Manufactured Housing

Mobile Home Parks, RV Parks & Trailer Parks

Banyan offers a series of customized offerings specifically for the needs of mobile home communities. 

Submetering

In manufactured homes, we install weather-proof submeters designed for long life in outdoor conditions. Unlike other vendors, we also provide meter maintenance services so you can be assured this vital equipment performs year after year. We can read the meters manually, or with automated equipment. 

Ratio Utility Billing Systems (RUBS)

If submeters are not possible or desirable for your community, we can create a customized and accurate ratio utility billing system to fairly allocate the utilities among the residents. RUBS is more beneficial and fair to residents over time. 

State-Of-The-Art, Web-Based Billing System

Banyan utilizes a state-of-the-art, web-based billing system. Residents will appreciate the benefits our system provides, including access to their account, in real-time, 24/7 via the web. Convenient online payment options via eCheck and credit card are also available to the resident through their online account.

24/7 Property Managers Access

Banyan’s property management access allows property managers to view the utility consumption of each building and/or unit, run reports and perform various functions via the web 24/7, in real time! Some of the key reports and functions the property manager has are:

• Monthly Consumption profiling: Allows you to view water, electricity and/or gas consumption monthly for the entire building or by each individual unit.
• Monthly Billing: See what Banyan has billed each tenant for. You can download a comprehensive report for the entire property or pull up individual copies of actual invoices from any current or past tenant.
• Aging Accounts Receivable: A comprehensive Accounts Receivable aging report.
• Over 95 Standard Reports: A variety of reports to meet your property specific requirements.

Service

It’s one thing to prepare the bill, but great communication with your team and your residents is what sets us apart. We provide tools to help your residents manage and pay their bills, a dedicated account manager for your business, utility usage monitoring services, and even bilingual bills. Our collections team is in-house as well, so our staff operates like a true extension of your own.

We offer extended hours of live support in both English and Spanish. Our ticketing system allows us to respond to and follow up with residents, community staff, management, and owners without delay. Service requests and questions flow through our ticketing system and carefully designed workflows which allows us to ensure timely response to clients and residents, rapid escalation when necessary, and resolve customer issues quickly and professionally.

Getting Started with Submeters

Whether considering a change to a new submetering service provider or a new submetering system for your community, it is important to ask the right questions. Submetering can be a complicated and confusing industry. How do you know what questions to ask? At Banyan we encourage you to ask all questions you have and we guarantee we will provide you with straight-forward answers. Following are some questions you may consider asking:

• Do the meters meet state and local requirements?
• Who owns the meters and who is responsible to maintain them?
• Will the metering system be provided without capital investment from the property owners?
• Who is responsible for meter recertification?
• Is billing timely and done at regular intervals?
• Is the billing system robust and scalable to meet your needs now and in five or ten years?
• Are there multiple payment methods for the owners and residents including online payments, phone payments and AutoPay (ACH)?

Banyan Makes Submetering Simple

Banyan provides an easy, transparent, and seamless solution – managing the entire process from start to finish so you do not have to. From project management and planning to resident and management education to billing and collections, we are your partner.

We Do The Research For You

At Banyan, we believe that you must be fully informed about your options and local regulations prior to making decisions about your utility billing. Banyan will provide each property owner and/or manager with a comparative recommendation to consider. We do the groundwork, provide the due diligence and rationale so you can make a more informed decision.

A Project Management Focus

Following the Project Management Institute (PMI) principals each project is carefully planned and organized to accomplish a specific objective. Banyan offers project management specific to utility-related programs within our area of expertise. The core of project management is managed expectation.

A successful Project Manager must simultaneously manage the four basic elements of a project: Resources, Time, Money and most importantly, Scope. All these elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All must be managed together if the projects and the project manager, are to be a success. Resources reference the people/contractors, equipment and material required. Time is the project duration – start to finish. Money is the financial requirements and expectation including contingencies necessary for a successful project.

Finally, Scope is the detail of project size, project goals and requirements. The scope should set specific goals and expectations. The scope should be agreed upon by all involved to ensure there is accurate and objective information, specific to performance expectations. In short, you cannot effectively manage the resources, time and money in a project unless you actively manage the project scope.

What Are The Steps To Start A Submetering Program?

1. There are a few requirements to submeter utilities at any multifamily building to consider first. To submeter water each unit must have an individual hot and cold water line. Typically these units will have individual shut-off valves as well. To submeter electricity each unit must have an individual main breaker or breaker panel. To submeter gas there needs to be a single gas line servicing each unit and/or appliance (water heater, heater, fireplace, etc.)
2. Contact Banyan for a free quote. It will help to provide us with a copy of a recent utility bill for the utilities you are interested in submetering.
3. A property survey will be completed and a detailed proposal will be developed and delivered to the owner or property manager. The proposal will include the technical aspects of the proposed system, the cost and payment options for the system.
4. Once the decision has been made to start submetering Banyan will develop a detailed installation plan for approval by the owner or property manager. Once the schedule has been agreed on Banyan will send each resident an introduction letter along with their scheduled installation date and time. This letter will also include additional information about why this is being done and what services Banyan will be providing. It is our goal to answer any resident questions so you don’t have to!
5. After the meters are installed, they are all read on the same day each month. Bills are produced and mailed or e-mailed to each resident. Banyan provides multiple payment options including online payments, payments over the phone, AutoPay and payments by mail.
6. The money collected by Banyan is sent monthly to the owner or property manager who in turn pays the utility bill just as they have done in the past, or we can pay your master bill for you, reducing the chance of late fees.