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LIFE IN SPAIN

Ten things you can do at a Spanish post office (apart from post letters)

There's a whole host of useful tasks you can carry out at your local Correos office in Spain, from arranging your holiday luggage to taking out energy contracts and exchanging foreign currency.

Published: 11 March 2024 11:20 CET
Updated: 16 March 2024 14:29 CET
Ten things you can do at a Spanish post office (apart from post letters)
Correos staff working at Ronda's sorting office. Photo: Jorge Guerrero/AFP.

Ten things you can do at a Spanish post office that you probably didn’t know

1. Cash withdrawals and deposits – Not many realise it but Correos offices allow you to deposit and withdraw cash from your bank account at branches and even with rural postmen, if you really live out in the sticks and there isn’t a post office nearby.

To withdraw or deposit cash at the post office, you’ll need to request a cash deposit or withdrawal via your regular banking app. The bank will then give you everything you need, including the locations of offices nearby where you can do it.

2. Send and receive money in minutes – That in mind, for those who use or work with immediate money delivery and receipt services, at Correos offices you can also, together with the help of Western Union, make instant, international payments in 130 currencies and in more than 200 countries.

3. Get your DGT stickers – Is your town finally bringing in its Low Emission Zones (known as ZBEs in Spanish) and you’re wondering where you can buy the emissions stickers to avoid fines? You can do it at Correos offices, where you can also request duplicates of your driving licence, and pay any traffic fines you owe the DGT.

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4. Pay your taxes – You can even arrange to pay your taxes at the post office, and thanks to a service provided by Correos’ rural postmen, you can even pay tax through these postmen.

The Correos website also allows you to handle any tax matters you might have.

5. Luggage deliveries – For those who don’t like lugging around all their luggage when travelling, Correos ‘Paq Maleta‘ service offers a home collection and delivery service on the Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands, meaning you can send your bags ahead and travel stress free.

6. Holiday postbox – That in mind, if you’re heading away on holiday and worried that your postbox will be overflowing when you can get back (with all the security problems that this could potentially entail, especially in a shared building) Correos can store all your post until you get back.

7. Currency exchange – If you’re going on a trip and don’t want to risk using your card abroad or getting given poor exchange rates at the airport, Correos also offers a currency exchange service and you can have your foreign currency sent home or made available to pick up from your local post office.

8. Ticket sales – Correos offices also allow you to buy a wide range of tickets for concerts, theatres, amusement parks and shows of all kinds.

9. Signing up for phone and internet – Earlier this year, Correos and O2 signed an agreement to market its services in Spain’s Correos offices. As such, interested customers can sign up for mobile and internet contracts directly in Correos post offices.

10. Gas and electricity contracts – Similarly, you can also sign up for electricity and gas contracts with Spanish energy company Endesa at Correos branches. Doing it this way could even work out easier than doing it online or via phones due to its quick and simple process: once the papers have been scanned, the file is sent electronically then and there.

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For members

PROPERTY

BBQs, nudity and plants: What are the balcony rules in Spain?

Though many people hang laundry, plants, and flags from their balcony, in Spain the rules on what you can and can't do on 'el balcón' are not well-known.

Published: 8 May 2024 17:13 CEST
Updated: 11 May 2024 08:31 CEST
BBQs, nudity and plants: What are the balcony rules in Spain?

Imagine the scene: you’ve just bought or signed the lease on your dream apartment. It’s bright and airy, with plenty of space, and even has a nice-sized balcony to get some fresh air on. You can do whatever you want there, right? 

Not exactly. In Spain the rules on what you can and can’t do on a balcony (even if it’s private) depend on a few factors, namely the regional and local rules, as well as getting the approval of the building’s homeowner’s association – known in Spain as la comunidad.

Some of them might just surprise you.

READ ALSO: ‘La comunidad’: What property owners in Spain need to know about homeowners’ associations

There are four main things or activities on balconies that could potentially put you on the wrong side of the local rules and even get you fined: barbecues, plants, laundry, and flags.

In all cases (even if you don’t think you’re breaking any rules) you’ll generally need to consider two things: firstly, does this affect or change the building’s façade? And secondly: will la comunidad allow it?

Barbecues

In Spain there is no national law prohibiting barbecues on private property, so in principle it is legal as long as the barbecue is lit in a private space such as your own balcony, garden or terrace, and not a shared space.

Often in Spain, the roof (usually referred to as la terrazza) is a shared space people use for storage and hanging their laundry, so be sure to check with the comunidad.

In terms of your own balcony, however, although there’s no law saying outright you can’t have a barbecue, you’ll need to take into account the rules and regulations in force in each locality or region. There may also be specific rules within the building that long-term homeowners have developed over the years.

As we will see, many of these low-level regulations are delegated to local governments and town halls in Spain, so the answer to these sorts of questions is usually: it depends where you are.

However, according to Article 7 of Spain’s Horizontal Property Law, “the owner and the occupant of the flat or premises are not allowed to carry out in it or in the rest of the property activities prohibited in bylaws, which are harmful to the property or which contravene the general provisions on annoying, unhealthy, harmful, dangerous or illegal activities.”

This basically gives your neighbours the right to complain about noise, smells, smoke and any possible fire risk in or around their building, which barbecues could plausibly fall under.

As with co-living anywhere in the world, regardless of the regional or local rules, employ some common sense: be reasonable, listen to neighbour’s concerns and take up any disputes with the President of la comunidad.

READ ALSO: What you need to know before having a barbecue in Spain

Plants

Again, with plants the responsibility falls on each local authority to set the rules. In Spain, most regions and town halls state that, as long as the architectural or structural elements of the building are not changed or weakened in any way, putting plants on your balcony is permitted.

However, note that many terraces and balconies do have maximum weight regulations that must be respected in order to guarantee their safety, which is 200kg per square metre. If this figure is exceeded (and it can be proved) you could theoretically be fined.

Laundry

Laundry lines criss-crossing the streets might be one of the more picturesque images of Spanish life, but the people doing it might actually be breaking the rules.

How do you know? You guessed it, it depends where you. You’ll need to check with your local authority on this one, though municipal regulations in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia all regulate hanging laundry from your balcony, which is again outlined in the Horizontal Property Law.

This principally seems to be because it affects the façade of the building (a common theme when it comes to balcony rules in Spain).

In places with rules about hanging laundry from balconies, you could be fined up to 750 euros if you don’t comply with the rules.

However, according to Foto Casa, even if you live in an area where there are no bans or penalties against hanging laundry on the balcony, you’ll still likely need the permission of la comunidad.

READ MORE: Spain’s weirdest laws that foreigners should know about

What about flags?

Whether it be the Spanish flag, the Catalan, Valencian or Andalusian flags, or LGBT, trade union or football team flags, flags proudly hanging from balconies is another mainstay of Spanish life.

It’s also one of the more controversial ones too, especially within comunidad meetings. Hanging flags on the balcony, as well as allegedly altering the aesthetics and security of the building (the same concern as with laundry) often has ideological connotations that can cause conflict.

Again, as with laundry, hanging flags on the balcony will require the approval of all the owners within the community, something that must be agreed at a meeting, as per the Horizontal Property Law.

However, if the flag is placed inside the property, as it is a private property, fellow homeowners cannot oppose it, even if it is visible from the street, according to Foto Casa.

Nudity 

Article of 185 of Spain’s Penal Code only considers being naked at home to be obscene exhibitionism and sexual provocation if it affects minors, in which case it is punishable with a fine or up to a year in prison.

Therefore, you could technically sunbathe shirtless or naked on your balcony in most cases without getting into trouble, although it won’t necessarily go down well with your neighbours and/or flatmates and you be reprimanded for it.

READ ALSO: Can you go shirtless or wear a bikini in the street in Spain?

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