Utility Billing: Splitting a Building’s Utility Bill Between Its Units

How a landlord or manager splits a water, sewer, trash, gas or electricity bill between a building’s units, how each way of splitting it works, what stays with the owner, what the tenant sees, where the share is charged, and how to withdraw a bill.

Utility billing splits a building’s utility bill — water, sewer, trash, gas, electricity or heat — between its units and adds each tenant’s share to their next rent charge. It is also called a bill-back, or RUBS (a ratio utility billing system). The owner posts the bill once; Seayora works out every share, tells every tenant, and collects each share with the rent.

Before you post one

Your tenants’ leases must allow the utility to be billed back, and billing it must be lawful where the building is. Several states and cities regulate bill-backs, and some regulated tenancies do not allow them at all. Seayora asks you to confirm this on every bill and keeps your confirmation with it.
A bill belongs to one owner. A management company posting for several owners posts one bill per owner.
Up to 200 units can share one bill.

Posting a bill

Open Utility billing — under Money on the landlord and management portals, and in the Tools of the iPhone and Android apps — and choose New bill.
Pick the utility, the dates the bill covers and its total. If part of the bill is for a common area such as a hallway or a laundry room, enter the percentage you keep for it.
Choose how to split it and which units share it, then preview the split. The preview shows every share, what you keep, and a sentence explaining each figure.
Tick the confirmation and post. Seayora works the split out again at that moment, so what you previewed is what is billed.

The five ways to split a bill

Equal share per unit — every unit pays the same.
By floor area — each unit in proportion to its square footage.
By bedrooms — each unit in proportion to its bedrooms, with a studio counted as one.
By occupants — each lease in proportion to the number of people on it and the days they lived there during the bill’s dates.
Custom percentages — you set a percentage for each unit, and they must add up to 100.

What stays with the owner

Days a unit stood empty. A tenant pays only for the days their lease covered, and a vacant unit’s share is never spread across the tenants who were living there.
The common-area percentage you set.
A lease that cannot be billed — one with no tenant on file, or one ending before its next rent charge, so there is nothing to add the share to.
Every figure is worked out in whole cents, and the shares always add up exactly to the bill.

What the tenant sees

An email and an in-app notice with their share, the bill’s total, how it was split and the rent charge it was added to.
The share as its own line on that rent charge, and every share listed with how it was worked out — under My home → Utilities on the website, and under Bills in both apps.
The share is collected with the rent — by AutoPay if they use it — and the payment-processing fee applies to the whole amount, as it does to rent.

Where the share is charged

A share is added to the tenant’s earliest future rent charge that nobody has started collecting yet. If the rent has not been generated that far ahead, the share waits and is added as soon as it is. If the lease terms change and the future charges are rebuilt, the shares move across to the rebuilt charges. If the lease ends before its next charge, the share becomes the owner’s. On a lease where roommates split the rent, the share is divided between them in the same proportions as the rent.

Withdrawing a bill

Open the bill and choose Withdraw, with a reason. Every share still on a charge nobody has started collecting is taken off, and each tenant is emailed why.
A share on a charge already presented for payment — being paid, paid, or being retried — cannot be taken off, because the tenant may be paying it at that moment. Seayora refuses the withdrawal and names those charges; credit the tenant instead.

Connected assistants

A connected AI assistant cannot post or withdraw a utility bill. Posting one is a confirmation by a named person that the leases allow it, and that is not something an assistant should do on anybody’s behalf. A tenant’s share is an item on the rent charge, which an assistant can already read.

Frequently asked questions

Can I bill a utility the lease does not mention?

No. Seayora asks you to confirm on every bill that the leases of the tenants billed provide for it and that billing it is lawful where the building is. Whether that is true is the owner’s responsibility; Seayora records the confirmation with the bill.

What happens to a vacant unit’s share?

It stays with the owner. Vacant days are never spread across the tenants who were living in the building.

I posted the wrong total. How do I fix it?

Withdraw the bill with a reason and post it again with the right figure. If a share is already on a charge that has been presented for payment, credit that tenant instead.

Why was my share added to next month’s rent and not this month’s?

A share is only ever added to a charge nobody has started collecting. If this month’s rent had already been presented for payment, the share goes on the next one.

Why can I not post the same bill twice?

Seayora refuses a second posted bill for the same owner, utility, dates, total and name, because the likeliest reason for one is a double tap. If it really is a second bill, give it a different name.

Related guides

Related features and guides

Online Rent Collection — Documentation. How to collect rent online with Seayora — setup, payment methods, card surcharges and where state law limits them, records, and how funds move.
Fees, Payouts & Refunds — Documentation. How Seayora’s fees, subscriptions, payouts, and refunds work, and where payment disputes are handled.
Splitting Rent with Roommates — Documentation. How roommates on one lease each pay their own share, what it costs, how a late share is handled, and how each roommate’s payments are recorded and reported.
Split Rent with Roommates — Feature. Roommates each pay their portion of rent directly from their own bank account or card. The landlord sees one compiled total — nobody has to front the whole month.
Online Rent Collection Software — Feature. Online rent collection: bank transfers free to the tenant, card payments, AutoPay on the lease’s due date, automatic late fees, roommate splitting and receipts issued when rent settles.
Payment Disputes & Chargebacks — Feature. When a tenant disputes a payment or a card is charged back, Seayora keeps the transaction trail, the lease, and the communication history together so you can respond with evidence.