Help!! I've inherited a bad tenant!!

[Kaleb Carsten]

Hey BP,

I need some help. I just closed on my first property at the beginning of this month. It's a duplex that I bought in a partnership with my parents. My parents put up the capital but have said they want no part in the management side, I am fine with that. However I now have an issue with the tenant that stayed with the property.  Here is a little background about the place and tenant. The tenant had lived in the 3/1 unit of this duplex for the last thirteen years when she moved in the property was being taken care of and managed by the previous owners husband.  He passed away 5 or 6 years ago and his wife hired a broker to manage the property.  The lease had been a verbal contact for most of the time. The landlord couldn't find an original lease from when the tenant moved in. And the last lease she signed was a year ago.

She is on a month to month lease and after the offer was accepted I was informed that she has been paying late for quite sometime. Her rent is due on the first with a grace period up to the seventh.  She normally pays her rent on the tenth with a note saying do not cash until the twenty seventh.

I knew that it was going to be an interesting process to get her to pay on time. But I have not been able to speak with there tenant.  I dropped off a letter to days before closing to introduce myself as the new landlord, let her know rent is going up, and to give her the new contact number.  A week later she had not paid her rent so I sent her another letter saying your rent is late and per the lease the late fee is x amount.  I had not heard from her I stopped over to the house a few times to speak with her and never saw her. 

She still has not paid rent and when I was at the property doing some maintenance on the exterior a car pulled up saw me working and drove away. I came back a few hours later, the same car was parked out front and the lights inside where on. I could see the tenant inside the house. But she would not answer the door or move from where she was sitting by the window to come speak with me.  I was hoping she would grumble about the rent increase and being held accountable to the due date. And i would have a few months with a tenant so I could renovate the basement but still have some income.  

Is there something else I can try before I serve her a the day notice to quit?