Property manager · Owner · Before you sign
What to check before signing anything.
Neolia can replace your current meter reading and billing provider. The price owed to Neolia and what you can charge to your tenants remain two separate questions. Five points to check so that the switch brings no surprises, and to know who decides what.
One provider replaces another
Your building already pays for meter reading, the calculation of shares and the drawing up of the statement. That line exists and appears on your tenants' service charge statement.
Neolia takes the place of that service. We do not add a line to the budget: we replace whoever provides it today. That explains everything else on this page, starting with the fact that the timetable is not ours to set.
Start by rereading your current contract
This market runs on multi-year contracts. Before any decision, check three points in the contract that binds you to your current provider:
- The remaining term. How long does it still run?
- The notice period. It is often counted in months, and easily missed.
- What happens to the devices. Meters and heat cost allocators are most often rented, not sold. They then have to be returned, or bought out, and that is set out in the contract.
Nothing stops you installing Neolia before the term ends. But the owner would then pay two providers in parallel until the current contract runs out.
What your leases allow you to pass on
A tenant only owes ancillary costs if their lease provides for them expressly, and only for costs actually incurred (Art. 257a and 257b CO). Where the item heating costs, meter reading and billing is already in the lease, it covers reading and billing, not the rest of the operation.
Neolia operating fees cover services of different kinds, with no breakdown. Nothing can be passed on automatically, and an invoice description is not enough. The exact wording of the item in the lease, condominium regulations or cantonal practice may also matter. Have your adviser check the lease before deciding what you pass on.
The building with no individual billing
If your building has no individual billing, this item does not appear in the leases. Introducing an item that does not exist is treated as a rent increase.
In that case, your canton's official form becomes mandatory, and without it the increase is void.
The property manager signs on the owner's behalf
In the standard Neolia contractual set-up, the manager acts within their management mandate and the owner remains the contracting party concerned, subject to the applicable contractual structure. Which document to attach depends on the type of building :
- Rental building: the management mandate.
- Condominium: the decision of the owners' meeting. Installation there is not part of routine administration.
120 CHF per dwelling per year, for the whole operation
The price pays for the whole operation of the connected building, with no split by service: receiving door calls and remote opening, names and access codes, meter reading and individual billing, alerts from building systems, the residents' app, hosting, updates and support.
There is no module to unlock, and no function announced as included is billed as an extra.
A question about your own situation?
Every building has its own contract and its own leases. Thirty minutes is enough to look at yours and tell you what applies.
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