Tenant Skipped Out & Pipe Burst

[Randy Batterson]

We have a rental house in Detroit being managed by a Property Management company.  We had an issue with the tenant for months (not paying) and tried for several months to find out from the Property Management company what was happening with the tenant.  Then a month later we get a call from the Property Management company telling us the tenant had moved out without telling anyone and during the time the tenant was gone (could have been over a month or more) a pipe burst and flooded the house.  Cost to repair was over $8k.  

We feel the Property Management company was partially negligent because we did not know for months what was going on with the house and tenant except for a response that there was a "Tenant Issue", but nothing more.  Then out of the blue we are told our house is flooded because the tenant skipped out and the pipe burst.  We are pretty sure the Property Management company was paying very little attention to our house during this time.  Thus, we feel the Property Management company should be held responsible for some if not all the cost of the repairs.  

Looking for input from the Forum on experiences and thoughts around this issue.

Thanks!

Randy