Am I Obligated To Honor Previous “Verbal Agreements” Made From A Business I Inherited?

I’ll try to keep this as black and white as possible...

I unexpectedly inherited a Marina in NY 3 years ago after the sudden and out of the blue death of a family member. Over the past 3 years I’ve pretty much been trying to decipher the whole business and put together everything in a way that’s more manageable for me to run.

The biggest issue I’ve had has been; it seems everyone “had a deal” with my family member for a discounted slip (boat parking space) and at first I was honoring those deals as to keep good relations with all the customers. I found out that a few people have taken advantage of this and stretched the truth and even completely fabricate deals. Taking advantage of my goodwill and naivety.

With the new season about to begin, after being burned a few times, I have decided to put my foot down and say any deals that were made under previous ownership will only be honored with a written agreement. This has made one customer of mine livid and he’s been constantly and inappropriately bothering me about how the deal he made has already been agreed upon. Not by me but from my dead family member.

I don’t have any written evidence but a long-time employee, who I trust very much, told me recently that the deal the customer made with my family member was only for one year. He’s now received the same deal (more than half off on a slip in exchange from some old equipment that I don’t even use) for the 4 years (one when my family member was alive, 3 since I took over). My family member took a ton of notes and seemingly wrote everything on his mind down, either on his phone or in notepads/random pieces of paper. I haven’t found ANYTHING about this deal.

Trying to take my anger and emotion of being lied to and taken advantage of; I told him for me to continue honoring the deal I need something in writing between the two of them that gives details and dates of the “deal”. Is this legal? Do I have to honor deals that I never verbally agreed to? Are there any ramifications that I’m not thinking of by terminating verbal agreements that I had nothing to do with? What about written ones? Can I tell him he’s no longer welcome at the marina (contractually I have that right)? Where should I go from here? He’s essentially dooped me for 5-6 thousand dollars. I’m just trying to do the right thing, but I don’t want to be taken advantage of or get in any legal trouble.

Written By: Ornery_Alligators
Source: http://bit.ly/2GbjcqQ