Utility Billing for RTM Companies

When a Right to Manage company takes over a residential block, the responsibility for paying communal utility bills lands squarely with the directors. The supplier sees one customer — the RTM — but the cost has to be fairly recovered from every leaseholder, every month, in line with the lease.

In practice that means juggling supplier invoices, meter reads, void periods, lease-specific allocation rules and chasing late payers. It is finance, admin and customer service rolled into one, usually carried out by unpaid directors in their spare time. Errors creep in, recovery rates slip and disputes flare up — and the block ends up subsidising costs it should have recovered.

We were built to solve exactly this. Utility Rebilling provides a complete utility billing service for RTM companies across the UK, replacing spreadsheets and reminder emails with an automated, transparent and audited process.

Every block is different, and every lease is different. We start by reading your lease and assessing the meter infrastructure, then agree an allocation method with the board that is both compliant and demonstrably fair.

For communal electricity we apportion landlord-supply costs across leaseholders using the method best suited to your block — typically equal split, floor area or sub-metered usage. Water is handled on a metered or unmetered basis depending on the supply, with seasonal smoothing for unmetered estates. Where the RTM provides bulk broadband, we recover the per-unit cost cleanly through the same monthly invoice run.

Disputes almost always come from one place: leaseholders not understanding how a charge was calculated. Every invoice we issue shows the underlying supplier cost, the agreed allocation rule and the resident's share, with a plain-English explanation. Leaseholders can request the full working at any time, which dramatically reduces queries and stops small misunderstandings turning into formal complaints.

Bills are issued automatically on the schedule you agree — monthly, quarterly or aligned to the service charge run. Residents can pay by Direct Debit, bank transfer or card. Late payments trigger a structured dunning sequence with friendly reminders first, escalating to formal recovery only where needed. The RTM sees real-time recovery rates and an audit trail per unit, so directors always know exactly where the block stands.

Each month you receive a single, clear statement showing supplier costs in, leaseholder charges out, payments collected and any variances. At year end we reconcile every utility account against the actual supplier bills so the service charge accounts add up first time. No more chasing the managing agent for a usable spreadsheet — the numbers are ready when your accountant needs them.

Outsourcing isn't about losing control — it's about giving directors their evenings back while improving the recovery rate. Our clients typically see fewer disputes, faster cash flow and a noticeable drop in the admin hours volunteer directors spend each month. And because our fees are fixed and disclosed up front, with no supplier commissions, you always know what the service costs.