Dear Jaquetta:

Because of your tendency to worry and catastrophize, better than trying to fix a problem that was already created, is to prevent a problem from happening. Therefore, before you act in the future, stop and think, be careful and choose your words and actions thoughtfully, making sure you do not lie, that will save you a lot of distress.

Regarding the current problem, I will try to understand it best I can by repeating what you shared:

You live in a flat, in a building that you don’t own. The owner didn’t get the certification required from building-control/council certifying the building as safe. You contacted council. You lied to council on an email, claiming to have paid a fee to the council and following that email a fire officer came to your flat and gave you advice on how to make your flat safer. Smoke alarms and fire doors were installed in your flat. Next, you asked the council for certification regarding the safety of your flat.

The council then sent you a certificate declaring not only your flat as safe, but the whole building. You then contacted asking them to inspect the upstairs flat which does pose some fire risks. The council has not responded yet. You are worried that there a fire will break in the upstairs flat, that someone will get injured as a result of the fire, that you will be held partly responsible for the fire and injuries, that the council will lie about you as a retribution for the lie you told, holding you even more responsible for the fire and injuries, that you will not have evidence to defend yourself, that you will be prosecuted, found guilty, and end up in prison.

My input: is it possible for you to pay the fee to the council, the fee you claimed to them that you paid, but didn’t? If so, that will be a step in the right direction.

I am not a legal professional, and if I was, it would have required that I was aware of the laws and regulations in your part of the world. What I see is indeed catastrophizing: I don’t see how you can be held responsible for a fire you wouldn’t start or have anything to do with it. It is the owner that would be held responsible for lack of certification, not a tenant in another flat, my logic says!

I don’t see a reasonable possibility at all that the council will have an evil intent to get you into legal trouble, to send a tenant who is a mother to prison. For a lie. Even if the council finds out that the fee wasn’t paid while you claimed it was paid, how do they know that,  let’s say, that you believed at the time that the fee was paid by your husband?

Back to my suggestion of paying the fee now- maybe you can email the council the fee now?

anita