Tenants are responsible for paying for electricity and heating fuel usage (for heat and hot water) in their apartment.
Utility bills are sent to each tenant by a utility billing service between the 15th and 20th of the month and are due by the 1st of the following month, payable via the tenant portal. The utilities are accrued by each apartment either individually, or collectively on a single meter, paid by the owner and then billed back to the tenants by actual usage, “RUBS” or a combination of the two. The bills currently include electric, fuel for hot water and heat charges, as well as, a monthly billing fee, a one-time set-up fee for new tenants and a late fee if the bill is not paid by the 1st of the month.
National Exemption Service (NES), a Utility Billing Service serves as the heating and electrical-metering, and utility billing agent. Tenants do not need to contact NES to set up their utilities or to set up utility billing. NES will be notified with the name(s), contact information of each Tenant and Lease Commencement Date. Tenants will be billed for utilities starting at the Commencement Date of the lease.
NES will send the detailed monthly bill electronically unless Tenant chooses to “opt-out” of electronic billing. If Tenant chooses to “opt-out” and receive the monthly utility bills by US Mail, Tenant shall be responsible for any fees that NES charges for sending bills via US Mail.
A monthly processing fee in the amount of $4.52 (as of 2020) is charged to each apartment for receiving, accounting and collection duties by the NES. This processing fee is subject to change.
Utility charges will be added as additional rent owed for the following month. The charges will show up in the tenant portal. A one-time $10 set-up charge is assessed by the billing agent, NES, at Lease Commencement.
All utility bills, for which Tenant is responsible, are considered additional rent, as noted in the Lease Agreement.
A $25 transaction fee may be charged to Tenant for any disruption of or change in billing services during the leasing period.