First Day Landlord Problem - Help!

[Mike Fuchs]

Hi all, we closed on our first rental property today (a duplex), and have read all we could preparing for the transition. We have a vacant unit that should be easy to fill, and tenant on a month to month lease. This is a tenant that likely would not pass our screening process but we at least wanted to fill the vacant unit prior to presenting a new lease/screening process. 

Anyway, we found out at closing that the tenant had failed to pay Nov rent. As we were cleaning up the vacant unit, current tenant came to us saying there was no way rent would be paid for Dec either. This was of course too late in the day to send a proper cancellation of the lease to end in Dec. We are pretty aware of our options and are talking with our lawyer tomorrow, but any advice from similar situations? 

Tenant can't pay nor wants an eviction. Has anyone had luck getting a mutual cancellation or other means? Would love to hear from others who have seen this. Good first day! :)