Who pays for property damage caused by theft or vandalism?

Question

I had a tenant told me someone tried to break into his house and broke the window. I inspected it and found no obvious signs of forced entry so I suspected it's either vandalism or one of the boys did it. So I told him that in order for me to claim insurance they need to file a police report for the attempted theft (so to give me sometime to think). Even if he gets the report, with my $500 deductible, I won't bother with insurance. But my questions are:

1. Am I legally allowed to request a police report? Note, there's no other property damage or stolen.

2. Do I need to fix it right away to prevent personal injury (sharp glasses) or property lose, since it's the front window? And try to recover the cost later?

3. Who should be paying, if it's in fact theft or vandalism? I assume that would be me, since the lease (the standard C.A.R. lease) doesn't state it explicitly.

4. What if he insists that it's attempted theft but for some reason don't want to get the police involved?

Anything else am I missing?

Kyle J. · Answer

A broken window would typically be the landlord's responsibility to fix unless you can prove the damage was caused by the tenant, their children, guest, pet, etc.  Doesn't sound like you can, so I'd go ahead and fix it since a home with a window that's broken out could be considered uninhabitable in California (Ca Civil Code 1941).

Here's some more reading on it if you're interested: Ca Dept of Consumer Affairs - Landlords' And Tenants' Responsibilities For Habitability And Repairs: Legal Guide.