Should energy costs be included in service charges or do I bill them separately?

Separate meter, separate billing

In most cases, energy costs are not included in service charges when an individual meter is present. The Rental Commission distinguishes in its policy manual between costs that run through a shared facility and costs that are measured separately per dwelling or per rental unit. As soon as there is an individual meter that records the consumption of gas, water or electricity in one specific space, that consumption is generally decoupled from the service charges and billed separately based on what was actually used.

Service charges are intended for costs that cannot be attributed to an individual meter, such as lighting in common areas or heating that is not measured per dwelling. As soon as there is an individual meter, the reason to process those costs through a fixed amount in the service charges disappears, because consumption can then be precisely traced back to the user themselves. This makes separate billing based on measured consumption the standard route, rather than a settlement via the service charges item.

What the Rental Commission's policy manual says about this

This approach follows from Chapter 3 of the Rental Commission's Policy Manual on Service Charges, which specifically addresses utility costs with an individual meter. The policy manual describes that the presence of an individual meter is decisive for the question of whether a cost item runs through service charges or is billed separately, and that the Rental Commission applies this distinction when assessing service charge disputes. For the precise implementation and the exceptions mentioned in the policy manual, the text of Chapter 3 itself is the appropriate source.