FAQs

Community Utilities is a billing and energy management company working in partnership with your residence to bill for your utilities. Depending on where you live, the utilities we manage and bill for will vary.

Once all the technical aspects of our partnership have been verified, you will receive a ‘Welcome’ email directing you to set up an account on our portal, and to set up your payment method. You’ll also receive confirmation of your fixed tariff.

We send you a monthly bill, in arrears. The bill will be based your meter readings that we’ve received. We always aim to use meter readings provided directly from the meter. Other meter reads we use are ones you provide via your online account, or from your site teams and, on occasion, we will estimate reads based on averages and previous consumption.

You will have the option to set up a direct monthly payment plan via Stripe. This is the best and easiest way to pay for your utilities. You’ll automatically pay the same amount each month, which is calculated to cover your average consumption. You will still receive monthly statements and we will review your monthly payment amount on a quarterly basis to ensure that you are paying the right amount to keep your account on track.

We collect payments on behalf of your Landlord which are then held in a non-interest-bearing client bank account, which gets transferred monthly to your Landlord. If your payments are overdue we will contact you on behalf of the Landlord to remind you to pay and ensure that you do not fall further into arrears.

We have a dedicated customer service team to answer any queries you have. You can email us using our web form or call us on 0333 014 8461 and we will commit to getting back to you within three working days.

Our Customer Success Managers work directly with your site team to ensure everything is operating as it should be. Your site team are responsible for any metering faults and issues, as well as keeping us informed of your tenancy start and end dates.

Each property is sub-metered, enabling us to measure the energy and water used, and charge for each individual property.

No. The energy supply and tariff is something that your landlord has agreed for the building, meaning every apartment in the building is with the same supplier and on the same tariff. We operate as a billing agent, working on behalf of your landlord for your energy consumption.

If you have an individual heat tariff it’s likely that your apartment is supplied with heat and hot water via a communal system. This means that the water is heated in a plant room in the basement of the building, or the building might be connected to a district heat network and it’s heated remotely.

Your heat meter measures the units of heat directly consumed within your apartment. This is most commonly measured via the Heat Interface Unit which is where heat is ‘taken’ from the network.

The heat tariff is set from the District Heat Network or supplier and is a cost that we simply pass through to you from your landlord. We have always and will continue to simply pass this cost through from the supplier, directly to you, and there will be no additional charge for this. This is something we have always done for you and will continue to do. The rate shown on your bill, both in terms of the unit rate and a fraction of the standing charge is divided between the residents. Essentially the rate you are paying is the same rate paid by your landlord, however that does not mean that the landlord can settle your bills.

Unfortunately, no heating system is 100% accurate. The amount of gas burned is not equivalent to the output of heat into the building. If you were in an individual dwelling with a gas boiler you would not really be able to measure the losses, you are simply charged for the gas consumed by the boiler. In some circumstances, there may be an outstanding amount to pay communally. Due to the number of people in the building we need a fair way for residents to pay for the energy they use; the heat meters help us understand who is using more/less heat and divide the bills fairly.

The Heat Efficiency Factor applied to the bills relates to the losses within the system when the gas, purchased by the Landlord, is converted into heat using the boiler systems and network of pipes that deliver it to the apartments.

Like all heating systems, the boiler and the pipework inefficiencies mean that it takes more than 1kWh of Gas to deliver 1kWh of heat to your apartment. At the simplest level, the heat tariff is calculated to ensure that the Landlord can pay for the gas used to provide heat to the apartments. The HEF calculation is typically built into your tariff.

As most of the properties we manage are modern, highly insulated buildings, the losses on a large communal system tend to be much lower than on a smaller scale individual house setup. Therefore, the same usage of hot water and for the same internal heating used, we would expect bills to be significantly lower than if they were on an alternative setup.

You will be sent a unique link in your ‘Welcome’ email to get set up on our system. This is all linked to your email address. Should you need to change you email address, please contact us using our web form.

Click here to watch an introduction to the online portal.

You are able to change your password and payment details directly via your online account. If you wish to change anything else you will need to contact us. Please note that in order to change account ownership, name and email address information, we will need confirmation from your site team or to see that your tenancy agreement replicates the personal information you are wanting to update.

We can only store one email address per residence. This email can be changed via the customer service team, but adding multiple emails to one account is not possible.

The transaction page shows account transaction history which includes bills created, payments made, refunds, replacement bills (where you might have been re-billed) and any late payment fee charges.

You can see your name, address, customer number, payment amounts, and your tariff.

The reading history tab provides all meter reading information on the account. This can be viewed by utility and reading type (actual or estimated).

We are able to get automatic reads for most apartments. However if you have access to your own meters and wish to submit a manual reading, you can do so by simply logging in and submitting a meter reading via the ‘submit readings’ tab.

We accept VISA, Mastercard, or American Express debit/credit cards.

If your payment card has expired, or you have changed your bank details, you are able to update your payment card via your online account.

To do this, you will need to click on the person icon in the top right-hand corner, and select “My Profile”. Once you have done this you will see an edit option.

Please note that, while our payment provider, Stripe, will notify you when your card is going to expire, it is your responsibility to ensure that this is updated.

If your card expires, or you change your bank details, you will need to update your details via your online account so your payments continue.

Our payment provider, Stripe will notify you if the card you use to make your monthly payments is expiring soon, however it is your responsibility to update this information once you have received your new card details.

When you set up your direct monthly payment plan you can either select a preferred date for payment to be taken, otherwise it will default to the date you signed up. This is a recurring amount that will be taken each month and the same date. Either on the date you selected, or the date you first signed up to your online account. This is a recurring amount that will be taken each month.

After the initial sign-up you would need to contact us in order to change the payment date.

You can contact us at any time to request for your monthly payment to be changed, we will recommend what you should pay based on your account history and balance.

If we change the monthly payment amount, we will inform you by email and provide a minimum of 30 days notice before your payment amount is changed.

Please use your customer number as a reference so we can reconcile your payments against your account. You should be able to find your customer reference on your bill.

If you don’t pay your bills directly or contact us to do so, you will receive reminder letters, calls and texts from our collections team.

Your site manager will be informed that you have not paid, and you will also be charged a late payment fee for every missed payment.

When you move in, we base your monthly payment amount on typical consumption for your apartment size. However, consumption varies between residents, and it can also be affected by other factors such as seasonality. We regularly review your monthly payment amount to prevent your account falling into arrears. If your account is regularly in debit, it’s likely your monthly payments will need to be increased to cover your actual usage. If your Stripe payment fails for any reason, this can also impact your account balance.

Yes, you can either get a refund or keep the money in your account to use against months where you consume more energy (e.g winter months). Refunds can take 5 to 10 days to process. Please note, we recommend keeping two months’ worth of credit on the account.

Your tariff is set out in your online account. Please click under ‘Contracts’. Alternatively, your tariff rates are also shown on each bill.

We calculate the difference between your balance brought forward, your current bill for energy or water, payments, and any adjustments. Please click on ‘Transactions’ to see more.

To add or change a name on the bill, please contact us. To add an additional name, we will need email confirmation from the individual to authorise the change. Please note, if your name is added to a bill, you also become responsible for payments on the account.

If you are concerned, please get in touch with our customer service team. They’ll be able to look into your account and identify if there is an issue that might need rectifying.

You shouldn’t need to read meters for your heat or electricity, as they are connected to a central system which we access remotely. Please note, water meters are not smart, and are unable to be read remotely. Smart meters measure how much gas and electricity you’re using via a remote connection to your energy supplier. Your site team or water supplier will send us these reads. Residents are also welcome to send us these meter reads via their online account.

On occasions, sub-meters experience issues. So, we might ask you to provide a manual read and use this for billing. In rare cases, if the meter is blank, or if you have not provided us a reading, we will estimate consumption based on the average kWh/day of other same sized properties, and your historical usage. Once the meter is fixed, we will review the estimated consumption against actual consumption and adjust your account.

If there are faults with your meters, please raise it with your building manager/landlord. It is their responsibility to rectify this. Community Utilities are not responsible for your meters.

Your tariff will be emailed to you and can also be found in your online account under ‘Contracts’ as well as on your statement.

Your tariff is usually fixed for 12 months, and you can view when your tariff expires via your online account. We will give you at least 2 weeks’ notice of a change in tariff when your tariff is due to be renewed.

Metering charges (also referred to as standing charges) cover the cost of the supply to your property, as well as the collection of reads, billing and administration of your account. This is a fixed charge which you will always have to pay regardless of your energy usage.

It is the responsibility of your landlord/building manager to inform Community Utilities with your move out date as soon as possible. This way we can ensure you receive a timely and accurate final bill. If you have concerns that we have not received your move out information, please speak to your site team and ask them to contact us.

We will prepare the final bill using the move-out date and meter reads received. We will validate the reads provided and previous readings against the remote readings.

If you are in credit after the final bill, you will receive a refund of the balance 5 to 10 working days after we have issued your final bill. In order for us to process a refund via BACs, we will require your bank card information to do so. Please note that you are liable for charges up to the end of your tenancy agreement, and not the date you move out of the apartment.

If you are in debit after the final bill, we will notify you of the amount and collect the amount using the payment details that you have provided no earlier than 5 to 10 working day after notifying you of the amount.

For general queries, please call us on 0333 014 8461.

If you have any payment queries or concerns, we have a dedicated phone line if you need support with paying your bills. Please contact the team on 0333 344 5293.

If you’d rather not call us, please visit our Contact Us page to find more ways to get in touch with us.

Our opening hours are from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, excluding Bank Holidays.

We’ll never ask you to provide any sensitive information over the phone, such as your bank details, without first verifying that we are speaking with the account holder; we do this by asking security questions that only the account holder would know the answers to. This allows us to comprehensively verify the identity of the person we are speaking to.

Please also keep in mind that Community Utilities does not currently have an app, so we will not ask you to download anything.

If we call you, we will never hide our phone number. The only numbers we will ever call you from will be either 0333 014 8461 or 0333 344 5293.

If you receive a phone call from any other number claiming to be Community Utilities, or if you are unsure if the person you are speaking to is from Community Utilities, do not provide any personal information, and let us know straight away by getting in touch with us.