Texas Utility Billing and Submetering
Customized Utility Billing and Submetering Solutions for Multifamily Communities and Commercial Properties
Texas Utility Billing and Utility Submetering for all types of Multifamily Communities and Commercial Properties
Serving Multifamily Communities and Commercial Properties Throughout Texas
Why Property Managers Choose Oates Energy Over Other Texas Utility Billing and Submetering Companies
Your Client Relations Manager
Like other successful companies, Oates Energy has multiple departments and staff to manage our services and assure that clients receive the best possible service. However, our clients are assigned their own Dedicated Client Relations Manager for anything they may need. From training to questions and even submetering equipment issues, when you need support at Oates Energy, the only person you’ll need to speak with is your client relations manager.
Our Experienced, U.S. Based Billing Customer Support:
One of our key services is our full service billing customer care team. Oates Energy is one of the few utility billing and submetering companies who provide billing support for resident and tenant questions and issues. Even better, our experienced customer care representatives will assist your residents based on your unique billing policies and guidelines. This valuable service relieves our clients from the continuous flow of billing questions and issues that interrupt your schedule and often eat up hours from your day.
Customized Utility Billing and Submetering:
If you stop and think for a moment, most of the recurring services we pay for are usually provided in mass, or the same way to every customer. And generally everything from technical support to account updates and service changes all set up to be handled by different departments or groups who specialize in that one area. This business method is designed to maximize efficiency and profitability for the service provider. Unfortunately, this methodology often reduces the quality of service and support for the customer.
Oates Energy DOES NOT subscribe to this methodology. In fact we are exactly opposite. Every billing solution we build is adjusted to the specific needs of the client. Every submetering system we design and install is customized with the type of metering equipment that client requested. And our clients all have different billing policies and directives that our resident billing support representatives use to help their residents with billing questions and concerns.
Oates Energy is and always has been a utility billing and submetering solutions provider that delivers services the way our clients need them to be delivered. We have never expected our customers to adjust to us.
Converged Billing Services
Oates Energy Converged Billing Solutions is yet another key benefit for our clients. In addition to our timely and accurate utility billing services, many of our clients benefit from our converged billing services for all of their resident billing. We help clients bill residents and tenants for rent, electric, water and sewer, gas, cable TV, telephone service, Internet and even pet and garage fees. And our experienced billing customer care team will help residents and tenants with questions and concerns about all of their charges and fees based on your policies and guidelines.
Full Service Utility Submetering Solutions
With decades of experience, our submetering teams possess the experience and knowledge to help you add a new customized submetering solution or upgrade and maintain your existing submetering equipment. Submetering can play an important role in helping you recover more of your utility costs, which is why we have always maintained a strong presence in the utility submetering services industry.
If you are looking into submetering or considering a change to how you currently handle billing, we would be pleased to show you how Oates Energy can customize a solution to fit your needs exactly. Schedule a free consultation today by calling (800) 717-9811 or use our contact form!
Utility Submetering Laws and Regulations in Texas
A political subdivision may not authorize the construction or occupancy of a new apartment house, including the conversion of property to a condominium, unless the construction plan provides for the measurement of the quantity of electricity consumed by the occupants of each dwelling unit of the apartment house, either by individual metering by the utility company or by submetering by the owner. This section does not prohibit a political subdivision from issuing a permit to a nonprofit organization for construction of a new apartment house for occupancy by low-income elderly tenants if the nonprofit organization establishes, by submitting engineering and cost data and a sworn statement, that all cost savings will be passed on to the low-income elderly tenants (Tex. Utilities Code Ann. §184.012).
The Texas Water Code requires each unit in a building with five or more residential units built after Jan. 1, 2003 to have either an individual water utility meter or sub-meter. If feasible, it requires water companies to install individual meters in such buildings at the building owner’s request. The water company can charge reasonable costs for installing the meters. If the water company determines that installing these meters is not feasible, the law requires the property owner to install a plumbing system compatible with sub-meters. For submetering multi-unit property owners, the state’s water code limits submetering charges on tenants to the cost per gallon and applicable taxes and surcharges charged by the water company; a late fee up to five percent of the late bill; and a service charge of up to nine percent of the costs related to submetering allocated to each sub-metered unit. The code also requires the property owners to maintain adequate records and make them available to tenants and sub-meters to meet certain standards for accuracy, testing, and record keeping (Texas Water Code §13.501 through 13.506).
*Information courtesy of:
The National Conference of State Legislatures
WestlawNext, 2016.
