Multifamily Apartments

Your Utility Partner

Banyan Utility, formerly Multifamily Utility Company, helps multifamily property owners encourage conservation, recover utility costs, reduce operating expenses, and maintain a low carbon footprint.

Markets We Serve


Banyan, formerly Multifamily Utility Company, is experienced with a wide range of property types. If you have 20 or more units, we can help you increase your NOI and achieve your sustainability or conservation goals.

Learn More About Our Customized Programs For Your Multifamily Community


Collections

Collecting residents’ payments can be a hassle for property managers and leasing agents. Our collections program takes care of this for you while treating your residents with the best service possible.

Convergent Billing

Multiple bills can confuse residents, so when a property chooses Convergent Billing they have a higher probability of collecting payment.

Energy Audits

Find out where your utility expenses may be needlessly occurring with an energy audit that can find costly problems and opportunities to optimize your services.

Energy Procurement

Received the best energy contracts with our energy procurement program that helps you negotiate agreements with better terms and conditions.

Metered Electric Car Charging

The i-meter EVCMC system is cost-effective for existing properties because you don’t need to add more electrical circuits. This electrical innovation protects your existing infrastructure by alternating and distributing the power to multiple chargers.

Meter Maintenance

Get completely accurate readings with our meter maintenance program that ensures your meters are not faulty and are reading the actual amount being consumed.

Ratio Utility Billing Systems

Benefits of Using Ratio Utility Billing include zero capital investment, reduce operating costs, and encourages conservation.

Smart Thermostats

Our new SetpointControl electricity program provides a smart thermostat in each unit to allow property owners and managers to remotely control temperatures inside each unit. The smart software allows authorized users to account for the direction the unit faces, seasonal temperatures, and other factors to create a comfortable, yet efficient, utility management program.

Solar Financing

Banyan Utility continues to innovate in the area of bringing you the most effective ways to manage your energy costs and we’re proud to introduce a new solar financing program with Pacific Coast Power for panels, installation, and even your submeters.

Submetering

The ultimate utility expense recovery solution. Our quality submeters have a fast ROI and a long life. We only use the highest quality products and we will design, install, and maintain your submetering system.

Utility Benchmarking

Required for green loans and California properties, utility benchmarking is the process of tracking, analyzing, and reporting the costs and consumption associated with a property.

Utility Expense Management

Avoid late fees and shutoffs, micromanaging master utility bills, and monitoring rates with our comprehensive utility expense management program.

Utility Invoice Auditing

Identify and recover expensive billing errors with our proprietary utility invoice auditing program.

Utility Rate & Tariff Analysis

Gain the confidence you are paying the best rate and avoiding NOI-damaging overcharges with our utility rate and tariff analysis.

Vacant Cost Recovery

With Vacant Cost Recovery (VCR), the property will never have to pay for an occupied unit’s utility costs. VCR is a solution Banyan Utility offers to help the property recover utility costs of occupied units.

Team Effort

Banyan Utility Customer Testimonials


  • Best Implementation

    I am very impressed with the level of attention MUC gave us as we transitioned to their platform. They addressed all our questions, thoroughly validated the data we supplied, and made certain our account was setup exactly as intended. One of the best implementations I’ve been through. Kudos!

    Followup

    Thanks again to you and your team — it’s really made administering RUBS a breeze compared to our prior experiences.

    Patrick McNamara
    M | J | D Development

  • Responsive and Professional

    We have found Banyan to be an extremely professional company. Their representatives are always responsive and attentive to our questions, as well as being very knowledgeable of all state regulations regarding utility billing. They gave us suggestions for increasing our revenue and we have seen a marked increase in collections and revenue since we started using their services. We are very pleased with all aspects of their service and look forward to a long, continued relationship with Banyan.

    Client From Dallas, TX

  • Increased Property Value

    Many other property owners have told me that they do not have the money to make the initial investment to install meters. But I recommend that they find a way to fund it because the payback is rapid — usually about one year to 18 months, and the revenue recovery is ongoing.

    For example, when we purchased a 169 apartment home community in Indianapolis, I asked our bank to add the cost of meter installation onto our loan, which they readily did after I demonstrated how the program significantly increases property value. It cost about $225 per apartment home to install the gas submeters at the property, for a total of $38,025, and our mortgage increased by only $500 per month.

    The gas bill for that property alone is $85,000 per year and we recover about 70 percent of those costs, after factoring out common area and vacant apartment home costs, a savings of $59,500 per year, which far surpasses the initial installation cost. Another benefit is that our property value has increased exponentially, which I calculated by taking the $59,500 at a 9.5 percent cap rate (rates can vary) which raised the property value by more than $500,000.

    Client From Indianapolis, IN

  • Easy to Work With

    I don’t mind sharing some information at all. Let me start off by telling you that I have been the manager here at OBT for a little less than 2 years. We have 214 units. The system was installed by the developer at construction so I can’t share any feedback related to the process of installing or speak to any differences prior to the system being installed.

    When I arrived the association was dissatisfied with the prior billing company (AUM) and shortly thereafter we switched to MUC. We recently renewed our contract with them for a second year. We’re pleased with their work. They were responsive to some concerns shortly after the switch and sent Josh over to Phoenix from San Diego to assist in some investigation work on-site. The issues were tied back to bad information passed on from the prior vendor. They have been easy to work with and were agreeable to modifying the billing dates and the timing of their process in order to accommodate some property specific needs.

    Client From Phoenix, AZ

  • Seamless Transition

    Banyan has done an excellent job with our properties. They are very professional and have seamlessly transitioned many of our apartment buildings to the Ratio Utility Billing program, as well as setting up online automated meter reading and billing with our newer properties. I would recommend them to small and large property owners alike.

    Client From San Diego, CA

  • Adding to the Bottom Line

    We have calculated the increase in property value that comes along with submetering. For instance, on a property with 285 apartment homes with an average water bill of $7,000 per month, we can add up to $6,000 or more per month to the bottom line. At a 9 percent capitalization rate, that equates to a property value increase of $800,000.

    Client From Tampa, FL

  • Recouped Cost

    The results did not disappoint me. In December the bills declined after we began billing residents for their water consumption. In March 2003 and April 2003 bills were approximately $270 per day; May fell to $254. The difference between $462 in April 2001 and $270 in April 2003 is $192 per day – a payback of less than one year. The payback actually is much faster because we are collecting about $2000 each month from the billing program, an amount that should double by year-end as new leases are signed.

    Client From Columbus, OH

  • Great Incentives

    Accurately monitoring each apartment home’s electrical usage gives a greater incentive for residents to conserve energy, since they are paying for exactly what they use. During a one-year period, an average of 17 percent less energy was consumed in the submetered residences.

    Client From Portland, OR

  • Conscious Energy Use

    An obvious trend has emerged now that residents are responsible for their own utility bills. Before the days of submetering, it was not uncommon to see windows open or hear air conditioners running in the middle of winter with heaters going full blast. It was a way to cool down the apartment, but now that residents are responsible for their own bills, they tend to just turn down the heat.

    Client From Columbus, OH

Six Consecutive Years on the Inc 5000 Fastest Growing Companies List

Recent Blog Articles


Recover The Cost & Bill Back For Utilities


Banyan Water Icon

Water

Conservation of this precious resource protects the environment and reduces your monthly expenses. Submeters allow residents to understand, and therefore control, their usage.

Banyan Gas Icon

Gas

Gas submetering helps reduce utility expenses and increases the safety of properties. Submetering is fair to residents and encourages them to manage their utilization. It’s hard to conserve if you don’t see the bill.

Banyan Electric Icon

Electric

Submetering electric can dramatically reduce utility utilization in areas with a heavy air conditioning demand.