Utility Responsibility in Real Estate

Who pays, who controls, who has the data — and how to map it fast

Carbon BasicsGuide20 min

What you'll accomplish

  • Understand the common utility responsibility structures in real estate
  • Map who pays, who has the meter, and who gets the data
  • Identify data access challenges before they become blockers
  • Build a site-by-site responsibility matrix

Who this is for

Sustainability teams

Building utility inventories

Property managers

Managing utility relationships

Finance teams

Reconciling utility costs

Asset managers

Understanding portfolio complexity

Common scenarios

A

Landlord-metered, landlord-paid

Owner has the meter and pays the bill directly

Action: Request data from utility or property manager

B

Tenant-metered, tenant-paid

Tenant has their own meter and pays directly

Action: Engage tenants for data sharing (see Tenant Utility Data Playbook)

C

Master-metered, allocated

One meter, costs allocated to tenants

Action: Pull from allocation system or property manager

D

Sub-metered

Master meter with sub-meters for tenants

Action: Pull from sub-metering system

Common pitfalls

Assuming all sites work the same

Fix: Map each site individually

Forgetting common areas

Fix: Include lobby, garage, shared spaces

Not documenting who has data access

Fix: Create a responsibility matrix

Mixing up metering vs billing responsibility

Fix: Track both separately

Change log

v1.0 (2026-01): Latest release