Tenants removed the water softener

[Karyn C.]

Hi, I'm hoping someone might be able help me to untangle this situation.  I recently fired my out of state property manager because she was abusing her position by placing her personal friends in our property (unbeknownst to us) and giving them breaks on the rent at our expense as well as allowing them to move four more people into the house who are not on the lease.  Now I am left to manage the property myself from a distance until I find the right management company to replace her.  The problem I'm having now is that the water softener which was kept in the garage at the property was apparently leaking and for some reason the tenants removed it and put it outside in the desert heat to rot.  The tenants claim that it went out more than three months ago and that they told our manager about it several times, but that she didn't do anything about it.  The manager says that it wasn't three months ago that it was only two months ago and that she had told them to drain the softener and turn it off but she says that she never told them to remove it.  She never informed me of the problem at all.  Now my question is who is financially responsible for this problem?