Landlord Insurance Company charging tenant

[Roxanna Pifer]

This is happening to my friend, not me, but has me curious as I had never heard nor thought about it. She said the tenant had a slow draining bathtub and rather then call her they tried to fix it themselves. A few days later the ceiling fell in from the water leaking. She filed a landlord insurance claim. They paid $5,500-ish ($3,500-$1,000 deductible for new flooring, etc and $2,000 to a remediation company they sent in). The tenant has just informed her that they are now getting billed from the landlords insurance company for the $5,500 stating that it was the tenants negligence. Is this really how it works? Obviously the tenants are furious and she feels terrible.