Small Court Advice: Tenant

[Preeti Sampath]

Hey guys. I'm dealing with a tenant who has caused me several issues in the past. He is trying to take me to small court claim to get more of his security deposit back claiming I breached contract by entering the house. I have written permission by both tenants to allow me to repair the house to make it rent ready. I also have a text confirmation from the tenant the day of that he's good with us going in to look at the property and that no one was at the property. At this time, both tenants were not communicating with each other and tried to say we had contractors in the house but the reality was the tenant were moving in and out and I have texts confirming that both tenants were not in communication with each other. Generally, is that even valid? Some context below. 

Background

They left behind a lot of pet damage, completely destroyed the grass, tons of missing items and didn't clean much before they left. The lady has shown extreme instability and has threatened to kill herself in my house to devalue the property. The tenants have not been communicating with each other as they broke up and it ended very badly. We got approval in a letter to get contractor to come look at damages and fix them so we can get it ready to rent. When my husband and I went for an initial inspection to see what needed to be fixed, we found the grass was completely dead and not watered in the hottest months (several evidences to support this). During this time we let them know that we need to get these fixed and we will sync with them on contractor details. We have an email of them confirming that we can proceed with pet damage work that was needed to get the house rented. The guy had moved out two months ahead of end of lease, took the internet which made watering non existent (smart wifi watering). He didn't notify us until it was all dead and didn't make any effort to fix pet or lawn damage.(his response was just water it and it will be good which is a violation of his lease as he is responsible for maintenance of yard). My husband and I spent two days and over 6 hours redoing the whole grass. Needless to say it took almost all of our deposit to get the house back in shape also pushing out the time we lost from the bad communication and non stop instability. I have all the documentation including emails, texts, images that confirm they failed to take care of the property, caused pet damage and left the home dirty, unclean and not ready for renting. Additionally, neighbors have attested they leave the garage door and storage shed open (claims that someone was in the house) and they have known to not take care of the property and also have caused domestic disturbances that caused the police to show up a couple of times.