Communal Electricity Billing

In most UK residential blocks, a single landlord-supply meter powers all the communal infrastructure. The supplier issues one invoice each month or quarter to the RTM company, RMC, freeholder or managing agent — who then has to recover that cost from every leaseholder or tenant according to the lease.

Sounds simple, until you try to do it well. Reading the meter, splitting the cost fairly, handling void units, dealing with mid-year tariff changes and reconciling against supplier statements at year end is a sustained piece of work — and the recovery rate suffers as soon as it slips.

We run the entire process: supplier invoice in, leaseholder or tenant invoice out, collections, reconciliation, reporting.

Where AMR or smart sub-meters are fitted, we collect reads automatically every billing cycle. Where they're not, we schedule manual reads and sense-check them against historical patterns to catch errors before they hit the invoice. Allocation is agreed up front with the board or asset manager — equal split, floor area, occupancy or sub-metered actuals, depending on the lease and what is genuinely fair for your building.

The single biggest cause of communal-electricity disputes is residents not understanding the rule. We document the allocation method, publish it to residents and show the working on every invoice. That removes the suspicion of a hidden mark-up and means new leaseholders or tenants understand the basis of the charge from day one. Transparency is the cheapest dispute-prevention tool there is.

Invoices are issued on the schedule that suits the block — monthly, quarterly or aligned to the service charge run. Residents can pay by Direct Debit, card or bank transfer, with automated reminders for late payers and a structured escalation path where needed. The RTM, RMC or managing agent sees recovery in real time on a dashboard, so cash flow is never a mystery.

Each month you receive a clear statement: supplier cost in, leaseholder charges out, payments collected, arrears outstanding. At year end every communal electricity account reconciles against the supplier statement so the service charge accounts add up first time — no chasing, no spreadsheet rebuilds, no awkward conversations with the auditor.

As blocks decarbonise, the landlord supply does more work than ever. EV chargers and communal heat pumps are increasingly pulling significant load through what used to be a sleepy meter — and without dedicated sub-metering, one resident can quietly subsidise another. We bill EV usage to the driver and heat pump output to the flat that benefits, leaving the genuinely communal load on the agreed allocation. The bill is fair, and it can be shown to be fair.