Community 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. We aim to have all buildings we work with using renewable energy by 2023.

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 your fixed tariff, usually for the next 12 months.

We will bill you monthly, and depending on the set up at your site, the data from your meter will either come to us automatically, or we’ll need meter reads. In the event we don’t have a meter read, we’ll use estimated readings based on your apartment size. We endeavour to review all bills quarterly against actual meter reads, to let you know whether your account is in credit or debit against the actual usage in your apartment – helping you to keep your account on track.

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 five working days. More communication channels will be available soon.

Your site manager will have a dedicated Account Manager with us. Your site manager is responsible for any metering faults and issues, for keeping us informed, and verifying when you move in and move out. This is to give you as seamless a process as possible.

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

No. Community enables your building to have a full overview of its consumption, and support your landlord in making decisions regarding its carbon and Net Zero commitments.

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 this please contact us using our web form.

Click here to watch an introduction to Community’s online portal.

Please contact us to make any changes to your name/email address. The editable information on the account which can be changed by you is your password and your card payment details.

We can only process 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 transactions page shows your invoice/payment history in more detail. Any other charges such as refunds/reminders will also appear here. 

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

This shows the history of your meter readings. The dropdown can be used to select each meter. The graph shows the consumption per month based on the bill amount and the table shows the meter reading, the type of reading (actual or estimated), and the date of the reading.

A bill will tell you how much money is owed for the usage of utilities in your apartment. Your bill consists of a charge for the energy/water you have used (number of units used x tariff unit cost) plus a metering charge for each utility (number of days in billing period x tariff daily cost).

Click here to watch a breakdown of an example bill.

We use remote sub-meter readings to calculate the units used. If the bill is the first or final bill, we will cross reference the meter readings recorded when you check in/out against remotely collected reads.

If we do not have a meter read, we will use the Ofgem guidelines for the annual expected cost of an apartment of your size, for energy or water, and divide by 12 to give you an estimated bill. However, we commit to reviewing your estimated bill against an actual meter read every three months, so you can see whether your account is in credit or debit.

Whilst we know this isn’t allowing you to pay the exact amount, it is enabling you to budget and gives you a steady payment plan so that you do not receive one big bill every three months once your account is reviewed against the actual meter readings for your apartment.

You can either set up a monthly payment plan with Stripe, via your account on the Community Portal, or use the ‘Pay Now’ feature when you receive your bill.

We may apply adjustments such as late payment fees or goodwill gestures. Any adjustments will be added to your account balance and visible on your online account under ‘Transactions’.

Credit: You have paid more than is required for your current utility consumption.

Debit: You have underpaid for your current utility consumption and money is owed.

There are two parts to your utility bill:

1: Unit consumption charge

The unit consumption charge, measured in pence per kWh (p/kWh), is the cost you pay for the amount of energy you use.

2: Daily standing charge

Alongside the consumption charge sits the daily standing charge element. This is an annual fixed amount that is payable every day regardless of how much energy you use.

Customer Reference: This is your account number and is unique to you.

Invoice Number: A unique identification number for your bill.

Bill Date: The date the bill was generated in our system.

Bill period (to and from): The dates that you have been charged for.

Supply Address: Address of the property.

kWh: kWh stands for ‘Kilowatt Hour’ and is a unit of energy measured by how much you use per hour.

XX Consumption (kWh): This is the charge for your usage of a supply per kWh.

XX Consumption (m3): This is the charge for your usage of a supply per m3. This relates to water and wastewater only.

Electric Consumption: This is charged based on your tariff in kWh and covers all use of electricity within your residence. In some residences this may include the heating of the water in your apartment.

Heating Consumption: This is charged based on your tariff in kWh and covers all use of heating within your residence. In some residences this may include the heating of the water in your apartment.

Wastewater Consumption (m3): Wastewater is water that has been used in the home and has returned to the sewer (e.g. water during showers, washing up, baths etc.) Wastewater charges include taking away all this used water through a network of sewer pipes, cleaning it, and returning it to rivers and the sea.

XX Metering Charge (Days): 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 charged which you will always have to pay regardless of your energy usage.

BACS Surcharge 5%: If you are not signed up for an online account and pay via a monthly payment through Stripe, your bills will include an additional 5% surcharge. This fee covers the additional administration costs required to receive, process, and allocate your manual payments.

Unit: This is the number of units of energy/water used, in either kWh or m3.

Unit rate £: This is the cost per unit of consumed energy/water in GBP.

Cost: This the cost of your energy/water usage. This is calculated by multiplying your units used by the unit rate. This does not include VAT.

VAT Rate: This is the rate of VAT for each supply in percent.

VAT: This is the total of VAT per supply, based on your usage.

Total: This is the total for each supply including VAT.

Total Charges (Including VAT): This it the total of your monthly charges, including all consumption, metering, and BACS surcharge.

Balance brought forward: This was your account balance before the current invoice was issued. This debit/credit balance is brought forward to include in the calculations of your account balance.

Payment since last bill: If you have made a payment since your last bill, the value will appear here.

Total Charges: The total charge for this bill period.

Adjustments: Any refunds, credits, or late payment reminder fees will be reflected here.

Interest reward: If you are in credit before this bill was issued, you will have earned a 3% credit interest reward. This figure is pro-rated per annum and will reduce the overall balance on your account.

Your current balance: This figure details your current account balance and if you are in debit or credit. If there is a minus symbol before the £, then you are in credit. Debit means that you owe us and credit means that we owe you.

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

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

If you sign up for monthly payments via Stripe, this confirms we will take a monthly payment from your account. Either on the date you selected, or the date you first signed up to the portal. This is a reoccurring amount that will be taken each month.

You can access the portal at any time to change the payment date if the current date no longer suits you.

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 five working days notice before your payment amount is changed.

Please ensure you use your contract number as a reference so we can reconciliate that amount against your account. You should be able to find your contract number on your bill.

We don’t take payments in advance of each month’s consumption. Therefore it is normal to see a debit amount on your account. This amount should typically be a similar amount to your monthly indicative costs. If this debit amount is considerably higher, it is likely that your monthly payments need to be increased to cover your actual usage each month.

Yes. You can either get a refund, or keep the money in your account to use against months where you consume more energy (winter months for example). Refunds can take 5-10 days to process.

Your tariff is set out on your online account. Please click under ‘Contracts’.

To calculate your account balance we calculate the difference between your balance brought forward, your current bill for energy or water, payments, and any adjustments. Please go to ‘Transactions’ on your online account 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.

Please contact our customer service advisors who can explain your bill to you and identify if there appears to be any issues. Email hello@communityutilities.co.uk

You shouldn’t need to read meters for your heat or electric, 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. Your site team or water supplier will send us these reads.

Residents are also welcome to send us these meter reads via the customer portal.

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 on your portal under ‘contracts’ .

Your tariff card shows the utilities we will be managing and billing for whilst you are living in your apartment, and also the price per Kwh for your energy use.

Your tariff is fixed for 12 months and you will find the expiration date on the tariff card.

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 taken against the remote readings.

If you are in credit after the final bill, you will receive a refund of the balance 5 - 10 working days after we have issued your final bill.

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 5-10 working day after notifying you of the amount.

You can email us at hello@communityutilities.co.uk, our commitment is to respond within 5 working days

Our opening hours are 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday.

We’re closed on weekends and bank holidays (England and Wales bank holidays).

If you wish to speak to a customer service advisor, you can request a call back and we will arrange an appropriate time with you.