Service Charge Billing Engine

The Service Charge Billing Engine enables property management agents to manage the full lifecycle of OMC service charge billing — from annual budget creation through to payment tracking and arrears management — entirely within BlockManOS.

Note: This feature handles billing between an OMC and its unit owners. It is completely separate from the Stripe-based subscription billing that property agents use to pay for their BlockManOS licence.

Key Concepts

What Is a Service Charge?

A service charge is a levy collected by an Owners' Management Company (OMC) from each unit owner within a multi-unit development. These funds cover the operating costs of the development — maintenance, insurance, management fees, sinking fund contributions, and shared utilities — as required under the Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011.

The Two Billing Flows in BlockManOS

BlockManOS manages two entirely separate financial relationships:

SaaS Subscription (Stripe): The property management agent pays BlockManOS for platform access. This uses Stripe and is unrelated to OMC finances.
Service Charge Billing (this feature): The OMC bills each unit owner for their share of the annual development budget. This is managed by the Service Charge Billing Engine.

Features

Annual Budget Creation

Create a formal annual budget for a development to establish the total expenditure the OMC needs to recover from unit owners.

Set budget line items (maintenance, insurance, management fees, sinking fund, etc.)
Allocate costs across units based on your chosen apportionment method
Approve and lock the budget to trigger demand generation

Service Charge Demand Issuance

Once a budget is approved, generate formal service charge demand notices for unit owners.

Demands are issued per unit, per service charge period
Each demand reflects the unit's apportioned share of the annual budget
Demand notices can be delivered to owners via the platform's communication tools
Issued demands create a receivable balance on each unit owner's account

Payment Tracking

Record payments received from unit owners and reconcile them against outstanding demands.

Log full and partial payments against a unit's open balance
View payment history per unit
Track the overall collection rate across the development

Arrears Management

Monitor units where service charges remain unpaid beyond their due date.

Arrears dashboard showing all overdue unit accounts
Filter by development, block, or arrears age
Export arrears reports for AGM reporting or legal proceedings

Interest Application

Apply interest to overdue balances in line with OMC policy.

Configure the interest rate applicable to arrears
Apply interest charges manually or on a scheduled basis
Interest postings are recorded as separate line items on the unit account, maintaining a clear audit trail

Compliance Context

Service charge billing in Ireland is governed primarily by:

Multi-Unit Developments Act 2011 — Requires OMCs to prepare annual service charge schemes, provide advance notice of charges, and maintain sinking funds.
Residential Tenancies Act — Imposes obligations on landlords and OMCs regarding disclosure of service charges to tenants and owners.

BlockManOS is designed to support compliance with these obligations. Property managers should always consult their legal advisors when issuing demands or pursuing arrears.

Getting Started

Navigate to the Developments section and select the relevant development.
Open the Service Charges tab.
Create a new Annual Budget for the current service charge year.
Approve the budget to generate Demand Notices for all units.
As payments arrive, record them against each unit's account.
Use the Arrears view to monitor outstanding balances and apply interest where applicable.