Thanks so much stu007, you have helped immensely! Now we have a lot of good pointers to negotiate with the property management. And Thank you all who have answered my questions

Hi mariner51, Thanks so much for your help and sound knowledge in this area. Although I don't understand what a MA/LL is?

Hey thanks Keyzer Now after you guys pointing these few things out, I realised that the shoe rack issue should have picked up at a health & safety check, but since they didn't pick this health & safety issue up, which means it is the Property Management Company's liability!? They act upon on behalf of the landlord to manage our flat, and of course the landlord is taking advice from them, coz he paid them to manage the property! But since now we are dealing directly with the Property Management Company, and the contract is drawn upon between the tenant and the landlord's agreement, is there any law or enforcement to make the Property Management Company to comply? My take is that the Property Management Company can't tell it's their fault to the landlord, and asking the landlord to pay for the costs for the fuse box at the same time! And that's why in their last email to us, they tried to lead us to take the blame, let the electrician to fix it, while discussing for the costs! But did not say who's responsible to pay for it! This is the property management company's last email to us:

Thanks so much for your advice. The electrician did perform a 5 Year ESI - Visual Electrical Safety Inspection on 26th September 2012, just a few months before the incident. But the underlying hazard of the shoe rack was never picked up. And of course we didn't get a warning and suggest us we should remove the shoe rack.

We are in a really messy situation with the property management company at the moment, and is desperately in need of some professional advice. So thank you first of all for reading and trying to help. THE CASE: 1. Since we started our (12 months contract) renting and moved into the property in Feb 2010, there is no hot water on the tap and the electrical storage heating in the master bedroom has never worked! We made a request of fixing the hot water issue after we settled in, and the management company sent plumber and electrician to try to fix it numerous of time during the last two years. To this date Feb 2013, we still have no hot water on the tap, and we've learnt to live without the storage heating in our bedroom, but bought an external plug-in electrical heating ourselves for the winter days. The last update we received regards no hot water through the tap, is that the element in the boiler needed to be changed, which has been the main issue of causing the fuse to trip for the last two years, so that's why everytime after fixing we'd have hot water through the tap for about 3 days, then it stops working. And this update is received around Oct 2012, and the plumber said we'd need to wait for a reply to see if the landlord is willing to pay for the element because it is a very expensive part. 2. THEN, over the Christmas, when we come back home from holiday in Jan 2013, we realised the storage heating for the lounge has also stopped working. So we ask for the property management to send in the electrician to fix it. But instead of finding faults with the radiator, the electrician found the fuse board is partially burned. On the spot, the electrician said we've been very lucky, and it has possibly been caused by the wooden shoe shelf pressing onto the fuse board (which i can't completely agree), and he also suggested to change the electricity feed to a safer measure for the peak and off-peak electricity separately because how it was being distributed is not very safe. About a week later, the property management got back to us, and said we are liable for the restoring and call out costs of £600 to the fuse board, because it is our shoe shelf that was pressing on the fuse board. So I get back to them and explained our issue with the situation is, the wooden shoe shelf is there in the property, and been placed where it is right next to the fuse board in the cupboard since we moved in. (And we have the inventory list to prove that, and have already shown to the property management company). Since it is not our shoe shelf in the first place, and we are not the one responsible for placing the shoe shelf to a place where it shouldn't be. In this situation, is the landlord responsible for the costs of fixing? or is it really us (the tenant)? or is it the electrician's fault oversaw the underlying danger and did not warn us about the shoe shelf placing where it was in the last 2 years? Who should be liable for the repairing costs? I feel very frustrated at this point, not only that I feel being misinformed, and knowing it could have been the (25 years old) old fuse board burned up and charred the shoe shelf instead of the fault of the shoe shelf for where it was. (so right now we are looking into another electrician to run a full inspection to the cause of fire to the fuse board). But before we get a result from the inspection, we really wanted to know even if it was the shoe rack caused the damage to the fuse board, but we are not the owner of the shoe rack, and we didn't place it there! Since the shoe rack belongs to the landlord, and it was the landlord who placed it there, shouldn't the landlord be liable for the repairing costs to the fuseboard? What can I say to the management company to back up my point? And if the electrician is liable too? For a certified and trained electrician, isn't he suppose to spot potential hazard such as this? Since he attended our house and our fuse board for at least 4-5 times a year, and he did not see the shoe rack can cause potential hazard? We could have been burned alive! So who's really liable to the cause of damage and the costs? 3. Best of it yet, last friday we received a call from the letting agency, saying the landlord is asking for a rent increase and it could be £100 to £250 more each month. How much he wants to increase, we still don't know. At the moment we are still waiting to hear back from the agent about how much for the raise. But we feel that is very cheeky, and being bullied, feeling like if we don't agree to the rent increase, of course we get kick out. And whether we agree or not, the property management is still trying to get us pay the £600 for the fuse board. As for the boiler since it is clearly the liability of the landlord, the rent increase is apparently to "cover" his costs for replacing the element in the boiler. Is this unlawful from the landlord to raise rent in such circumstances? In conclusion, we don't mind to pay £100 extra each month for the rent, because we love where we live, and have great neighbours. But on principal and economy circumstances, we really want to know who is liable for the costs of the new fuse board. And what options do we have? We can't agree to a rent increase plus a £600 bill for something that is not our fault. Having no hot water through the tap to wash clothes and wash dishes, or having a hot bath for two years is unbelievably hard! Thank god at least we have hot water through the electric shower. But since now I'm pregnant, the issue of sanitation has became a pressing issue for us, so to have hot water through the tap to do proper washing is very important. As I'm typing this out in the lounge with my freezing fingers while wearing 5 layers of clothing in my own home, the sense of being cornered and helplessness is impeccable, and is causing a great distress on top of my first pregnancy. I really hope someone here can give us some professional advice. Much appreciated and thank you so much again. Berni