Water Leak - Really?

A downstairs tenant called four times in 7 minutes. I call back at 9 minutes. "There's water pouring in my closet from the upstairs apartment and ruining my stuff..." Me - "Well - get your stuff out of the closet, we're on our way, be there in a few minutes."

Arrive in 5 minutes. Water is dripping freely out of a corroded copper pipe, has wrecked the drop down ceiling panel and indeed, the tenant's stuff is getting wet. Quite wet. The tenant is at the stove, frying chicken. Because the tile has already dropped out, the problem is obvious and I go racing for the shut off. Back in the house, the tenant is still frying chicken only now wants to know, "Who's going to pay for my stuff." My husband "you need to start by drying it out." Me "this is why you need tenant's insurance. We can't be responsible for random incidents like this."

Pardon the mental shouting to follow... HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF A BUCKET??? OR A TOWEL??? OR MOVING YOUR STUFF WHEN YOU FIRST NOTICED WATER COMING THROUGH THE CEILING???!!!

Should there have been actual damage, say to the giant TV screen on the other side of the wall from the leak, this might be a harder position to take. Unfortunately, we still have 7 tenants that are not on our leases and there is no mention of insurance in the existing lease. Furthermore, I know of at least one prior occasion when the previous owner paid for this tenant's damaged laptop after a window leak, creating in effect a de facto policy. The worst is, there are going to be more leaks. I can feel it in my bones. I've caulked up all the windows and fixed a bunch of plumbing but it's just karma (and really crappy windows) We're going to get a tenant upstairs and something's going to leak.

My next plan is to send all the tenants on the old lease a letter reminding them of the importance of renter's insurance.