Tenant car damaged from sheetrock

[Adriel Watts]

I had a piece of garage sheetrock fall on a tenants family members car( not on the lease). I have a PM company and pay for biannual inspections to be done, and no where did it mention that the sheetrock was a possible issue.

I was sent 3 pictures (what looked like minimal damage) and a hefty estimate. I have talked multiple times with my PM company . The best the solution they had was to contact my insurance and/or offer to pay part of the repair. I contacted my Property insurance and asked for advice and they said it wouldnt be worth it to go through them since i have a 5k deductible.  I offered the tenants family member more than what most car insurance deductibles are (1500), but they are refusing to take anything less than full estimate. The only concessions they made were that they agreed to get a second estimate which came back over 1000 cheaper.

The lease states "indemnification" " owner not liable for damages....to property occurring on premises unless it is a proximate result of intentional or unlawful act of owner." " Tenant agrees to hold owner harmless from any claims, no matter how caused unless it was a proximate result of intentional or willful acts of owner."
Also under "Insurance" "tenant to provide own insurance for possessions both inside and outside of premises. Tenant Acknowledges they are responsible for providing insurance for their possessions or vehicles and owners insurance will not cover tenants possessions or vehicles. This includes Flood, fire or any other cause."

I mentioned all of this with the PM company and the only solution they have is to contact my insurance company a second time which will be futile.

Should I just pay for the damages to get this off my back to prevent any ill will going forward?  If so, what do I need to do to prevent anything like this happening again?

Thanks

[Russell Brazil]

Your property, of which you are responsible for, damaged someone elses property. Yes you are responsible for that damage.  You have no contract with the person whose car was damaged. Even if you did, it wouldnt matter.  You need to maintain your property. Things break, it happens, but its your responsibility as a property owner.