area.  Evicting the current tenant poses the difficulty of them even possibly destroying the improvements. The current tenant would be unable to purchase the property given their financial situation.

This is a messy situation that I've inherited, and I'm having trouble finding a safe path that hopefully leads to the sale of the property, or, worst case, getting the tenant to consistently pay. Advice would be greatly appreciated.