Legal Question in Real Estate Law in New York

I recently moved to upstate New York from out of state. Prior to my arrival, I found a home to rent, completed the application through the real estate agency and credit check. When the landowner's real estate agent faxed me the original lease, it was blank (property information/price/lease term, etc). I asked her to have the owner complete the appropriate information and I would sign, as i didn't feel comfortable signing a blank lease. The owner completed the property information section and she emailed it back to me. My wife and I signed the lease and faxed it back to the agent. She then emailed me and said she would be seeing her client later that week to sign. She then provided the utility companies of the home (gas/electric/trash removal) that the owner currently had in force for me to switch over. The lease was to be effective on 1/1, although I wasn't to arrive into the area until 1/4.

On 1/2, I received a phone call from my real estate agent saying that the owner had decided not to rent the home to us and had entered into a sales contract with another party. I was already in transit and upon arriving on 1/4 had to stay in a hotel for 7 days before I could find a comparable property, which was $300 more per month. I also had to reforward my mail to another home and have my household goods put into storage as they were originally scheduled to be delivered on 1/5.

My question is would I have a valid small claims action against the landowner and or his real estate agent for negligence? (joint and several liablity) The thoughts behind my action are:

*detrimental reliance

*promissory estoppel

*potential breach of contract, per the email that I have from the agent, assuming that an email creates a contract on behalf of her client (fiduciary duty). I've also read that it is possible to enforce the contract because the lease was on a standard agent's form and was not amended by the landowner, a valid contract is in force once my wife and I signed the contract.

If I pursue a small claims action against the owner and agent, I would claim the hotel expense and difference in the replacement rental ($300/month = $3600) for the lease term of 1 year, based on the above. I woudln't claim abstract damages, such as inconvience or differences in utility costs based on the difficulty of proving the damage as I would have the obligation to prove.

Would I file in the county where the owner lives (Saratoga),or the county where the real estate agent is based out of (Albany), or the county where the property is (Albany)?

Thanks for your advice.

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