An environmental tax included in your water bill. The rate of tax payable rises in proportion to your water consumption, meaning that it acts as a penalty for high consumers. Depending on the number of people who live in your home, you may be able to increase the amount of water you are allowed to use before being charged a higher rate of tax. You can find out how in the “Respect for the environment” chapter of this section of the website.
A centre at which the physical and psychological tests you must pass to obtain a driving licence are carried out. Such centres have to be authorised by a Prefectura Provincial o Local de Trànsit / Local or regional traffic prefecture.
Light motorcycles with a maximum engine capacity of 125 cubic centimetres.
The various attitudes and forms of conduct that enable citizens to live in a community. Public-spiritedness is based on people treating each other well, respecting their surroundings (from their homes to public spaces and street furniture) and following the rules that make harmonious co-existence possible.
A rating used to classify electrical household appliances on the basis of the energy they use. Every brand offers a range of efficient electrical household appliances (rated as class A or A+ to indicate that they require less power). Using such appliances reduces electricity or water bills.
Water, gas or electricity companies.
A group of people who own property in a particular building (or various buildings) and who join together to protect their common interests. Responsibility for the maintenance of each building lies with its owners' association.
An organisation formed by all the people who live or work in a given building, regardless of whether or not they own property there. Traders who operate from premises in the building are also members of its residents' association. All the residents in an association have to conduct themselves in a certain way, based on good manners and neighbourly cooperation.
A document signed by a lessor (an owner or estate manager) and a lessee (a tenant), and which sets out all the conditions of an agreement on the basis of which housing is used in exchange for money (rent). Every contract contains clauses (also referred to as “small print”), which are its specific or general conditions. You should read the clauses in a rental contract very carefully, as they may involve you losing some of your rights as a tenant. See the “Housing” section of this website.
Co-existence is based on values such as solidarity, respect, mutual responsibility and cooperation between people.