Security Deposit & Bad Faith Land Lord

Location: Texas

I just ended a lease and in which I left 2.5 months early but was still responsible for rent and utilities, which all got paid. When I left I turned in keys and access to the premesis. On the date I left, I provided a forwarding address for the security deposit.

Upon the end date of the lease, the land lord emailed us the certified mail receipt of the security deposit as well as miscellaneous charges he labeled as lawn care. One of which was +4X the amount of the other charges. ($230, $50, $50, $80)

He claims we are responsible for lawn care though we cannot find that language in the lease agreement. We asked for an itemized receipt to explain why one of the charges was much larger than the others. He said he is travelling so he won’t be able to discuss further until 30 days after the end of our lease but to contact the landscaper to discuss the charges.

Is this bad faith on the land lord’s end for failure to provide the itemized receipt of services? We did reach out to the land scaper and after he blocked one of our numbers and said he did not want to get involved in the issue, eventually did send the notes from the service to the land lord’s mother in law who then texted the photo to us. The mother in law is someone we have not had previous contact with. According to the itemized receipt, the majority of the costs fell under tree trimming, which is not lawn care and we feel should not be charged to us.

After requesting the itemized receipt, the land lord also immediately threatened to deduct more more “cigarette smoke damage” and hard water stains in the toilets in retaliation for not accepting the initial deductions. It was not until after we insisted on the itemized receipt a second time that he gave us the land scapers phone number, and then claimed we could forget about the smoke damage as long as we settle the lawn care costs. No one in our entire tenancy there has EVER smoked inside the property, not have our guests and we are not smokers in any capacity.

We need to understand if this constitutes failure to provide the itemized receipt as well as retaliation by withholding portions of the security deposit. Additionally, how does one combat accusations of cigarette damage? By Texas law, if a premesis is surrendered, the land lord is required to return the security deposit within 30 days of surrender, would our situation mean he is already late?

Thank you, we need to determine if this is a valid reason to take this to small claims court if necessary.