Moving To A New Rental Property?

What Tenants Should Do About Water and Electricity Accounts

Moving into a new rental property involves more than collecting the keys and changing your address. Your water and electricity arrangements should also be checked before leaving your old home and again before moving into the new one.

A few simple steps can help prevent billing disputes and ensure you know exactly where your utility responsibility begins and ends.

Before Leaving Your Current Property

If your electricity is prepaid, check the remaining credit before moving. Prepaid electricity tokens are linked to a specific (smart) meter and cannot simply be transferred to the meter at your new property. Eskom confirms that a token purchased for one prepaid meter cannot be used in another.

For this reason, avoid purchasing substantially more electricity than you expect to use before moving. Keep your final electricity purchase receipts and take a photograph of the meter number and remaining balance when you leave.

Water requires slightly different attention. If your water consumption is separately metered, photograph the final meter reading on the day you move out and submit it to your landlord, managing agent or utilities-management provider where required. This creates a useful record of your consumption at the end of the tenancy.

Under South African rental-housing regulations, where a dwelling is separately metered and the landlord is responsible for providing the service, the tenant should be charged for the actual services consumed in that dwelling.

Before Moving Into Your New Property

Start by checking your lease. It should establish who is responsible for water and electricity charges. Government guidance notes that tenants usually pay consumption-related charges such as water and electricity, while property-related charges such as rates are generally the landlord's responsibility.

Then establish how each utility is supplied and billed.

For electricity, ask:

- Is the meter prepaid or post-paid?
- Who operates the meter: the municipality, Eskom or a private utilities-management provider such as Mawenzi Utilities Management?
- What is the meter number?
- Where and how should electricity be purchased?

If it is prepaid, verify the meter number before making your first purchase. Eskom specifically advises prepaid customers to use the meter number associated with the property when purchasing electricity.

For water, determine whether the property has an individual meter and whether you will receive the account directly or through your landlord, managing agent, body corporate or utilities-management provider.

Record Your Starting Readings

On occupation day, photograph the water meter reading and, where applicable, the electricity meter and its balance. Send these records to the relevant landlord, agent or utilities provider and retain copies.

This creates a clear starting point and helps distinguish your consumption from that of the previous tenant.

Also remember that account-opening procedures differ between suppliers and municipalities. For example, the City of Johannesburg states that customers cannot simply inherit another customer's water and electricity account, while Eskom's current residential guidance says tenants cannot apply directly for a new Eskom residential connection. Always establish the procedure applicable to the specific property and supplier.

Start With Clarity

Moving home is the perfect opportunity to understand how your utilities are managed.

Mawenzi Utilities Management provides prepaid and post-paid smart electricity and water metering, transparent billing and consumption monitoring - giving tenants and property managers greater visibility over what is being used and what is being charged.

Want to find out how to move to Mawenzi? Speak to us, we'd love to hear from you.

MAWENZI - Utilites Management Solutions Specialists

For more information on our services please get in touch with us – www.mawenzi.co.za

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