Legal Question in Civil Litigation in North Carolina

My husband and I are a young couple and we bought our first home 2 years ago in NC. The previous owner owned a paving business and all of his equipment was stored on our property. At the time of purchase, the previous owner said the equipment would be moved in 60 days. Every month he sends his assistants to come and work on the equipment; sometimes they are running generators behind our house up until 9 o'clock at night. We have asked several times for the equipment to be moved. After the first year, we offered to purchase the equipment from him; however, we were never able to agree on a price. When we were unable to come to terms, the man said that he could advertise the equipment online and sell it in 30 days. We told him that he should absolutely persue that option. Now, after two years, the equipment is still here and is still stored under our covered storage units. The local sheriff told us to send the man a certified letter telling him to move the property and said that we could ask for reasonable reimbursement for storage. We called local storage facilities and came up with a reasonable figure, which we included in the certified letter. The previous owner is very angry now, and refuses to pay any money. He now says that he never agreed to move the equipment, has never been asked to move the equipment, and we were just "letting" him store it here for free. I attempted to file a small claims suit against him, but the clerk of court said that since the previous owner lived in another state, I could not file suit against him. Do my husband and I have any options here? or have we been taken advantage of and now we're just out of luck?

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