Tenant billing: A hot topic at Homes 2017!
Sauntering round the exhibition hall in Olympia, visiting stands and dipping in and out of seminars was a great way to explore other people’s businesses. However, there was no better way to get to know the challenges of these businesses than to focus on the questions they were asking us at our stand.
Our team were in unanimous agreement regarding the most popular topic at our stand, and that was tenant billing. Our previous feature on the Homes 2017 event looked at fire safety in tower blocks, whereas this, our final one in the series, will explore the need to manage utilities in such buildings in a more itemised manner. Through tightening legislation, the need to incentivise energy efficiency, and in the interests of fair, proportionate billing, the need for sub-metering services seems more pressing than ever.
Firstly, any heat supplier, be it through a district heat network, or a communal heating system, has to comply with the Heat Metering and Billing Regulations 2014. Furthermore, an update to the regulations is planned for this year, which will revise the methodology for assessing the cost effectiveness of metering for district and communal heat networks.
This requires the provider to notify the National Measurement Office (NMO) and provide detailed information for each network they operate. They must also have meters installed for each final customer within a building, and ensure clear and transparent billing of these customers, with a detailed breakdown of the charges.
Compliance is a legal requirement so there is no getting around this, and for this reason, tenant billing services are on the rise. Such companies manage all aspects of the billing process, including all the necessary compliance, with detailed breakdowns. This saves a lot of time and effort for landlords and housing associations, who can instead focus that time on other areas of their business, safe in the knowledge they have a team of specialists in charge of all their billing needs.
To keep up with demand, Monarch have teamed up with Welcome Energy, a unique tenant billing company who manage the entire process, from beginning to end. With over 30 years of combined experience, Welcome’s holistic approach to tenant billing includes ensuring all the necessary compliance to the regulations, tariff setting, Automatic Meter Reading solutions tailored to requirements complete with installations, and the entire credit control process from sending the bills directly to tenants to debt recovery and the distribution of overdue letters.
Welcome offer a hands-on and transparent service. Their team is readily contactable and on hand to help you with any queries or issues you may have, which they can resolve using their many years of experience in this field.
If you wish to learn more about tenant billing and Welcome Energy, you can view their Website here.
This is the last in our series of reflective features on Homes 2017. We will continue to provide up to date news on housing, sustainability, and the energy market in 2018.
Our other features on Homes 2017 are available below:
The Autumn Budget & the Housing Market
The Future of Sustainable Housing
Find out more about our stress-free Tenant Billing services
