For the purposes of this Regulation, the following terms mean:
Subscriber or taxpayer: The natural or legal person who owns the property that has a building of any nature, to which the drinking water service is provided.
Water connection line (Acometida de agua): Length of pipe and accessories installed from the distribution network to the point of installation of the service connection; it reaches the property line.
Aqueduct: It is the set of sources, potabilization plants, storage tanks, conveyance and distribution networks, and other elements necessary for supplying water to a population.
Drinking water: Treated water that meets the provisions for recommended or maximum permissible aesthetic, organoleptic, physical, chemical, biological, and microbiological values, established in the current Regulation for Drinking Water Quality.
Billing adjustment: Modification to the invoiced amounts after a prior study and approval by an analyst when a formal claim is filed by the subscriber or someone authorized by them.
High Consumption: Monthly consumption that exceeds the average consumption by 100%.
Approval of works: Action resulting from the validation of a water work or infrastructure, built by a private party, once technical and legal compliance with the requested requirements has been verified.
Payment arrangement: Agreement between parties in which both agree that the debt will be covered in installments. Every payment arrangement must follow what is set forth in the current Regulation for the Management of Administrative Collection and Initiation of Judicial Process, Oversight, and Tax Collection of the Municipality of Montes de Oro.
Street or public road: Any access in the public domain for the free transit of persons and/or vehicles.
Hydraulic capacity: Corresponds to the condition of the installed infrastructure of the supply and sanitation systems to convey flows for the provision of services.
Water resource capacity: Existing condition of technical and administrative feasibility for the production and exploitation of drinking water for supply by the Municipality.
Causes not attributable to the operator: These are circumstances that cannot be controlled by the Service Management Department through the Administration of the Municipal Aqueduct and cause a variation in the normal conditions of administration and operation of the supply systems.
Service coverage: This is the area served to the population residing in homes, businesses, or industries connected to the existing public network of the municipal aqueduct.
Condominium: Real property susceptible to independent use by different owners, with common elements of an indivisible nature. Condominiums may be of the lot type, horizontal, vertical, combined, mixed, or others.
Social Interest Condominium: Any condominium that will be financed totally or partially with funds from the National Financial System for Housing and that has been expressly declared as such by the Mortgage Housing Bank (Banco Hipotecario de La Vivienda); according to the Regulatory Law of Condominium Property No. 7933 and its regulation.
Service certification (Constancia de servicios): Document issued by the Service Management Department through the competent official, with the purpose of certifying to the subscriber the actual existence, on a property, of one or more installed and functioning drinking water and/or sanitation services.
Water resource capacity certification (Constancia de capacidad hídrica): Document issued by the Service Management Department through the competent official in response to a denial of service availability, in which it is certified that the aqueduct has actual water resource capacity and the potential availability of the water supply service to the property; subject to the construction, by the subscriber, of the primary infrastructure or primary works indicated in this document.
Connection: Union of the public drinking water supply or sanitary sanitation system with the private system.
Cross connections: Interconnection of systems (water, wastewater, storm drain water, non-potable industrial water, or others) that put the water system, the integrity of the sanitation system, and the stormwater system at risk of contamination.
Fraudulent connection: A connection that, having been suspended, is connected to the water systems without the authorization of the system operator; or one that, while active, is detected using a means that allows the actual consumption of the service not to be measured.
Unauthorized or illicit connection: A connection made by third parties to the water systems, without the proper authorization of the Municipality.
Consumption: It is the volume of water recorded by the water meter within a specific period of time.
Equivalent consumption for services under claim (Consumo equivalente para servicios en situación de reclamo): corresponds to the average volume of consumption of metered subscribers. For the purposes of this regulation, it is established that the consumption of the month in question has exceeded by more than fifty percent (50%) the average consumption of the last six months.
Average consumption: It is the average of the consumptions recorded in the last 6 months in the reading database and that have not been modified by the application of any of the articles of this regulation. When the subscriber has a record of less than 6 months, the average consumption will be estimated with the existing data. For duly justified cases, the consumption projection with a subsequent reading will be applied.
Service continuity: It is a quality of the service that indicates the time of uninterrupted service during a specific period.
Connection fee: Amount or sum that the interested party must pay in advance to the Municipality for the installation of the new water service to be carried out.
Reconnection fee: Term used to describe the value or sum that the subscriber must pay in advance to the Municipality for the reconnection of the drinking water service that was suspended for causes attributable to the subscriber or user.
Service Management Department (Departamento de Gestión de Servicios): Municipal Unit responsible for Drinking Water Services through the Aqueduct Administration.
Site design (Diseño de sitio): Technical document that describes the planning for constructing an urban development, reflecting the strategy to be followed with its action programs and validity.
Including aspects of location and spatial distribution; the chronology of actions for each of the stages, phases, or components; as well as the characteristics, the execution term, the development objective, and the water demand by stages; including segregations or divisions that will require water and/or sanitation services.
Water service availability (Disponibilidad de servicio de agua): Document issued by the competent official of the Service Management Department for the purpose of certifying to the owner the actual existence, on a property, of water resource capacity and hydraulic capacity, allowing the eventual request for drinking water supply services, collection; without causing detriment to the rights of existing users. This document will be issued only if the procedure includes all compliant requirements. This does not imply the approval of construction permits or any other license issued by the Municipality. The respective procedures must be processed before the relevant entities.
Building for residential use or housing unit (Edificación de uso residencial o unidad habitacional): Dwelling or apartment intended for permanent and continuous residential use, built for the purpose of housing persons to satisfy exclusively their housing need. The modality can be single-family or multi-family.
Service elimination: Action that allows the permanent cancellation of service provision for operational reasons, based on a reasoned technical justification justified by the competent personnel of the Service Management Department.
Technical Study: Study that allows proposing and analyzing different technical options for the provision of services.
Socioeconomic Study: Tool incorporated or used for the National Unified Beneficiary Registry System (SINURIBE), as well as the tool that allows reviewing and updating the SIR (Social Information Registry) to determine the population under conditions of extreme poverty or basic poverty.
Branch extension (Extensión de ramal): Increase in the length of a segment of the aqueduct network to a specific point; carried out on a public road or in an easement (servidumbre) in the name of the Municipality of Montes de Oro.
Technical feasibility: Study, evaluation, and approval or rejection of the water availability request, based on existing conditions.
Technological feasibility: Real and current existence of access to information technologies linked to the drinking water service in the Municipality of Montes de Oro. Its operation may be affected by internal or external factors due to acts of God or force majeure.
Billing: Process by which the concepts, volumes, and amounts to be paid by the subscriber and/or user are determined.
Property (Finca): Plot of land or lot, with or without its respective building, duly individualized and registered in the Public Property Registry.
Filial property (Finca filial): Private ownership unit within a condominium, which constitutes an autonomous portion suited for independent use and enjoyment, communicated directly with the public road or with a specific common space leading to it.
Parent property (Finca matriz): Real property that gives rise to the condominium, consisting of two or more filial properties and their corresponding common areas.
Parent filial property (Finca filial matriz): This is any filial property that, due to its own characteristics regarding size, availability of access, and services, allows the constitution of a new condominium within the initial condominium.
Subdivision (Fraccionamiento): It is the division of any real property for the purpose of selling, transferring, negotiating, distributing, exploiting, or using the resulting parcels separately; it includes both partitions from judicial or extrajudicial adjudication, locations of undivided rights, and mere segregations held by the same owner, as well as those situated in urbanizations or new constructions that concern the control of the formation and urban use of real estate.
Public standpipe (Fuente pública): Installation of a drinking water source of 12mm in diameter within a maximum radius of 200 meters from the point intended to be supplied.
Leak (Fuga): Escape of water in the distribution and/or conveyance networks and/or hydraulic infrastructure of the drinking water systems.
Non-visible leak (Fuga no visible): A leak that cannot be detected with the naked eye. Every non-visible leak must be verified by an Inspector of the Municipal Aqueduct at the subscriber's request, prior to payment for the respective service.
Internal installation leak (Fuga de instalación interna): Escape of water in the internal drinking water supply installations.
Separation of services (Independización): It is the act by which the Department of the Service Management Unit, through the Administration of the Aqueduct, at the subscriber's request, separates the water services of each of the consumption units within a single property.
Existing infrastructure of DRHI: Infrastructure that is under the operation, administration, and maintenance of the Department of the Service Management Unit through the Administration of the Aqueduct, such as public networks for water conveyance and distribution and collection, water connection lines (acometidas), water meters, hydrants, valves, pumping stations, tanks, wells, and any other component necessary for the optimal provision of services, in accordance with the corresponding technical and legal regulations.
Primary infrastructure or primary works: Infrastructure of drinking water and sanitation systems, as well as complementary works, that are necessary and must be built with the objective of being able to grant the Certification of Availability of Supply and/or Collection services to an urban development project or real estate. This infrastructure would be located on public lands or property of the Municipality, public streets or roads, and/or permanent pipe and passage easement (servidumbre) registered in favor of the Municipality of Montes de Oro.
Real property (Inmueble): Land, duly individualized, registered under one or several owners. A real property may or may not contain one or several infrastructure works.
Water meter inspection (Inspección de medidor de agua): Review conducted by an official of the Department of the Service Management Unit through the Administration of the Aqueduct, on the water meter installed by the user, to detect anomalies and/or obtain technical information from the instrument. If the water meter inspection is requested by the subscriber, this inspection is associated with an additional cost on the bill according to the current tariff schedule (pliego tarifario).
Inspection for leak detection (Inspección para detección de fugas): Review inside the real property conducted by an official of the Department of the Service Management Unit through the administration of the Aqueduct, with the subscriber's consent, to detect possible leaks in the internal installations. This inspection is associated with the prior payment of an additional cost on the bill according to the current tariff schedule. This service may be provided outside the canton's jurisdiction upon prior payment of the respective cost into a municipal account (Taxpayer No.) created for that purpose.
Technical inspection (Inspección técnica): Specialized review carried out by the Department of the Service Management Unit through the administration of the Aqueduct regarding the operation and use of the water, sanitation, and metering systems, located on public roads, in easements, or on private properties and buildings (with the owner's due consent). It also corresponds to inspections carried out by the Municipality of Montes de Oro as part of its oversight duty, in the different stages of the construction of primary infrastructure and/or primary works, by a developer.
Technical inspections for supplies (Inspecciones técnicas por abastecimientos): Review that the Department of the Service Management Unit, through the administration of the Aqueduct, carries out at the user's request or ex officio to verify the use of the service and its basic data.
Connection installation: Action that materializes when the connection located on private property is physically integrated into the operator's system.
Internal installations: Mechanical drinking water supply and sanitation installations located within the property and which are under the subscriber's responsibility.
Interconnection: Connection of new systems, infrastructure, and urban developments that comply with current technical regulations, to the distribution and collection systems operated by the Department of the Service Management Unit for the enabling of water services.
Property line limit for water service: Corresponds to the part of the boundary of the lot or the access easement to this lot, in front of the point where the water meter providing the service is located. In the case of properties located facing a public road or passage and pipe easement, constituted in favor of the Municipality of Montes de Oro, it corresponds to the boundary of the lot or the filial property. In the case of properties located facing access easements, it corresponds to the frontage of this easement with the public road.
Manual of Technical Requirements (Manual de requisitos técnicos): Technical document issued by the Service Management Department of the Municipality of Montes de Oro that contemplates the technical specifications for materials, controls, and hydraulic elements, infrastructure, and installation methodology.
Water Meter (Medidor de Agua): Device or instrument intended to measure and record the volume of water, also known as a hydrometer.
Calculation memorandum for service allocation (Memoria de cálculo para dotación de Servicios): Technical document containing the estimation of water consumption, to determine, according to the projected average allocation, the correct sizing of the water meter to be assigned to the service, considering the use (domestic, commercial, industrial, or any other authorized purpose), the description of the consumption units, and the number of people who will use the service.
The calculation must be presented both in liters per second, considering peak consumption, as well as the projected consumption per month.
Municipality: Municipality of Montes de Oro.
Fine (Multa): Monetary penalty for offenses committed in accordance with this Regulation and current laws.
Straw (Paja): Water connection line (Acometida de Agua).
Unauthorized bypass of water (Paso alterno de agua no autorizado): Unauthorized water connection mechanism used to prevent the water meter from registering consumption.
Cadastral plan (Plano catastrado): Survey plan, physical or in electronic format, which has been registered in the National Cadastre, and its effects are defined in the Regulation to the National Cadastre Law, Executive Decree No. 34331-J, and its amendments or the regulation that replaces it.
Tariff Schedule (Pliego Tarifario): It is the official document indicating the amounts corresponding to the costs of the services, consumption blocks, installation costs, and others, which must be published in the official newspaper La Gaceta.
Possessor (Poseedor): Person who performs stable and effective acts of possession, in a peaceful, public, and uninterrupted manner, as owner for more than 10 years on properties not registered with the Public Registry.
Pre-billing (Prefacturación): Process by which the Service Management Department, through the administration of the Aqueduct, carries out a preliminary verification of the recorded consumptions prior to billing.
Optimal service pressure: Dynamic service pressure of at least 1.5 kg/cm2 (15 meters of water column or 21.3 psi) at the service delivery point or water connection line (acometida de agua).
Pre-installed water connection line (Prevista agua): Length of pipe and accessories installed from the distribution network to the point for the service connection; it reaches the property line, but has not been connected to the internal installations of the real property.
Owner: Natural or legal person who exercises dominion over real estate through public deed, duly registered in the Public Registry.
Urban development project: Infrastructure project for urban purposes, built in newly opened areas (urbanizations, condominiums, shopping centers, residential and/or office towers, among other infrastructures).
Volumetric Test: Review carried out on the water meter to verify the correct recording of water volume.
Acceptance of hydraulic works for drinking water and sanitation (Recepción de obras hidráulicas para agua potable y saneamiento): Action resulting from approving and accepting or transferring a drinking water or sanitation work or infrastructure; built by a private party and that becomes the property of the Municipality of Montes de Oro, once technical and legal compliance with the requested requirements has been verified. The technical corroboration will be the responsibility of the Service Management Department through the Administration of the Aqueduct. For the final acceptance of these works, a Municipal resolution from the municipal mayor or their designee is required.
Networks: Pipe system for water distribution.
Public network: Water pipe system owned by the Municipality of Montes de Oro.
Rule of three: It is the operation of finding the fourth term of a proportion knowing the other three.
Waiver of service: Action that allows the permanent cancellation of water supply provision, at the owner's request.
Administrative resolution for suspected leak: Document issued by the Service Management Department through the Administration of the Aqueduct informing the user or taxpayer that a leak is presumed to exist on their property.
Administrative resolution for meter obstruction (Resolución administrativa por obstrucción de medidor): Document issued by the Service Management Department through the Administration of the Aqueduct informing the user or taxpayer of the situation that prevented the water meter reading from being taken; as well as the corresponding penalty.
Administrative resolution for unauthorized connection (Resolución administrativa por conexión no autorizada): Document issued by the Service Management Department through the Administration of the Aqueduct informing the user or taxpayer that an unauthorized connection has been detected; as well as the corresponding penalty.
Administrative resolution for construction process without construction permits (Resolución administrativa por proceso constructivo sin los permisos de construcción): Document issued by the Service Management Department through the administration of the Aqueduct, informing the user that there is an administrative process from the Urban Development Department; for which reason their water service tariff will be modified.
Administrative resolution for construction process with construction permits (Resolución administrativa por proceso constructivo con permisos de construcción): Document issued by the Service Management Department through the administration of the Aqueduct, informing the user or taxpayer that due to the existence of a construction permit, their water service tariff will be modified.
Administrative resolution for database purification (Resolución administrativa por depuración de bases de datos): Document issued by the Service Management Department informing the taxpayer that, at their request, the database has been purified of inappropriate charges.
General administrative resolution (Resolución administrativa general): Document issued by the Department of the Service Management Unit informing the user or taxpayer that a particular condition has been detected that must be addressed to guarantee the proper functioning of the water service.
Review: Review conducted by a trained official of the Municipal Aqueduct Service on the water meter installed by the user, to detect whether or not there are leaks in the interested party's installations. In the case of visible leaks on the property, no adjustment will be made. In case of visible leaks, the corresponding cost for their review must be paid. If the water meter inspection is requested by the subscriber, this inspection is associated with an additional cost on the bill according to the current tariff schedule, provided it is not due to reading errors, a meter in poor condition, or any other situation attributable to the malfunction or operation of the Municipal Aqueduct.
Municipal Supply Service: Corresponds to the supply of water for human consumption provided by the Service Management Department through the administration of the Aqueduct, also referred to as the Drinking Water service.
Drinking Water Service: Municipal supply service.
Sanitation Service: Corresponds to the collection, treatment, and disposal of wastewater.
Hydrant Service: Service linked to the maintenance, operation, and development of the hydraulic systems necessary for firefighting, at the service of the Fire Department.
Provisional service: Service that, due to the nature of the activity, is provided for a specific period and will later become a permanent service.
Temporary service: Service that, due to the nature of the activity, is supplied for a maximum period of six months.
Permanent Service: Service provided to a duly registered property, which complies with all the requirements of national laws and municipal regulations; continuously for more than six months.
Municipal servant: That individual who provides services to the Municipality or on its behalf and on its account, as part of its organization, by virtue of a valid and effective act of investiture.
Public access easement (Servidumbre de acceso público): Right in rem of entry or transit for pedestrians and/or vehicles in favor of public entities and over a property owned by another. It implies for its owner a limitation on the full exercise of the attributes of property rights, without the portion of land thereby losing its condition of private property.
De facto easement (Servidumbre de hecho): One established over a property by force of use and custom, tolerated by the owner of the good, without legal imposition or a formal act of constitution through a public deed mediating.
Passage easement registered in favor of third parties (Servidumbre de paso inscrita a favor de terceros): Right in rem of entry and free transit for pedestrians and/or vehicles, constituted and registered in favor of a property whose owner is a natural or legal person different from the Municipality of Montes de Oro.
Private passage easement (Servidumbre de paso privada): Right in rem of entry and transit for pedestrians and/or vehicles for the benefit of one or several properties, and over a property owned by another. It implies for its owner a limitation on the full exercise of the attributes of property rights, without the portion of land thereby losing its condition of private property.
Passage and pipe easement (Servidumbre de paso y tubería): Right in rem to install water pipe on a property owned by another, for operation, administration, and maintenance by the Service Management Department through the administration of the Aqueduct. It implies a permanent and continuous utility of access for the fulfillment of its public purpose, as well as a limit on the exercise of the right of property by its owner.
Registered passage and pipe easement (Servidumbre de paso y tubería inscrita): Passage and pipe easement that is duly registered on one or several properties in the Property Registry.
System: Set of installations that make up the infrastructure necessary to provide the drinking water service in a specific area. It includes intake, storage, and disinfection works, as well as water conveyance and distribution networks.
Private system: Set of water and sanitary sewer installations that is not administered by the Service Management Department.
Municipal Public System: Set of water installations administered and operated by the Department of the Service Management Unit through the administration of the Aqueduct.
Connection requests: Action taken by the subscriber to obtain the installation of the service, after approval of drinking water availability, complying with the technical requirements requested by the Service Management Department according to the Technical Requirements and the associated payment.
Bulk water supply between authorized operators: Water supply in large volumes between authorized service operators, with the objective that the requesting operator who needs to increase the water resource capacity of its systems can satisfy the demand of its current and potential users, safeguarding the public interest and in accordance with the technical and legal capacity to provide this supply. The cost will be defined in the corresponding tariff study and through the agreements permitted by the Municipal Code.
Volumetric water supply for conditioned means of transport (Suministro de agua en volumen para medios de transporte acondicionados): Modality of water sale in a determined volume, through means of transport authorized for this purpose. The cost will be defined in the corresponding tariff study (if no defined tariff exists, the full cost recovery tariff will be applied) or through the agreements permitted by the Municipal Code. The supply location will be defined by the Municipality of Montes de Oro.
Service suspension: Action that allows interrupting the provision of water supply services, due to lack of payment or for reasons inherent to the operation of the service.
Tariff: List or catalog of prices to be paid for the provision of a service.
Differentiated tariff (Tarifa diferenciada): Subsidy or benefit that may be accessed by families in conditions of extreme poverty or basic poverty who meet the requirements and conditions established in this regulation.
Urbanization fee: amount that the developer of subdivisions (urbanizaciones), residential developments, and horizontal or vertical condominiums must pay, for each water connection (paja de agua) or residential or commercial unit processed; the fee shall be established according to a prior study conducted by the Department of Service Management.
Consumption unit: Each of the housing, commercial, industrial, or other units that has its own potable water installations to which the water use referred to in this Regulation will be assigned. Any remodeling, alteration, or expansion made to an existing structure must be evaluated by the Municipality of Montes de Oro in order to determine whether it creates a new consumption unit and/or a variation in water use.
Subdivision (Urbanización): Subdivision (fraccionamiento) and development of land for urban purposes, through the opening of streets and provision of services.
Water use: Purpose that the user or the Municipality of Montes de Oro determines is given to the water service. It is classified as: 1. Domestic, 2. Ordinary, 3. Reproductive, 4. Preferential, 5. Special, 6. Differentiated, 7. Provisional, 8. Bulk water.
User: Natural and/or legal person who legitimately uses the potable water service provided by the Department of Service Management of the Municipality of Montes de Oro.
Bulk water sale: Modality of water sale to another provider legally operating in Costa Rica and water sellers to third parties legally operating.
Prepaid water sale: Corresponds to the sale of water volumes, previously and technically defined and paid for, upon the request of a user.
Coverage zone: Geographic area where enabled aqueduct networks exist, in operation, under the jurisdiction and administration of a public service provider.
Conflict zones: Corresponds to the sectors that have water service from the Department of Service Management through the Aqueduct administration; where, due to conditions of security, danger, or conflict with other institutions, meter reading is limited.