Broken sink by the tenant

[Ryan Jaret]

Hello,

About one week into my tenants lease he broke the sink. I went ahead and paid the maintenance and a new faucet on my own, but told him it was going to be deducted from the SD. Now that the lease is over tenant is saying I already paid for it and it's not a SD issue and is suing for the money back. Did I mess up here?

[Ron H.]

In the future if something likes this gets broken, charge the tenant immediately.  Deposit is to only be used when things are found broken at moveout.