Tenant threating to Sue

[Jerry Benson]

I'll try to keep this brief.  I have a rental property in Charlotte, NC and the gas fireplace hasn't worked for awhile.  While my property manager was in the process of getting an estimate, the tenant (without approval) hired his own contractor to fix the gas line at $360. I am responsible for paying $150 to fix a few other things to get it working. Now that the fireplace is working the tenant is threatening to take me to court for the $360 that he spent, which he was told many times not to do on his own.  I know NC isn't a very friendly state for landlords (in my experience) but I am not willing to reimburse him for something that he did without my approval.  In my eyes he is in breach of the lease agreement, but I am not an attorney.  Is it going to cost me more than $360 to defend myself therefore should I just bite the bullet and reimburse his $360? A precedent has been set with the tenant that when  he acts like a bully, makes threats he gets his way and I want to end this.  But I am not interested in it costing me thousands to defend myself and then perhaps lose anyway.  Any advice would be appreciated, especially if you are familiar with landlord/tenant laws in NC.