@Will Gaston  What they try to get here is 3 per unit but there are a lot of 5 bedrooms so the ordinances have been taken to court several times. 

I would get an attorney or agent involved and in reality you should only be dealing with him as he owns the home unless there is a court order elsewhere that gives her some rights tothe propertyI think it's possible the final decree of divorce or the property settlement agreement required her to give him a deed in return for him paying her equity. 

This is gonna be a learning experience due to dealing with environmental court.

Without a written record of this arrangement, is there a way to claim any compensation for those renovation costs, or would that be difficult to prove in court?

Since the lease was with both then you need to make the check out to both, to do otherwise would be making a legal determination which is what the domestic court is for, and where they can take their issue to resolve. 

Because honestly, at one point, I considered his offer and was afraid of the possibility that if I didn't accept I'd be taken to court and be responsible for putting my children on the street, and I can see those types of scare tactics and resulting emotions being enough to scare someone into complying with a transaction no matter how laden it is with misrepresentation, non disclosure and fraud it could be.Again, I don't know if I misunderstood the laws and regulations or not, I could be wrong.

Will court still proceed and grant eviction case in my favor?

According to the water meter, approximately 1 days after being served the court summons for eviction, the tenant turned on all of the faucets in the home and ran them for about 55 days.

Would recommend documentation to make sure you’re covered if you have to go to court to evict.

Court house step auction was a waste of time as the REO bank would step in and bid a price equal to the mortgage when they did not receive a bid equal to the unpaid mortgage.The other issue is I often cannot view many of the properties as they have squatters.