Tenant damaged property, PM says deal with tenant directly?

[Brian Garlington]

Question for the forum. I have a tenant that caused damage to the property, he has admitted fault in writing and said he would pay what is owed. I told my PM to send the bill directly to the tenant and have him pay since he already admitted fault. 

The bill came to about $2,300 worth of damage. 

The PM sent me the bill anyway, saying that I need to pay the bill to the PM's contractor, and then I am responsible for collecting the reimbursement directly from the tenant.

Does this sound right?

Also, I do not want the tenant knowing who I am as the owner, that's why I have a as a point of contact, not me.

Secondly, now the tenant is trying to back off and say, "he took care of his part" and he appears to be trying to get out of paying for the damages that he admitted to being his fault. As an FYI, this is a duplex with a tenant in one unit upstairs and another tenant in a downstairs unit. The upstairs tenant was apparently not paying attention to what was going on in the bathroom and he let his son overflow the bathtub. In writing the tenant said

"I have water damage to the carpet my son over flowed the bath tub I dried the water as fast as I could but I
understand water can cause mold so Ima willing to pay what I would owe to make sure the carpet doesn’t get
molded because of the amount of water that covered the floor"
Tenant marked as urgent

This was ten days ago. Today my PM sent me an estimate of about $2,300 because 

Work Order Description:

UPDATE 8/21: Downstairs Tenant stated that there is a hole in her wall and the wall is buckling and it has water damage.-5164 CEILING LEAKS: Downstairs Tenant stated that the ceiling is leaking in her bathroom, bedroom, hallway, and kitchen. She stated that the ceiling has collapsed and she is unable to contain the leak. Damage has been caused. She stated that there is a unit above her and she stated that the neighbor stated that his son overflowed the issue. -5162 -5162

In short the damage from the upstairs has caused caused this damage to the downstairs tenant.

To make things more interesting the upstairs tenant has now told the contractor, "I did my part, and is indicating he is not inclined to pay for the damages now."

Both tenants have Section 8 Vouchers so certainly most of the rental income is gauranteed. I have a feeling that if the tenant refuses to pay then I will most likely need to get CMHA involved in this as it happened in Cleveland.

What are your thoughts on this?