Utility Payments

Frequently Asked Questions about utility payments

Apartment Leases differ from building to building.  The Frequently Asked Questions below may or may not apply to your particular lease.

I get bills directly from the power company.  Why do I also see utility charges on my rent bill?

Some buildings separate all utilities out by apartment, however in many cases, older buildings share some utilities, and separate other utilities.  The utilities that are separated are billed directly to the tenant by the power company, while other utilities are billed all at once for the entire building.  For example, you may have a separate electric meter just for your apartment, while the gas supply has one central meter for the whole building. 

In the case of a common meter, the management company pays the entire bill, and then prorates (splits) it up between the tenants of the building.  The most typical ways to prorate are: 1 portion for every apartment in the building (1/8 the bill if there are 8 apartments in the building); or 1 portion for each leaseholder in the building (if 25 people are living in the building, the bill is split into 25 portions, and 1/25 would be billed to a unit if there is one person in that particular unit, 3/25 would be billed to a unit if there are three people in that particular unit, etc.). 

Also, unless you have been notified otherwise, you also will be billed a portion of the water bill, and a portion of any common utilities (hallway lights, etc) through your rental bill.

What are common utilities?  Why am I billed for common utilities?

Unless you have been notified otherwise, you will receive monthly or quarterly bills for common utilities.  Common utilities are utilities which may be used by you directly or indirectly, such as hallway electricity, outside lights, water, etc. 

Why to these appear on your bill?  Well, one way or another, you pay for these utilities no matter where you live or how the landlord chooses to reimburse himself for them.  Many landlords build the cost of common utilities into the monthly rent, and in order to accomodate any potential fluxuation in utility costs, the amount they build in is overestimated.  Additionally, they raise rent every year to account for increases in utility costs, as much as 5% annually.  

We've taken a close look at this process, and found that we can keep the rent lower by not building in the cost of common utilities, and instead have you pay a portion of the actual utility instead.  So, by us billing you, you actually save money.  Our apartments are priced lower than comparable apartments with the same full-service management because the utilities are not included.  Even after you calculate the common utilities you pay, we're still less expensive.  This is also why our residents can go several years without seeing any annual rent increases at all - no increases in utilities means no increases in rent.  Most other managements companies will raise rent every single year.

What if I made a rent payment, but forgot to pay the utility charge?

All utility charges posted to your account are considered additional rent, with the same rules and requirements, except for one.  Since the utility charges differ every month, we give you a grace period to pay them.  There is no grace period for the payment of any other rent charges.  If you pay rent but not the utility charge for that month, you will not be assessed a late fee.  Please note, however, the grace period only lasts until the next due date.  If any utility charge from a previous billing period carries over past the following due date, it will be assessed a late fee.

How often are power and water utilites billed?

Power is billed twelve times per year, and water is billed four times per year.

Why do utility charges appear at random, instead of on the same day every month?

We post the utility to your account when we receive the bill in the mail.  Most of the time, the power bills are received every month around the same time, so those charges appear on your ledger at approximately the same time every month.  Water is billed by the local government, and is not as regular.  You might go four months without seeing a water charge, and then see the next two water charges just two months apart from each other.  But it all evens out - you will receive four water charges per 12 month period.

Why is there more than one Power Utility Charge posted to my account in one month?  

It's not a mistake!  In some buildings, we receive multiple bills for the common power utility, and so we post multiple charges to your account.  For example, we may receive the gas bill on the 10th, and the electricity bill on the 17th, so you will receive two line items of different amounts which say Power Utility Charge in the description.  If you receive two Power Utility charges in a row for the exact same amount, this may be an error.  Please report this potential issue to our billing department as soon as possible so we can look into it.