BILLING AND COLLECTION SERVICES

NRM offers a variety of solutions from simple bill preparation and electronic upload to full “turnkey” billing, payment processing, and reporting applications.

Submetered Billing Services:

Utility submetering is a cost effective method of passing the monthly utility expense from the landlord to the resident. Most people are not aware that the average American uses between 80-100 gallons of water per day. By allowing the residents to be financially responsible for their usage, we typically see an immediate reduction in consumption…sometimes as much as 35%. Submetering electric and natural gas usage also produces impressive reductions in consumption.

In addition to the environmental benefits that result from conservation, there is also an economic advantage to the owners of the community. Without the increasing cost of utilities, some owners have elected to reduce annual rent increases or even use the additional capital for improvements at the communities.

RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing System)

In order to recover some or all of the rising costs of water, more and more apartment communities are turning to a billing method know as RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing System). There are two reasons why owners are choosing the RUBS method. One is that their apartment community only has one meter to measure the entire usage of the community and there are no individual meters for each unit. The other reason may be that a sub-metering system is giving inaccurate readings, and is too costly to repair. Or, individual meters are too costly to install, sometimes as much as $300.00 per unit. A RUBS billing method can be implemented quickly and cost recovery starts within 30 days of the start of the program.

RUBS billing method involves a fair allocation of utility cost among residents. It can be used to recover water, gas, electricity, trash, sewer or any other cost involved in the operation of a property. The calculation is based upon one or more factors such as square footage, number of occupants, a weighted average or a combination of these. The charges to the residents will fluctuate as the total property bill changes each month. An added benefit of this method is that usage normally decreases when residents become responsible for their utility bills.

Flat Rate Billing

Flat Rate Billing is used mostly at mid to lower income properties which residents are on a fixed budget. We average the past six to twelve months of utility costs, then use square foot or weighted ratio to arrive at an amount. We present many variations of deductions to the owners and/or management to help in determining the Flat Rate amounts they wish for us to bill to the residents. The resident knows the monthly fixed costs and will budget for it which enhances collection rates. As with other types of utility billing, this also encourages conservation. The property also benefits because this can be implemented immediately with new move ins and cost recovery starts within 30 days of the start of the program.

Collection Services

NRM offers a complete solution for your utility cost recovery program. Every detail is taken care of so you have a stress free quality solution. NRM collections are of the highest in the industry because of our focus on the entire process.

Our modernized process includes:

Training before implementation - Before implementation of a billing program it’s important to completely cover all billing, payment processing, and reporting procedures with all staff that will be involved. Complete web training or on-site training for your management team.

Monthly Billing – accurate – quality - on-time monthly utility billing. Requested Final Invoice is produced within 24 hours.

Payment Processing – We can handle all of your payment processing needs. Customers can make payments via on-line services, personal banking services, over the phone, or via mail services.

Portfolio Management – Owners and Managers will have a dedicated account manager who will be able to answer all your questions or concerns with the first call or e-mail request.

Customer Service – We offer live customer service and fax service via toll free numbers. Our Customer Service office is open from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday thru Friday, Pacific time. Prior to holidays, management is notified via e-mail of our holiday operating hours.

Reporting – Comprehensive monthly reporting to make managing your utility cost recovery program more efficient. Also, when it’s time for Property Management to prepare their budgets, we can provide a special simplified Year-To-Date report.