Della, Paolera M

He did a project for my neighbor right next door, so, i hired him to do re-planning of my apartment (moving bathroom/kitchen and making bedroom area into a living room area, and living into bedroom), completely trusting him.
We agreed on the price, but he never gave me any contract. I started paying, he started working.
When another project came up and he charged me quiet a lot all (while messing it up), I started questioning what was happening, and found out that the first project was not even possible to do due to the "wet-over-dry" rules in the building. He, having worked on a very large project for the neighbor, obviously knew that, that's why he did not give me a contract and just started charging me, knowing very well that the project will never come to life, but he was still collecting $ from me.
The last payment was for the future work (80% of it), but when I confronted him, he lied and said that he did work for those hours.
Also, his rate was changing, depending on his mood.
When the time came for me to start asking him questions, we became very hard to reach.
Basically, he tried to scam me and he partially succeeded. He refused to refund me, so, i am taking him to court.