California specialists · new states in 2027
Utility Billing for Manufactured Housing Communities
Every rate correct. Every charge provable. A few clicks a month.
Built for California from day one. Sentinel bills California today, and we add states one at a time, starting in 2027.
We set up every community for you. Then Sentinel finds every rate change, prices every resident's bill, checks it against California law, and sends the charges into Rent Manager. Your team uploads the bills, reads the meters, and clicks Send. Or we run all of it for you.
Why the Proof Has to Be on the Bill
California's Mobilehome Residency Law and Public Utilities Code set exact rules for utility billing — correct rates, proper disclosures, CARE and FERA discounts passed through, and no charge above what the law allows. Rates change every month, and a missed change costs you either way: bill too much and residents are owed a refund, and the community answers for every bill; bill too little and you lose the money.
Most operators either bill it themselves and carry the risk, or hand it to a provider whose proof comes only when they ask for it.
Sentinel puts the proof on every bill — and does the work.
What Sentinel Does
Every rate found. Every bill priced.
Sentinel watches the published rates for every utility at every community: SCE, SoCalGas, PG&E, Cal Water, EMWD and more. When a rate changes, Sentinel finds it, checks it against the utility's filed tariff or adopted rate schedule, applies it, and prices every resident's gas and electric bill from it, and water and sewer from the community's own bills or the water company's own prices, as California law allows — including CARE and FERA (the state's low- and moderate-income utility discounts). You get one notice to acknowledge. You never look up a rate again.
Checked against the filed tariff
Every bill checked against California law.
Before a bill goes out, Sentinel checks it against every applicable law, regulation and utility rule, plus an audit standard of our own. Anything that needs attention comes with the reason and the fix, and the decisions that are yours stay yours. The protections the law gives residents are kept on every bill.
Every rule · every bill
Straight into Rent Manager.
For a Rent Manager community, itemized charges land on each resident's ledger: each utility on its own line, with CARE and FERA discounts and the required disclosures. Residents keep getting one Rent Manager statement and keep paying the way they do now.
One statement · no re-keying
Your month in Sentinel
Four steps. A few clicks each. Then back to Rent Manager.
- [ 1 ]
Read the meters.
Your manager walks the community with the Sentinel phone app. Photograph the meter, confirm the number, next. Readings that look too high, too low or zero are flagged with the photo.
- [ 2 ]
Upload your bills.
Upload each utility's master bill, and any other cost invoice, like a propane delivery. Sentinel takes it from there.
- [ 3 ]
Acknowledge any rate change.
Sentinel has already found the change, checked it against the utility's published rates and applied it to your bills. You confirm you've seen it. Nothing to research, nothing to decide.
- [ 4 ]
Generate. Issue. Send.
One click generates every bill, for one community or your whole portfolio. One click issues them. One click sends the charges to Rent Manager.
That's the month. Our standard is a handful of clicks per community. Sentinel does the rest: the rates, the math and the law, with every charge traced to its source.
On Managed or Full Service, we do these steps for you.
Two standards
Never over-bill a resident. Never under-bill the community.
Residents pay no more than the law allows; the community collects every dollar the law allows it to.
Residents
Gas and electric are billed at exactly the rate the utility would charge the resident directly; water and sewer only by the methods California law allows. CARE and FERA discounts and medical-baseline allowances reach every resident enrolled in them. That's the law, and it keeps residents out of your office.
You
When a rate goes up, your bills go up with it in the month it takes effect, not the month someone notices. Every dollar the law lets you bill, you bill. Your recovery report shows it every month.
The Proof
Every Charge Traceable. Every Dollar Provable.
When a resident, an attorney or a regulator asks where a charge came from, the answer is one click away: the filed tariff, the meter reading and the rule checks, with every correction added and the history complete.
The utility's filed tariff
Archived with a digital fingerprint (SHA-256), the date, and the source address
Read and checked
Every figure read from the filed document and checked before use
The rate in force
Versioned and dated, linked to its source
Every resident's bill priced
Usage, tiers, baseline, CARE and FERA — calculated the same way every time
Checked against every applicable rule
Built for California manufactured housing — before the bill goes out
Into Rent Manager
Itemized by utility on each resident's ledger — one statement to the resident
Service Levels
Choose How Much You Hand Off
Platform
We set up every community. Then your team runs Sentinel, and the system does the work.
Sentinel does
- Sets up every community: rates, meters and Rent Manager
- Finds every rate change, checks it against the utility's published rates, and applies it
- Prices every resident's bill, including CARE and FERA
- Checks every bill against every applicable law, regulation and utility rule
- Sends itemized charges into Rent Manager
You do
- Upload master bills and cost invoices
- Read meters with the Sentinel phone app
- Acknowledge rate changes and click Generate, Issue, Send
Your office takes residents' questions. We support your team.
Managed
Your managers read the meters. Sentinel does everything else.
Everything in Platform, plus:
- Sentinel generates, issues and sends every bill
- Your residents' statements printed and mailed first-class for you
You do
- Read the meters with the Sentinel phone app
Full Service
Sentinel does it all.
Everything in Managed, plus:
- Sentinel reads every meter every month. Your staff never walks a route
- A resident line answered by Sentinel
- We stand behind every bill we issue
You see the proof. We do the work.
Every tier runs on the same system: the same compliance checks and the same proof on every bill. Mix tiers across your portfolio, and change as you grow.
Guides
Learn How Utility Billing Works
Utility billing in manufactured housing communities, often called mobile home park utility billing, follows its own rules. These guides explain them, with the source behind every rule.
Manufactured Housing Utility Billing: How It Works
The three ways communities bill utilities, master meters and submeters, what a good statement shows, and how to choose a billing partner.
California Manufactured Housing Utility Billing: Operator's Guide
Gas, electric and water rules, CARE and FERA, what every statement shows, and the records to keep.
California MRL Utility Billing Rules
Every rule for a California utility bill, utility by utility, with the statute, decision or tariff behind it.
Submetering vs. RUBS in California
When a community bills from meters, when it may share a bill by formula, and why gas and electric are different.
Choosing Utility Billing Software
A buyer's guide for California manufactured housing communities, with the questions to ask any provider.
Water Fee Cap Calculator
Test a submetered water billing fee against both limits in Civil Code § 798.40(c)(3).
Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is manufactured housing utility billing?
- When a manufactured housing community buys gas, electricity or water through a master meter and bills residents separately, it bills each resident for that resident's share — often called mobile home park utility billing. In California the law sets how each utility is billed: gas and electricity from an investor-owned utility (including community-choice electricity) at the same rate the utility would charge the resident directly (Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 739.5(a)), with a city-owned utility such as LADWP governed by its own rules, and submetered water only by the methods in Cal. Civ. Code § 798.40(c).
- Can a mobile home park in California charge a fee for billing utilities?
- For submetered water, one billing or administrative fee is allowed: the lesser of $4.75 — which management may raise each calendar year, beginning January 1, 2022, by no more than the California CPI increase the Department of Finance determines — or 25% of the usage charge (Cal. Civ. Code § 798.40(c)(3)). No fee may be added to a resident's gas or electric charge from an investor-owned utility, including community-choice electricity, under Cal. Pub. Util. Code § 739.5(a) (apart from the CPUC gas safety surcharge, at cost and never above 25 cents per space a month — Pub. Util. Code § 4358(c)).
- How does Sentinel know when a utility's rate changes?
- Sentinel watches the published rates for every utility at every community. When a rate changes, Sentinel finds it, checks it against the utility's filed tariff or adopted rate schedule and applies it to your bills. You acknowledge one notice; you never look up a rate.
- Does Sentinel work with Rent Manager?
- Yes. Sentinel sends itemized charges into Rent Manager — each utility on its own line on the resident's ledger, with CARE and FERA discounts — so residents keep getting one statement and keep paying the way they do now.
- Does Sentinel bill communities outside California?
- Sentinel bills California today. We add states one at a time, starting in 2027, and only once every bill there can be checked against that state's law.
Let's Talk About Your Communities
Bring your communities and your current bills. We'll show you your month in Sentinel — what your team does, and what Sentinel does for you.