For what it's worth it's not like there's absolutely zero recourse. If the person is a grifter, in the sense that he actually does have money and just doesn't f

For what it's worth it's not like there's absolutely zero recourse. If the person is a grifter, in the sense that he actually does have money and just doesn't feel like paying, he can usually be pursued in civil court for the balance and a judgement can be entered. Sure if the person has no assets at all or declares bankruptcy then that won't help. But in that case he's in the category of people that don't have any money. I think a lot of people are unaware that there is a distinction between an eviction proceeding, which is a proceeding seeking the equitable remedy of dispossessing someone from a property, and a proceeding for damages, where you try to recover the money they should have paid you. Eviction proceedings are typically in a specific housing court and rules are often stricter and have a lot of local subtlety. For example sometimes you can only pay a portion of what you owe to dismiss an eviction proceeding, and so on. That doesn't necessarily change the amount of money actually owed though, which can still be recovered the normal way with a regular old lawsuit for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and so on.