Utility Billing & Submetering in the Twin Cities
Twin Cities utility billing from a Twin Cities company
Utility Management Solutions is headquartered in Eden Prairie, and the Twin Cities is where we have billed residents and installed submeters the longest. We work with apartment owners and managers across Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the surrounding suburbs, from garden-style communities to downtown high-rises, and we know the local utilities, the municipal water departments, and Minnesota’s utility billing law from the inside. Across the state we serve nearly 40,000 units.
What Minnesota’s 2024 utility billing law means for your properties
Minnesota rewrote its rules for shared-metered residential buildings in 2024. The new statute, Minn. Stat. 504B.216, applies to leases entered into or renewed on or after January 1, 2025. If you own or manage a master-metered building in Minnesota, these are the changes that matter most:
- Electricity can no longer be allocated by formula. RUBS for electric is prohibited. Electricity must be directly metered by the utility or submetered at the unit.
- Gas allocation must use square footage. The tenant’s unit as a share of all unit square footage, with common areas, landlord-used space, and vacant units excluded.
- Water and sewer allocation must use occupancy. The number of tenants on the lease as a share of the building’s total occupancy, again excluding common areas, vacant units, and shared amenities such as laundry and pools.
- Fee caps. Administrative billing charges are capped at $8 per billing period, and late fees at $5 per month, not compounded.
- No passing through submeter costs. Landlords cannot charge tenants for installing, maintaining, repairing, or reading submeters, except where a tenant’s willful or negligent conduct caused the cost.
- Lease disclosure. Leases must carry a specific notice covering the apportionment formula, what is excluded, allowable charges, payment plan rights, and how to request the underlying utility bill.
- Bill access. Tenants can request the actual utility bill being apportioned, and up to two years of history.
- Water submeter standards. Water submeters installed after January 1, 2025 must meet the standards of the local municipal water company.
- No shutoffs. A landlord cannot disconnect a tenant’s utility service for nonpayment, and must offer a payment plan before pursuing a lease breach.
What this means in practice
For most Twin Cities owners, the new law makes two things true at once. First, existing RUBS programs need a compliance check: the allocation formula, the exclusions, the fee amounts, and the lease language all have to match the statute for any lease signed or renewed since January 2025. Second, submetering has become more attractive, because it sidesteps the formula rules entirely and, for electricity, is now the only option other than direct utility metering.
We run both programs for Twin Cities properties. If you are not sure whether your current setup is compliant, we will review it and tell you.
Services for Twin Cities properties
- Resident utility billing, with UMS collecting from residents or charges posted to your property management software
- Water, gas, and electric submetering, designed, installed, read, and maintained by our local team. Our water meters meet AWWA C708 performance standards and are certified to NSF/ANSI 61 and NSF/ANSI 372.
- Expense management: we pay the master bills on your behalf, whatever the provider. CenterPoint Energy, Xcel Energy, Minneapolis Water, and St. Paul Regional Water Services are a few of the many utilities we handle for metro clients.
- Vacant cost recovery for units where residents never transferred the account
Local, and not new at it
Our office and field technicians are in Eden Prairie, so a meter that stops reporting in Bloomington or a lease-up in the North Loop gets a local visit rather than a ticket in a national queue. We have worked with Twin Cities owners for more than 20 years.
“I have enjoyed working with UMS for over 10 years. I have implemented RUBS programs and individually metered programs in multifamily units in the Twin Cities metro area and in the Dallas metroplex. Their sales and account support team are very responsive.”
— Angie French, Vice President, Mid Continent Management Corp
Communities we serve
Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Edina, Minnetonka, Plymouth, Maple Grove, Brooklyn Park, Burnsville, Eagan, Apple Valley, Woodbury, Roseville, Richfield, St. Louis Park, Hopkins, Chaska, Chanhassen, Shakopee, and more, along with properties across the rest of Minnesota.