TBH, I never got into the details of how it all worked out in the end. In my mind, the real estate agent/agency should be responsible, but I am pretty sure they would simply deny they left a window open and it could have been done by anyone that visited during a showing. From what I recall, he paid for the repairs to expedite everything and I am assuming (hoping?) he submitted everything to his homeowners insurance for reimbursement. He was DESPERATE to unload the house as they had already moved away down south. Luckily for him, he was able to do so in late 2018 and his accountant then suggested that they refile several years of taxes to claim retroactive losses. I do remember him doing that and getting some chunk of cash from the IRS. That was a win. In his own words, if he knew then what he knows now, he wouldn't have bought the property, in spite of the overall gains after 10 years of ownership. When all is said and done, he cleared 100K in net gains after all the usual and unexpected expenses of homeownership. In his own words, for those 10 years they were "house rich, cash poor" and looking back the 10K / year gain (on average) doesn't feel like it was worth it.