Problem:

Managers of multi-family apartment communities have a unique issue to deal with: paying utility bills for vacant units.

Many apartment managers have “continuous service” agreements with their electric (and sometime gas) utility vendors. In such cases, utility service is provided on a continuous basis regardless of the unit’s occupancy status. This type of agreement ensures that service is uninterrupted so that the refrigerator, A/C, heat and security lights remain on. While this is necessary to prevent freeze-ups, mildew, security problems, and facilitates a smoother transition for tenants moving in and out, it can be a real money pit for the apartment manager. If the new resident fails to change the service to their name on the first day, the owner will continue to pay the resident’s utility bill for a few days or often much longer. In fact, some residents will gladly pay a monthly penalty fee and never set up their own electric account because of bad credit.

Sound trivial? The expense associated with the typical “violation” is about $50. Add a $25 penalty and that’s a $75 recovery. You could be missing out on a significant source of revenue!

EnergyCAP has developed a solution to addess this unique problem – Move-in Utility Vacant Expense Recovery™ (MUVER)! If you manage thousands of units, vacant unit cost recovery alone can fund the entire cost of EnergyCAP, plus add to your bottom line!

There are five steps in the process: 

Solution: 

A. Daily (or weekly) “rent roll” uploading to ECAP. Gives tenant’s move in/move out dates.
B. “Vacant Unit” bills are entered to ECAP.
C. Bills are paid via interface with A/P.
D. ECAP matches up rent roll with vacant bills and looks for “violations.”
E. When a violation is spotted, ECAP calculates the prorated charge, applies a penalty fee per flexible rules and passes the information to the apartment manager or directly to the billing system (often the water billing system).