FAQs

Community Utilities is a billing and energy management company working in partnership with your landlord to provide bills and collect payments for your utilities. Depending on where you live, the utilities we 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 may have. The quickest way to resolve your queries is by using our Live Chat service, which is available Monday to Friday, between 8am and 7.30pm. You can also call us on 0333 014 8461 Monday to Friday, between 9am and 5pm. Please note that we are closed on Bank Holidays. 

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.

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 first email from us to register your online account. Your online account enables you to monitor your balance, bills and payments, as well as your meter readings.  

Click here to watch an introduction to your online account.

While you are able to make changes to your payment details using your online account, you’ll need to contact us to make other changes. Please note that we may be required to request more information, such as your tenancy agreement, before we can make changes to the name on the account. 

You are able to have more than one email address registered to the account. If you wanted to add or change an email address, please contact our Customer Service Team by clicking here.  

The 'Dashboard' page will show your full name and address, your tenancy reference, as well as a brief overview of the account, including your recent bills and your current tariff.  

The 'Bills and Payments' page will give you access to review your transaction history, and will include any bills we have generated, any payments you have made, any refunds we have processed, and any replacement bills.  

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

While we receive readings directly from the meter for most apartments, we understand that you may want to submit your own meter readings. If you have access to your meter and wish to submit your meter reading, you can do so by clicking the green 'Submit Readings' button at the bottom of the menu. 

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 14 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 the top righthand corner your bill.  

Please note that if you make a payment via a manual payment method, such as bank transfer or the Pay Now link on your invoice, you will be liable to pay a 5% surcharge. This will be included on your invoice. We advise that it can take up to 10 working days for a manual payment to be applied to your account. 

You will receive email reminders, calls, and you may receive text messages from our Payments Team, and we will apply a reminder fee for late payments. 

When you initially move into your apartment, we will not have enough data to calculate the recommended payment amount for your consumption, and therefore have a default payment amount for your apartment. We calculate this based on your apartment size as well as the location of your property.

As we are aware that each individual consumes energy and water differently, we conduct regular payment reviews in order to ensure that your payments are not too high or too low to cover your bills. You can find more information on this by clicking here

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.

We will always update you when there are any changes to your tariff. However, you can see your current tariff by logging into your online account and clicking on the 'Dashboard' page. We also include your tariff rates on each bill. 

Your tariff is determined by the charges from the commercial energy provider. Your landlord has a commercial contract with a commercial supplier, so the rates you are charged may differ from traditional domestic charges.  

For any buildings where the heat is supplied by a District Heat Network, please note that we pass the charges directly from the District Heat Network. This is similar to the tariff for fresh and waste water, which is set by the water supplier. 

We calculate the difference between your balance brought forward, your current bill, payments, and any adjustments. You can find more information on your balance by clicking on the 'Bills and Payments' page on the account. 

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.

While you shouldn’t need to read your meters for your heat or electricity, as they are connected to a central system which we can access remotely, you are able to do so if you wish for peace of mind. 

Water meter readings are always not submitted to us automatically, and in some instances we will get these either from your site team or the water supplier. 

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.

We will always notify residents of any changes to their tariff, however, you can review it at any time by logging into your online account and clicking on 'Dashboard'. We also include your tariff on your bills. 

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.

The Standing Charge (sometimes referred to as a Metering Charge) is a fixed daily amount that customers have to pay, no matter how much energy used. The charge covers the cost of supplying your property with energy. This includes service administration fees, connections to and maintenance of the energy network, the cost of building pylons and fitting cables. It also includes additional industry costs such as government schemes. 

These charges can also vary depending on where you live and the type of meter you have.  

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.