Landlords and tenants

Important

Draft documentation
This content is a draft version of the SkyBill documentation and is subject to final review. Some information may be incomplete or inaccurate. Features, terminology, and procedures may change before the official release.

The Landlords and Tenants feature in SkyBill helps you manage billing responsibilities when the owner and tenant are different persons or entities. In many utility scenarios, the landlord owns the property while the tenant consumes the services such as electricity, water, or heating. SkyBill lets you define separate contracts for both parties. It ensures that billing continues when tenants move in or out. This approach prevents invoicing gaps, maintains accurate revenue tracking, and supports flexible billing models for rental or multi-unit properties.

How does the landlord and tenant relationship work

You can apply this concept to both one-to-one and one-to-many relationships. The landlord can own multiple properties (supply addresses), and in each supply address, a different tenant may reside. However, this concept is also applicable to situations where the landlord owns only one property and has only one tenant.

You need a tenant and a landlord only if you need to split the invoicing and payment responsibilities between two different customers. There are scenarios in which utilities don't require a landlord-tenant relationship, and SkyBill is sending invoices only to a specific supply address. In such a case, there is no need to define a landlord and a tenant.

When to use landlord and tenant contracts

A supply address can have two types of contracts simultaneously: the landlord contract and the tenant contract. You sign the landlord contract with the property owner, and the tenant contract with the person or entity occupying the property and using the utilities. To learn more about creating contracts with both landlords and tenants, go to Contracts.

Use this option when you need to bill both the landlord and the tenant. In simple scenarios, you can bill only the tenant, and the landlord contract is not necessary.

The advantage of having both contracts in place is that you can bill the landlord when the tenant moves out, even if there is no new tenant contract yet. Without the landlord contract, you might forget to bill the landlord for the period when there is no tenant contract, leading to billing errors due to the vacant property.

The disadvantage is that you need to maintain two contracts for the same supply address, and it can create additional administrative overhead.

To enforce specifying a landlord when you move in a tenant

Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Tenancy Setup, and then choose the related link.
On the Tenancy Setup page, turn the Ownership Mandatory toggle on to make sure that the landlord is always specified when you move in a tenant to a supply address. Turn this toggle off if you prefer a simple billing setup that bills the person occupying the supply address. In this case, you don't need to track whether the occupant owns the property. You bill the occupant. When they move out, the contract closes, and you can move in a new tenant without needing to specify ownership.

Note

If you turn on the Ownership Mandatory toggle, you must always specify a landlord when you move in a tenant to a supply address. Use this option when the majority of your supply addresses are rental properties. By turning this toggle on, you can avoid mistakes that result in a tenant being moved in without a landlord specified. However, for properties where the owner and occupant are the same person or entity, you need to create both the landlord and tenant contracts, even if they are with the same customer.

To set up landlord and tenant billing on the tariff lines

Select Search (Alt+Q) in the upper-right corner, enter Utility Tariffs, and then choose the related link.
On the Tariff Lines FastTab of the Utility Tariff Card page, you can specify how much the landlord and tenant are charged for each tariff line. Use the Landlord Rate Share and Tenant Rate Share fields to define the amounts to be charged to each party.

How are charges prorated when a tenant moves in or out

When the tenant moves out during the billing period, SkyBill adjusts the charges automatically based on the actual number of days the tenant occupied the property and the type of charge:

Consumption-based charges: The tenant is charged based on the actual meter readings recorded during their occupancy period. The landlord is charged based on the meter readings for the remaining period. For example, if a tenant moves out on December 10, they are billed for the actual consumption recorded from December 1 to December 10.
Standing charges and most other charges: These are prorated based on the actual number of days in the billing period. For example, if a tenant occupies the property for 10 days in a 30-day billing period, they are charged for 10/30 of the monthly charge.
Non-prorated charges: Some charges, such as taxes or levies (for example, PSO levy), are not prorated. These charges are paid in full by whoever occupies the property at the time the charge is applied. If the tenant pays such a charge, the next tenant is not charged again for the same period, even if they move in during that billing period.

Create and manage supply addresses
Create utility contracts
Set up and manage meter points
Time of use pricing
Set up security deposits for contracts
Work with Business Central

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