Property Damaged-Is my Property Manager Liabile???

[Daniel Gupta]

Hey guys, here's my situation- Would love some input & advice.

I have an apartment house, and one of the tenants had some sort of bathroom party and burst a pipe in the bathroom. It ended up causing flood damage to their apartment, and the apartment below.  When my property manager initially told me about this, they clearly stated it was the tenants fault.

The total bill for damage ended up being $4200. The property manager then emailed me, slightly shifting the blame away from the tenants and asking me if I would just put the bill through my insurance. This is an absolute no-go for me, because of my $2500 deductible, and amount of different insurance policies I carry (would do more harm than good in the long run)

It is in the tenants lease, (property manager's company lease) that tenant must carry renters insurance. This tenant did not have renters insurance.  I was told through my insurance agent that most of the damage would have been covered if they had. My questions is- Is it my property managers job to verify and make sure that they do? If so, I should be able to sue (likely severing relations with PM) through their E/O policy (errors and omissions) 

To my understanding, the tenant does not make very much money, and it would be a long-shot to ever get my money back from him.  Please share your thoughts and opinions, eager to hear the BP response!!

Thank you

Dan