Damp reported, need advice

Our tenant reported that she had damp under the stairs, we sent a professional to have a look. He sent us some pictures of the cupboard joined on to the bathroom of the wall covered in damp. He said the overflow on the bath needed repaired. We asked the tenant so did he remove the bath panel as we thought it must of been the pipe under the bath, but the tenant said no he didnt take the bath panel off the handle that lifts the bath plug up is loose and there is a gap at the bottom so the water has been going through the gap and under the bath, does the damage that the damp has caused have to be paid by us or can we bill her for neglect for not reporting that was loose as all of this could of been avoided if she told us straight away. Thanks in advance for any help.

Have you done interim inspections every three months ?
Structural issues like plumbing and damp are your problem .

Most people don’t know about these kinds of things
It’s only because we are in the profession that we spot things sooner

Tenants not reporting issues is normal.
The number of tenants that have been pro active at reporting issues I can count on one hand !
To be honest if this were me I would deal with it and just advise them to report issues sooner do they can be dealt with before they become larger problems

Just get it sorted and advise T to notify you immediately of any issues, no matter how small. Stress that increased costs for you may necessitate rent rises in future and so it is in their best interest to report issues to keep costs down.