landlord need help to deal with insurance and renter

[Daniel Liu]

Hi, 

My rental condo is on 1st floor, this unit was flooded because of upstair unit water heater leaking. I did not buy insurance for my unit, Upstair unit owner let me to claim to his insurance company-All State. The unit was wet everywhere, tenant has a lot of furniture, contractor needs to move all furnitures to storage before remove the wet carpet. But tenant does not has money to move out, My tenants complained to me that the smell was very bad because of 3 days wet. I contacted All State claim officer, she told me "It is your responsibility to do whatever to prevent any further damages". 

To prevent mold and further damages, I paid $4500 to a contractor to move all the furnitures to storage, and then removed the wet carpet.

After my unit empty, All State told me that they could only pay this $4500 to tenant because furniture is tenant's property. All State asked me to get tenant's approval to release fund to me. But tenant did not want to sign anything to release this fund to me.

I contacted All State and tenant for 2 months, but no any solution.

Any suggestion of solution to solve this issue will be much appreciated.

thanks

daniel