Inherited Our First Problem Tenant, Please offer any suggestions!

[Katherine Rossell]

My partner and I just closed on a three unit the end of July. We purchased the building from someone who was not a good landlord. Two of the tenants in the building are still on his year lease. The lease is very vague and only states that rent is due on the first of the month. There is no late fee or grace period. When we closed on the building I wrote a letter to both of the tenats and asked them to contact me so we can discuss the lease and make any other arrangments. Only one of the tenats contacted me.

Last month (the first month to collect rent) I tried to get in contact with one of the tenants. I didn't have her contact information so I stopped by. After the fifth day of the month I gave her a late rent notice with my number which essentially said if she didn't pay rent we would start the eviction process. She called me and said that she couldn't have rent until the following week because she gets paid every other week. 

This month she said she was going to have rent on the first of the month, and I arranged a time to go and pick it up. On the day I was supposed to pick it up she sent me a message stating that she couldn't pay rent until the 17th because her car died and she needed to fix it to get to work. Via text message I let her know that she could pay rent on the 17 this month but on the following months she needed to have it in by the 5th and if it was not, the proper time and notices would be given for her to pay rent or vacate. 

Via text, she essentially lost it!!! She said she new her tenant rights and was going to legal aid as soon as it opened. She accused us of discriminating against her. 

Needles to say, we will also be in touch with our lawyer. 

As a new landlord, part of me thinks this could have been avoided if I gave her more slack, but the other part of me knows that if I don't set the limits and tell her what is expected she will continue to try to take advantage of us. 

Any thoughts on what I should do next, or what I could have done differently?