If you pass energy costs on to a tenant, you primarily want to know which papers you yourself must keep in case any questions arise later. In essence, there are four: a written agreement on cost allocation, a verifiable meter reading, the invoices on which you base that amount, and proof that payment has actually been made.
Which document carries the most weight varies by situation. For a standard rental property, the agreement in the rental contract is particularly important. For short-term rental of a holiday home, chalet or apartment, the meter reading is particularly important, because it establishes the actual consumption of the guest and not a fixed, pre-agreed amount. This last point is precisely the detail that this subject comes down to: without a recorded meter reading, there is no other document that shows what was actually charged.
The agreement: where it should be located
For long-term rental, the agreement is usually in the rental contract itself, or in an appendix to it. For short-term rental, it is different: house rules or booking terms serve as the place where it states that electricity is charged separately and how the guest can see this. A guest who logs in via a QR code and sees in advance what a kWh costs has essentially received the same agreement as a tenant who reads it in a contract — only in a different form. Anyone in doubt about which form suits their situation will find in the knowledge base sorted by topic an overview of the common variants.
The meter reading: the document most often missing
This is the piece that is most often missed afterwards. An invoice without an underlying meter reading is essentially an estimate, and an estimate is difficult to defend if a tenant or guest asks for an explanation. For a manual reading, this means that you record the opening and closing meter readings with the date and keep it alongside the invoice. For an automated system, this happens automatically: every measurement gets a timestamp and a value, visible to both the landlord and the guest, so that no loose piece of paper needs to be kept.
For those who want to know the technical details
A metering module in the fuse box records consumption per connection point in kWh, with a timestamp for each measurement. For an object with its own QR code, such as a holiday home or a charging station, that consumption belongs to that single object and not to the property as a whole. This makes it possible to trace for each guest or tenant exactly what was consumed, without anyone having to keep track of it manually.
The invoices and proof of payment
The invoice itself is the third document, and it is only complete if the meter reading and the agreement align with it: the same rate, the same period, the same consumption. For a system in which there is never automatic collection, a fourth document is added: proof that payment was made, in the form of a paid invoice with a payment link. This may seem like a detail, but it is precisely what makes the difference between a complete administrative record and a series of loose assumptions. Anyone who wants to see what such an invoice looks like in practice and what a subscription per object costs will find that on the pricing page with the costs per object.
Do you rent via a platform or a park?
Booking platforms and the reception of a holiday park typically do not register what an individual guest has consumed in electricity; they arrange the booking, not the measurement. This means that the responsibility for the four documents remains with the landlord or park manager themselves, even if the booking is made through a third party. A module per object, with its own QR code and its own rate, prevents this from falling through the cracks.
Where you can have this established for your situation
Which documents are exactly mandatory and how long you must keep them varies by country and type of rental. Staywatt is a metering and billing system and does not express itself on what applies in your specific situation; for that, the competent supervisory authority or a lawyer is the appropriate route. If you are unsure where you stand, the selection tool with a few short questions provides a first indication, and the frequently asked questions about metering and billing answers the questions that most landlords have about it first.
Would you like to see how this looks in practice for your own property, park or charging point? Do the free quick-scan or browse through the knowledge base — that takes half an hour and saves you a lot of research work afterwards.