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So a guy bought my building and wanted to take over my apartment personally. They asked me to move out the following month, not realizing I was entitled to 90 days (and the rest of the current month) as a 2+ year tenant. After a brief negotiation facilitated by the outgoing landlord, we agreed to a few thousand for a move out the following month.

During the run-up to the move out, the guy was in the building a lot and I talked to him a handful of times. As he needed to live there, it was mutually beneficial for him to just buy all my bigger furniture, so we agreed at a price of $3k for that.

He wrote me 3 checks on move out day but I later realized they were unsigned. He explained they were in installments over the next 3 weeks which I was fine with. He would also be zelleing me personally for the furniture since he was buying it, not the property LLC. All good.

Yadda yadda, basically things start coming up that prevent me from getting the money on time. Apparently ALL my neighbors are not paying rent, the old landlord misled him into thinking I had a security deposit, the bank put a hold on the deposit he made into the business account. Obviously I’m onto the fact that he’s not an upstanding guy at this point but I’m trying to preserve whatever remote chance there is he gives me a check, so I allow a few 3-4 day delays.

Shit finally hit the fan today. Guy first tries to get more time for money to clear by saying bank held up his latest deposit. When I finally drop the buddy act and tell him his original checks were all dated for earlier than today and I still have $0, he gets nasty. Tells me he wasn’t the landlord during my time there and I never paid him a dollar so he owes me nothing. And as for the furniture I can just pick it back up.

I have written acknowledgment of the deal for both the early vacating and the furniture sale, along with the implicit acknowledgement of his repeated assurances he would be paying but later. It’s been a month.

So what’s my recourse here? Small claims? And are there any more damages I can reasonably ask for on top of what I’m owed?