Clogged pipe due to tenant negligence

[Gina Nicolas]

Hello everyone, I got a phone call from my tenant last week that water is coming out from a pipe outside the house and it makes the house smells.  I called a plumber company - rotor rooter, the technician was able to get some stuffs out but not all, those stuff were a combination of tampons and wipes, while the tenants agreed to use the wipes instead of toilet paper his wife denied flushing tampons down the bathroom.  After spending hours trying to unclog the pipe, the technician told me that he has to replace the pipe for the amount of 4,200 dollars. I already spend 500 dollars that day.  I am trying to see if I can get something at home depot to help unclog the pipe but if unable to I might have to spend 4200 dollars, this being said, the tenant keeps arguing with me that he is not responsible even though he is the only one living in the property since October 2019, he said the stuff could have been in the pipe before he moved in.  How can I make him pay for the repairs? how should I handle that situation? I do have a property management for this rental but I have been handling repairs myself because, # 1, the tenant has complained to me in the past the property management company takes forever to address any issue.# 2, for every little issue, just to dispatch someone, the property management charges me 200 dollars.

At this point, I don't know should I let them handle it?  I did not tell them anything yet about the situation