FAQ · Politics & Government 37

If you arrive in Iceland or leave the country carrying cash of more than 10,000 euros, or the same value in other currencies, travellers cheques or bearer negotiable instruments, you must declare it to customs at the place of arrival or departure. You can complete the declaration on the customs website, print it and hand it to a customs officer, and the same form is also available at the red customs gate. The information is collected to help combat money laundering and as a preventive measure against drug trafficking, terrorist threats and other unlawful acts that cross the border. Customs officers may seize the valuables when they suspect the money will be used for an offence punishable under the General Penal Code, and those cases are submitted to the police. That seizure power is set out in Customs Law 88/2005, Article 162. The customs page says the same kind of control applies in the major trading countries of Iceland.

There is no tourist police unit in Iceland, so ordinary police handle matters that involve visitors as well as residents. Officers are described as rarely armed and as almost always speaking good English. In an emergency you call 112, which is free from any phone and also covers ambulance, fire and search and rescue, and the operators speak English. For a matter that is not urgent, such as a stolen bag, a break-in to a rental car or an insurance report, you go to the nearest police station. In the capital area that stop is the Reykjavik Metropolitan Police station on Hlemmur. Ask for a police report number, because most insurance claims need one.

Statistics Iceland is the centre for official statistics in the country, founded in 1914, and it leads the organisation, coordination and conduct of that work. The institution collects statistical information about Icelandic society, processes it and communicates the results to users. That publication is meant to support an informed public debate and to give democratic decisions a factual basis. The Director-General is Hrafnhildur Arnkelsdóttir. A data and technology division led by Margrét Kristín Indriðadóttir looks after data infrastructure, information technology, quality and security. A statistics division led by Edda Rós Karlsdóttir prepares social statistics and economic statistics, including population, prices, the labour market, public finances and national accounts.

On Island.is people find a central public information and service hub for government agencies in Iceland. The site was launched in its current form in the autumn of 2020 so the public would have one service portal and one source of truth about government services. Content keeps growing as more agencies move their pages onto the site, and those agencies add and maintain the material with support from Digital Iceland. People can search, browse service categories or follow life events, and the chatbot Ask helps them gather information with artificial intelligence. The website is designed around user needs and is built to meet high accessibility requirements. If important information is not on the site yet, users can contact the Digital Iceland service centre.

Apostille authentication confirms that a signature and stamp on a public document issued by an Icelandic authority are genuine, so the paper can be used in a foreign country that is part of the Haag Convention. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs authenticates the document by attaching an apostille certificate, while chain authentication by the ministry stamp is used when the other country is not part of that convention, or when a foreign document from such a country will be used in Iceland. The ministry does not apostille documents issued outside Iceland, and neither stamp confirms that the contents of the document are true. Original documents signed and stamped by an Icelandic authority can be certified, as can Icelandic papers notarised by a district commissioner, including a power of attorney, a doctors note, adoption papers and a university diploma. Reception is handled for the ministry by the District Commissioner of the Capital Area at Hlíðasmári 1 in Kópavogur, and from 26 October 2026 an appointment is required, with service hours from 8:30 in the morning to 2:00 in the afternoon. The fee is 2700 ISK for each authentication and 2000 ISK for postage, and documents are normally certified on the spot while you wait.

The Icelandic ENIC/NARIC information centre assesses a non-Icelandic degree, diploma or certificate and states which educational level in Iceland it corresponds to, and the field of study when that can be given. You submit an electronic application online together with the required documentation, and the office may ask for further documents if the file is incomplete. You can also check whether the qualification is on the automatic recognition list before you apply. If the discipline is a regulated profession, you are directed to the competent authority that grants the licence rather than treated only as a case of academic recognition. The office bases its procedures on international agreements Iceland has signed, chiefly the Lisbon Convention and the Nordic Agreement, and it uses only official documents and information from other ENIC/NARIC offices. Once the documentation is complete, the process can take one to two months, and the result is sent by email or by post.

Legal aid is available to individuals involved in judicial proceedings in Iceland, and foreign nationals may qualify because it is granted regardless of nationality. The Act on Civil Procedure 91/1991 says that any person involved in judicial proceedings in Iceland may be entitled to legal aid. The Ministry of Justice grants it, but the minister is bound by the opinion of the Legal Aid Committee, an independent committee of three lawyers. The minister appoints the chair, the Icelandic Bar Association nominates one member and the Judge's Association nominates the other. An applicant sends a detailed application about the case, personal finances and other relevant facts to the ministry before the case goes to court. The committee looks at the merits and at income, with published criteria of 5237750 ISK a year before tax for one person and 7867877 ISK for a couple, plus a further 582286 ISK for each child supported by the applicant, and it may also weigh other circumstances in the Regulation on Legal Aid 45/2008.

Lyfjastofnun, the Icelandic Medicines Agency, says its role is to protect the safety of the public through ready access to medicines and medical devices, professional service, and impartial information based on the latest knowledge. The agency comes under the Ministry of Health. It was created in 2000 by merging Lyfjanefnd ríkisins and Lyfjaeftirlit ríkisins, and the combined institution formally began work on 1 November 2000. It describes itself as one link in the chain of medicines agencies in the European Economic Area, with extensive cooperation among those agencies and with the European Medicines Agency in Amsterdam. The same page says the agency has introduced an equal-pay system meeting the IST 85 standard and has received equal-pay certification. The Directorate of Equality has allowed the equal-pay mark to be shown, and equal-pay certification was written into law in June 2017 by an amendment to the act on the equal status and equal rights of women and men.

The National Olympic and Sports Association of Iceland, in Icelandic Íþrótta- og Ólympíusamband Íslands, is the body formed when the Olympic Committee and the sports federation merged on 1 November 1997. The Icelandic Sports Federation had been founded on 28 January 1912, and the Olympic Committee of Iceland was founded on 29 September 1921. The International Olympic Committee recognized the Icelandic committee at its 34th session in Oslo on 11 January 1935. Twelve members founded that first committee in 1921, and it did not take part in the Games again until 1936, under a committee formed in 1934. Its headquarters are at the Laugardalur Sports Center in Reykjavik. Willum Thor Thorsson is president and Andri Stefansson is secretary general.

Civil protection in Iceland falls under the Ministry of Justice, and the national responsibilities are delegated to the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police. That office runs the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management, which handles the daily administration of civil protection, keeps a national coordination centre that can be activated at any time, and operates the centre during an emergency. The commissioner also monitors and supports research on risk factors and natural catastrophes, and coordinates measures aimed at reducing the risk of bodily harm. Alert levels are decided by the National Commissioner, in consultation with the relevant regional police commissioner when that is possible, and the Minister of Justice is told of those decisions. A state of emergency may be declared if an emergency is likely, is imminent, has occurred, or if similar circumstances apply, and the commissioner operates a National Crisis Coordination Centre in Reykjavik. In an operation the office procures outside help, whether national or international, that the local chief of police considers necessary, while ordinary work covers risk analysis, mitigation, planning, training, equipment and recovery.

A parliamentary resolution numbered 34/149, passed on 3 June 2019, provided for an information centre for immigrants in Iceland. Its role is to give accessible advice, guidance and information about necessary services, rights and obligations, and to be a platform for cooperation among state institutions, municipalities, labour unions and non-profit organisations. All of the services are free of charge and are given in full confidentiality. Counsellors connected with New in Iceland speak eight languages, namely English, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Lithuanian, Russian and Icelandic, and telephone interpretation is offered for other languages. The centre, the Multicultural Information Centre of the Directorate of Labour, is at Grensásvegur 9 in 108 Reykjavik. It is open on working days from 10 to 15 and until 18 on Wednesdays, and people can call, send email, use the online chat or make an appointment.

A health and safety guide for people who have just been granted refugee status in Iceland says the emergency telephone number is 112. That same number is used to reach the police, the fire brigade, an ambulance, search and rescue teams, civil defence, child welfare committees and the Coast Guard. Neyðarlínan will try to provide an interpreter who speaks the caller's language when that is considered urgently necessary. The guide asks people to practise saying which language they speak, in Icelandic or in English, so that the right interpreter can be found. A mobile call made with an Icelandic SIM card lets the service locate the caller, but not the floor or the room inside a building, so the address should be practised as well. Everyone, including children, is told to know how to phone 112, and the guide says people in Iceland can trust the police and need not be afraid to ask them for help.

Vörður says any loss or damage can be reported on its website, or by calling the claims department at 514-1000 on weekdays from 09:00 to 16:00, with an out-of-hours emergency service at 514-1099. Burglary, theft and vandalism should be reported to the police immediately, and the damage should then be reported to the company. Necessary steps should be taken to limit further damage, but repairs should not begin until the claim has been reported and a damage inspector has examined it. Damaged items should not be thrown away without the company's consent, and a person who has caused damage to someone else should not accept liability before contacting Vörður. For a vehicle, a traffic accident report should be made on the spot and a copy sent in as soon as possible, and if the police or Aðstoð og Öryggi attended, that report is sent directly to the insurer. After an accident the company advises seeing a doctor at once, reporting the accident or illness immediately, and taking care that the accident report is correct and accurate.

Iceland Health says a person who wants help with the cost of planned treatment abroad must apply and get approval before the treatment begins. A doctor usually applies on the patient's behalf and confirms why the care is necessary, although the person may apply if all of the doctors' documents are available. Where the reason is a long wait in Iceland, the file needs a specialist certificate explaining why the person cannot wait, and the doctor must show that the foreign institution and the treatment are recognized and paid for by that country's social security system. A claim for payment participation must include the application, an itemised and numbered invoice, confirmation of payment, and a doctor's letter, especially when the person was admitted. Iceland Health recommends that you always ask to receive all of those documents in English. If they are not in English, the institution may require a translation by a certified translator, and it does not pay that cost.

The Icelandic Medicines Agency places comparable products, including originator medicines, generic medicines and parallel imports, together in reference price groups in the Icelandic Medicine Price Catalogue. Medicines in one group must share the same active substance, the same strength and the same pharmaceutical form, and they must have been shown to be equivalent. A generic medicine is developed to be equivalent to a reference medicine that already has a marketing authorisation, with the same active substance in the same amount and a bioequivalence study showing that it is absorbed at the same rate and to the same extent. Pharmacy staff are expected to offer a cheaper equivalent where that is possible and to show the patient how to read the active substance on the package, because the names and the appearance often differ by manufacturer. If the patient declines the cheapest option, that person pays the difference, since reimbursement follows the cheapest medicine in the group. The agency says generic prices are usually lower because development and registration cost less, and that unwanted effects are in most cases those of the active substance itself.

Civil protection committees must review their risk assessments and test their response plans with the National Commissioner of Police, and a plan that has been approved and submitted to that commissioner shall be rehearsed as far as possible under the Civil Protection Act 82 of 12 June 2008. The commissioner, the committees, the response bodies, central and local government bodies, and private parties with a contracted role must join those rehearsals free of charge to the extent considered necessary. A dispute about that duty may be referred to the Minister of Justice, and response plans are reviewed as often as necessary. People called out under the general civic duty must attend the courses and rehearsals to which the National Commissioner summons them, and they may not leave that work without permission. Injury or damage during such a course or rehearsal gives a right to compensation, and the Minister of Justice sets the maximum length of obligatory course attendance and rehearsals.

On official holidays, Straeto buses usually follow a Sunday timetable in the capital area, while Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve follow the Saturday timetable and service runs until about 15:00. In the capital area, Christmas Day and New Year's Day are driven like a Sunday, but there is no driving in the countryside on Christmas Day or New Year's Day. Buses usually start around 06:30 on weekdays, around 07:30 on Saturdays and around 09:30 on Sundays, and most routes run every day and finish between 23:30 and 01:00. The capital area has 29 routes, and there are normally 30 routes outside it, which the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration finances and plans. Routes 1, 3, 5, 6 and 12 run every 10 minutes at peak, every 15 minutes between peaks on weekdays and every 30 minutes at other times, while most other routes run every 15 minutes at peak and every 30 minutes outside peak.

A government update of 30 July 2025 says an eruption began shortly before 4 AM on 16 July in the Sundhnukur fissure just north of Grindavik, after seismic activity from a magma intrusion that started around midnight. Air traffic to and from Iceland is unaffected and flights are operating normally, and the page states that Iceland remains open and safe for tourists because the effects stay near the eruption. Travellers with respiratory conditions should take extra care, since gas pollution may cause discomfort, and walking on new lava is extremely dangerous because the surface can collapse without warning. Do not approach an eruption site, respect closures set by the authorities, and use SafeTravel and the road information service for closure updates, while the Meteorological Office, Civil Protection and scientists from the University of Iceland monitor activity that cannot be predicted accurately. Twelve eruptions have occurred on the Reykjanes Peninsula across 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, and travellers should make sure their insurance covers disruption caused by a natural event such as an eruption.

A permit is required to use City of Reykjavik land, and that permit covers outdoor meetings and mass walks as well as other events, with processing handled by the Use and Supervision Division in the Administration and Quality Office under police regulations. Use on private property needs the property owner's approval, highways in urban areas need a permit from the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration, and use inside port boundaries needs permission from Associated Icelandic Ports. The application is made in the RoSy online system and is not processed until every supporting document has been submitted. Processing time varies with the nature and scope of the event, and a separate fee is charged when a permit to use city land is issued. The service centre at Borgartun 12-14 in 105 Reykjavik is open from 8:30 in the morning until 4 in the afternoon Monday to Thursday and until 2:30 in the afternoon on Friday, and it can be reached on 411 1111.

The Icelandic Police calculator shows its speed panel with a measured deviation of 0, a maximum speed of 90, a fine of 0 kr, 0 points, no 20 percent load and a licence suspension of 0 months. Fixed amounts on the same page include 50,000 kr and 2 points for driving against a red light, 20,000 kr for cycling against a red light, and 20,000 kr with 1 point for driving the wrong way on a one-way street. Failing to obey a yield sign is listed at 30,000 kr and 1 point, failing to stop when another vehicle has priority is 30,000 kr and 2 points, and failing to follow pedestrian-crossing rules is 20,000 kr and 2 points. Using a phone or another smart device without hands-free equipment is 40,000 kr and 1 point, driving while a licence is suspended is 120,000 kr on a first violation and 200,000 kr on a second, and passing a cyclist at one and a half metres or less is 20,000 kr. The breakdown table has a column for payment within 30 days, but the sample figure in that column is 0 kr, and the page does not set out a separate fine scale for foreign drivers.

District Commissioners set motorcycle rights by age: at 15 the AM category covers machines limited to 45 km/h, such as scooters, and a motor tricycle, while A1 at 17 covers a two-wheel machine with or without a sidecar up to 125 cm3 and 11 kW, with a power-to-weight ratio of 0,1 kW per kg, plus a tricycle up to 15 kW. A2 at 19 allows up to 35 kW and a ratio of 0,2 kW per kg if the machine has not been modified from one that previously had more than double that power, and a full A licence is available at 24, or at 21 if A2 was taken at 19. A1 also includes AM rights, A2 includes AM and A1, and A includes AM, A1 and A2, including two-wheel machines with or without a sidecar and tricycles above 15 kW. Learning may begin three months before the birthday, the AM examination costs 4,300 ISK and the heavy-motorcycle A test costs 8,600 ISK, payable by card in the application or at the office that receives it. After the examination a provisional authorisation can be issued on the examiner's confirmation, processing takes up to seven working days once the application is received and the licence is ordered, and a passport photo is required, with a general practitioner's certificate if glasses, lenses or another health issue may affect driving.

After you apply for your own passport or for a child in your custody and pay the fee, you must attend a photo appointment with a District Commissioner within 30 days or the passport is not issued. A new photograph is required for every new or renewed passport, and you must show a previous passport, driving licence or identity card at the appointment. A studio photograph is accepted only if the studio emails it directly to the office you will visit before you finish the application, the office always takes a comparison photograph, and you cannot send the picture by email or bring it on a USB drive. Photo appointments and passport or identity-card applications cannot be handled at the offices in Budardalur, Hvammstangi, Dalvik, Raufarhofn or Thorshofn, while Greater Reykjavik allows a booking and other commissioners do not require an appointment for the photograph. Processing takes up to four working days from the photo appointment, with extra delivery time outside the capital area, and if you miss the appointment you must request a refund by email and include your national identity number.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs authenticates the document, and reception is handled for the ministry by the District Commissioner of the Capital Area at Hlidasmari 1 in 201 Kopavogur. An apostille confirms the signature and stamp on a public document issued by an Icelandic authority for use in a country that is part of the Haag Convention, and the ministry does not apostille documents issued outside Iceland. From 26 October 2026 an appointment is required and is booked through Noona, with service hours from 8:30 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon. The fee is 2,700 ISK for each authentication and 2,000 ISK for postage, and documents are normally certified on the spot while you wait. A person with an Icelandic kennitala can file the request online, while a person without one uses the front desk of the District Commissioner of Greater Reykjavik or sends the form by email.

As part of a residence permit, legal domicile in Iceland is registered with Registers Iceland. If you did not register an address while applying, you must notify Registers Iceland of your residence on the published form before any residence permit will be issued. The form is submitted at the Directorate of Immigration at Dalvegur 18 in 201 Kopavogur, even though the domicile itself is recorded by Registers Iceland. You may also send the form by email to the Directorate, or hand it in at a District Commissioner's office outside the capital area when you attend to be photographed for a residence permit card.

The Icelandic identification number, called a kennitala, is the tax identification number, and it is a unique number issued both to individuals and to entities and used for all taxes. Register Iceland issues the number for individuals, while Fyrirtaekjaskra issues it for entities, and both individual residents and resident entities receive one automatically. The number has ten digits, and for a person the first six are the date of birth in day-month-year order, the next two are random, the ninth is a check digit and the tenth shows the century of birth. It is often written with a hyphen after the sixth digit. For an entity the same pattern uses the initial registration date instead of a birth date, and 4 is added to the first digit so the number does not collide with an individual's number. The number can be read on a driving licence, a debit card, a bank statement or a tax return.

The Annual Leave Act sets the minimum entitlement, how leave is scheduled and how holiday pay is paid, while collective agreements add leave above that statutory minimum. The minimum annual leave in the general labour market is 24 working days, and holiday pay on that minimum is ten point seventeen percent of total wages. After five years with the same employer or ten years in the same occupation the entitlement is 25 days with holiday pay of ten point sixty-four percent, and after ten years with the same employer it is 30 days with holiday pay of thirteen point zero four percent. From 1 May 2024, an employee aged 22 who has worked six months for the same employer accrues 25 days at ten point sixty-four percent, and five years with the same employer raises this to 26 working days at eleven point eleven percent, for leave taken in the leave year that begins on 1 May 2025. From 1 May 2025, five years with the same employer raises accrual to 28 working days with holiday pay of twelve point zero seven percent, for leave taken in the leave year that begins on 1 May 2026.

Employees who suffer a work-related accident may be entitled to wages for up to three months in addition to sick leave they have already earned, and the same applies to an occupational illness. If the accident keeps them off work for 10 days or more, they can receive daily sick-leave payments from the Social Insurance Administration until they recover or for up to 52 weeks, and those payments go to the employer while paid sick leave continues. Employers must insure their staff against accidents under collective wage agreements, and benefits for disability or death follow the terms of that insurance. If the employer is responsible for the accident, the employee may be entitled to compensation. Apart from accidents, legislation sets a minimum of wages for two sick-leave days for each month worked, and a person with no income during illness may qualify for daily payments from the Social Insurance Administration.

The Directorate of Labour states that each parent has six months of maternity or paternity leave. Up to six weeks of that entitlement may be transferred to the other parent. Parents may start leave up to one month before the expected date of birth, and the right is earned by working in Iceland for the last six months before the birth at a rate of at least 25 percent. For each additional child born alive after 22 weeks of pregnancy, the parents' joint entitlement is extended by six months. A single parent who has undergone artificial insemination, or who has primarily adopted a child or taken a child into permanent foster care, is entitled to 12 months, and the right ends when the child turns two or two years after the child enters the home.

The Directorate of Labour says an applicant must have worked in Iceland, be aged 18 to 70, be able to work in a general workplace, have legal residence in Iceland and be in the country. You may apply 14 days before unemployment begins, and you should apply no later than the day the notice period ends, because benefits are paid from the application date and are not paid retroactively. Processing takes four to six weeks from the date you are unemployed and able to start work, and missing documents can extend that time. For the first two weeks basic benefits are paid, then income-related benefits at 70 percent of average total wages, up to 605159 ISK, run for three months and are paid only once in each 30-month benefit period. From 1 July 2026 the benefit period can last up to 24 months, while someone who applied before that date keeps a period of up to 30 months, and job search must be confirmed once a month between the 20th and the 25th.

Old-age pension from the Social Insurance Administration may be paid when you reach 67, you can apply from 65, and you must apply to every pension fund in which you have rights before you apply to the administration. You may qualify if you are 67 or older and have been domiciled in Iceland for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 67. Full rights arise after 40 years of residence in Iceland between those ages, and a shorter residence gives a proportional amount. Starting at 65 means the annual payment is eighty-seven point seven six percent of the amount payable from age 67, so the reduction is twelve point two four percent, and an earlier start also reduces the household allowance. You can postpone the pension for a permanent increase, up to age 72 if you were born before 1952 and up to age 80 if you were born from 1952 through 1957, while for people born in 1958 or later the increase stops once a pension fund starts paying.

In municipal elections the right to vote follows domicile in the municipality, while citizenship is the main condition in other elections. Icelandic citizens may vote if they are domiciled in Iceland and are 18 on election day, and Nordic nationals may vote if they are domiciled in the municipality and are 18 on election day. Other foreign nationals may vote if they have been domiciled in Iceland for three consecutive years before election day and are 18 on that day. Icelandic students domiciled in Denmark, Finland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Norway or Sweden may vote in the municipality where they were last registered, and the same applies to a spouse and children who live with them there. Those students must apply to the National Registry no later than 40 days before polling day, and a new application with confirmation of study is required before each municipal election.

A controller or processor may transfer personal data to a country outside the EU, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland only when the conditions in the GDPR are met. The European Commission may decide that a third country gives adequate protection, and data may then be transferred there freely. Article 16 of the Icelandic Data Protection Act brings the GDPR rules on transfers to third countries and international organisations into Icelandic law, so the same restrictions apply. Advertisement 1155 of 2022 also covers transfers to countries that have received adequacy status from the European Commission. Where there is no adequacy decision, a transfer can still be made if the controller or processor provides appropriate safeguards, such as binding corporate rules or standard contractual clauses, and the person has enforceable rights and effective remedies.

The complaints board for goods and services can hear most disputes between a consumer and a seller about a contract to buy goods or services. A complaint must come from a consumer who bought for a fee and not for professional purposes, it must be aimed at the seller, a contract must exist, the consumer must already have tried to settle the matter with the seller, the dispute must be inside the board's jurisdiction, and the consumer pays a fee of 5,000 ISK. The board must dismiss a case when those conditions fail, when the dispute is or was before the courts, or when the law excludes it, including health care, public postgraduate or higher education, non-profit community service and the purchase of real estate. The secretaries may dismiss a case that is clearly outside jurisdiction, and the consumer can ask the board to review that decision. The board may also dismiss a complaint that the consumer did not first try to settle, a claim worth more than 5,000,000 ISK, a complaint that is unimportant, without cause or inadmissible, or a case that would seriously impair the board's work.

If a user of telecommunications services, or another person with an interest, believes that a telecommunications company or a postal operator has broken duties under the telecommunications or postal laws, or conditions in a general authorisation, right or operating licence, that person may complain to the Electronic Communications Office and ask it to take up the case. The office also settles disputes between companies in the telecommunications and postal markets. A decision of the office can be appealed to the rulings committee for telecommunications and postal matters, and the appeal must reach the committee within four weeks of the appellant learning of the decision. The parties may take a decision of the office, and a ruling of that committee, to the courts. Further rules on the committee's procedure are in Article 20 of the Act on the Electronic Communications Office and in the regulation on the rulings committee for telecommunications and postal matters.

The National Energy Authority's regulatory role includes handling complaints from users who believe that electricity companies have violated their obligations. Anyone who believes that an electricity company is acting unlawfully through a decision, an action or an omission can bring the matter to the Energy Regulatory Authority. After the case has been prepared and investigated, the authority makes a government decision on whether the company's conduct complies with the law. If the conduct does not follow the electricity laws, the authority may demand corrective measures, and penalties may be imposed. A government decision of the Energy Regulatory Authority in an electricity matter can be appealed to the Electricity Disputes Tribunal.

Veitur tells customers with no cold water to check whether staff are working in the street, to ask neighbours if someone closed the intake for construction in the building, and to call 516 6000 if the public connection is frozen or damaged. Low pressure at hot and cold taps can come from a clogged intake filter, and Veitur asks you to call 516 6000, while a faulty radiator regulator is a matter for a plumber. Brown cold water may mean pipes in the building have started to corrode, which is for a plumber, or dirt from the grid after a repair, which should be reported to Veitur on the same number. A buzz or a bang in the pipes may be a leak or a fault in the public connection, in which case you call Veitur, or a fault inside the building, in which case you call a plumber. If cold taps run warm because hot water is leaking into the public connection, Veitur asks you to call 516 6000, and a bad taste after new work should first be rinsed out and then reported to Veitur if it does not improve.

The Icelandic Tourist Board cannot settle every complaint about tourism. It accepts written complaints only about licences, covering operation without a licence, failure to meet licence conditions, or activity beyond the licence, such as a day-tour operator selling a package when only a travel-agency licence may sell packages. A dispute about a transaction or communication between a tourist and a company is outside the Board, which is a neutral body with no legal power to take one side, so the visitor should first ask the company to put the matter right. Written licence complaints go to Hafnarstraeti 91, 600 Akureyri, telephone 535 5500. Package-tour contracts, commercial practice and misleading advertising are handled by the Consumer Agency under the Package Tours Act at Borgartun 21, 105 Reykjavik, telephone 510 1100. The Consumers Association at Hverfisgata 105, telephone 545 1200, advises non-members on Mondays and Thursdays before noon.