WWYD when tenant is reported by contractor to have broken shower?

[NYE2015]

Tenant has reported the shower stopped working, so i sent in a reputable contractor to mend it.

He came back reporting it was beyond repair because it had been tampered with, evidenced by a screw missing and warping of the outer shell covering the shower. He said the warping was consistent with someone having tried to force the shower open.

The tenant denies this, but has been known to lie about other things in the past, so his word isn't very reliable.

An inventory showed the shower in perfect condition, so I have refused to repair it, saying that they broken it so they will have to repair it. The letting Agents managing this have said I can only either try and deduct it from the deposit, or get it mended and pay for it, then try to recoup the costs from them. Either way they said it won't be possible to prove they did the damage.

I don't know what my rights are, and the Letting Agent seem to be on the side of the tenants. Does anyone have any other ideas of how to proceed?

I think you have to suck it up and repair it. We had to pay for a new washing machine door, after our tenant managed to pull it off (not realising that you had to wait for two minutes after it stopped). Well actually, he probably did realise you had to wait, as we had had to replace the door catch, which he had snapped off a month before...

Thanks for your reply.

Did it happen again after that? Also, did it cross your mind that the inventory is for this exact purpose, to prevent you having to spend hundreds just because they can't be bothered not to tamper with stuff they should leave well alone?

you will have to repair it under obligation as a landlord but you will be able to deduct it from their deposit but you need to go through offical channels and register it with the depoist agenry (cant remeber what they are called now) but you do need to keep the evidence for when they want to move out etc

I didn't know you can register breakages before they move out. I will have to explore that further with the letting agent I guess. Have you any experience of this?

Is it safe at the moment? Ie not got electric wires poking out etc. So safe but not useable. I'd just leave it there then.

If you are 100% sure they did it I wouldn't fix it until they are gone.

Something at a few pounds I would suck up for good relations sake but a few hundred pound shower, no way.