What Conservice Actually Is
Conservice is a third-party utility billing and management company headquartered in Logan, Utah. Founded in 1999, it contracts with apartment communities, student housing complexes, and mixed-use developments across the country, including a significant number of Texas properties. Its job is to handle the administrative work of splitting a master utility account among individual units and collecting payment from residents.
Conservice does not generate electricity. It does not own power lines. It is not a retail electricity provider (REP) licensed by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT). It sits between your apartment’s actual electricity or gas supplier and you, processing the numbers and sending invoices.
That structure matters for one reason: when something is wrong with your conservice utility billing, the complaint path is different than it would be with a licensed REP. More on that below.
Why Apartment Properties Use Third-Party Billing
Large apartment communities often receive utility service under a single master meter. The property management company pays one consolidated bill to the actual utility or REP, then uses a service like Conservice to divide costs among residents.
Conservice offers two main cost-allocation methods:
Submetering. Individual units have separate meters. Conservice reads those meters (or receives the data electronically), calculates each unit’s actual consumption, and bills accordingly. This is the more transparent method because the math is straightforward: you used X kilowatt-hours at rate Y, so your charge is X times Y plus any fees.
RUBS (Ratio Utility Billing System). The property has no per-unit meters, or they are not used for billing. Instead, the property’s total utility cost is divided among units using a formula based on factors like square footage, number of occupants, or number of bedrooms. Your unit’s share equals (your unit’s ratio factor divided by the sum of all units’ ratio factors) multiplied by the total property bill.
A concrete example: suppose the property’s electricity cost for September is $12,000 and there are 100 units. Under a simple equal-split RUBS, each unit owes $120 before fees. Under an occupancy-weighted RUBS, a two-person unit in a building averaging 1.5 occupants might carry a ratio of 2/150, or 1.33 percent, producing a charge of $159.60.
RUBS is legal in Texas. It is also the source of most conservice bill complaints, because residents have no way to verify their individual consumption or dispute an allocation they believe is incorrect.
How to Read a Conservice Bill
A standard Conservice invoice includes several sections. The following breakdown applies to most Texas apartment statements, though property-specific fees vary.
Account and property information. Your unit number, service address, and Conservice account number appear at the top. Keep this number accessible. You will need it if you call Conservice or file a complaint.
Service period. The billing cycle start and end dates. Verify these match the period you actually occupied the unit. A discrepancy of even a few days can result in a material overcharge.
Utility charges. This is the core of the conservice bill explained section. Under submetering, you will see a meter reading (prior and current), consumption in units (kWh for electricity, CCF or therms for gas), and a per-unit rate. Under RUBS, you will see a total property cost and your allocated share. The rate under RUBS may be listed as implied (total divided by implied collective consumption) or simply absent, which is a transparency problem worth noting.
Billing and administrative fees. Conservice charges a service fee for its administrative work. This fee is separate from the utility cost itself. Common line items include:
- Billing fee: typically $3 to $10 per month per unit
- Invoice fee: sometimes a flat per-statement charge
- Late fee: usually a percentage of the outstanding balance if payment is not received by the due date
These fees are not utility costs. They are Conservice’s revenue. Your lease should disclose them. If it does not, that is worth flagging.
Balance forward and payment history. Prior balance, payments received, and any credits appear here. Cross-reference this section against your own payment records every month. Third-party billing systems occasionally misapply payments, particularly around account transitions when a new resident moves in.
Total amount due and due date. Conservice bills are typically due within 20 to 25 days of the statement date. Some properties integrate Conservice billing into the rent payment portal; others require a separate payment to Conservice directly.
Common Billing Problems and How to Investigate Them
LightCompanies has reviewed public complaint data and renter forums to identify the most frequently reported conservice utility billing issues in Texas. Four patterns emerge with notable consistency.
Unexplained bill spikes. A resident’s charge increases substantially month over month without a clear change in behavior or season. Under submetering, this is worth investigating by requesting the actual meter read data. Under RUBS, the cause is often an increase in the property’s total bill (new construction units coming online, a vacant-unit adjustment, or a rate change from the underlying REP) rather than anything the individual resident did.
Move-in and move-out billing errors. Conservice bills on a calendar cycle. If you move in on the 14th but are billed for the full month, that is an error. Request a pro-rated adjustment in writing. Keep a timestamped record of your move-in date (a signed lease with a start date, or a dated photo of the unit at move-in).
Double charges. Occasionally a resident is billed both through Conservice and directly by the REP, particularly during a property ownership transition. If you receive a bill from an entity you do not recognize alongside your Conservice bill, confirm with your property management office which account you should be paying.
Opaque RUBS allocations. Texas does not require properties using RUBS to provide residents with the full property bill or the complete allocation formula. Many do not. You can request this documentation from your property manager. If the manager refuses, you have limited regulatory recourse at the state level, but your lease may contain language about billing transparency that creates a contractual claim.
Who Regulates Conservice in Texas
This is where renter expectations and regulatory reality diverge.
The PUCT regulates retail electricity providers. Conservice is not a REP, so PUCT does not have direct jurisdiction over Conservice’s billing practices. If you file a complaint with PUCT about a Conservice charge, PUCT will likely redirect you elsewhere.
For submetered properties, the PUCT does have rules under Substantive Rule 25.142. This rule governs submetered and allocated billing by apartment owners and their agents. Key provisions include:
- The rate charged to residents cannot exceed the rate the property pays to its REP or utility
- Properties must provide residents with consumption information on request
- Billing periods must align with the service period
Violations of Rule 25.142 can be reported to the PUCT. The complaint process is at puc.texas.gov. Note that PUCT only publishes quarterly complaint summaries at the property or provider level, not per-incident data, so independent tracking of Conservice-specific complaint volume is limited.
For RUBS properties, the regulatory gap is wider. No Texas agency comprehensively audits RUBS allocation math. Your primary recourse is civil: a claim against your landlord under the terms of your lease, or potentially under the Texas Property Code if the billing constitutes an overcharge.
The Better Business Bureau lists Conservice with a profile that includes complaints, though BBB ratings reflect complaint resolution patterns rather than regulatory standing. As of the most recent data available to LightCompanies, Conservice carries a B+ BBB rating with a substantial complaint volume driven largely by billing disputes. That rating is directionally useful but does not substitute for reading your own bill line by line.
What to Do If You Think Your Conservice Bill Is Wrong
A systematic approach produces better outcomes than an unstructured call to customer service.
Step 1: Document the specific discrepancy. Identify the exact line item, the amount you believe is incorrect, and the basis for that belief (a meter reading that does not match, a service period that does not match your occupancy, a fee not disclosed in your lease).
Step 2: Contact Conservice in writing. Conservice’s customer service line is available on conservice.com. Use the online portal or email rather than a phone call. Written records matter if you escalate.
Step 3: Contact your property management office simultaneously. Conservice acts as an agent of the property. The property management company has a contractual relationship with Conservice and can intervene directly. Many billing errors are resolved at this level faster than through Conservice alone.
Step 4: If the issue involves a submetered property, file with PUCT. Use PUCT’s online complaint form and reference Substantive Rule 25.142. Include your documentation.
Step 5: For RUBS disputes, review your lease and consult a tenant attorney if the amount is material. Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and Lone Star Legal Aid provide free legal services to qualifying renters. For amounts under $20,000, small claims court (Justice of the Peace court in Texas) is an option without requiring an attorney.
How Conservice Compares to Paying a REP Directly
If your apartment community allowed you to select your own REP through the competitive Texas market, your bill would come directly from that REP, regulated by PUCT, with full disclosure of the energy charge, TDU delivery charge, and any monthly fees. You would have access to the Power to Choose database, the ability to compare rates, and a clear regulatory escalation path.
Under Conservice, you have none of that optionality. The property chose the underlying energy supplier. You pay your allocated share plus Conservice’s administrative fee. For many Texas renters, this is simply the cost structure of renting in a master-metered building.
That is not an argument against renting in such a building. It is an argument for reading the utility billing addendum in your lease before you sign, asking whether the property uses submetering or RUBS, and understanding what administrative fees you will owe every month on top of your actual energy consumption.
Those questions belong in the same due-diligence conversation as the monthly rent itself.
Summary
Conservice is a utility billing intermediary, not a power company. It processes and allocates utility costs on behalf of apartment properties using either submetering (consumption-based, more transparent) or RUBS (formula-based, harder to audit). Its administrative fees are legitimate but should be disclosed in your lease. When something looks wrong on a conservice bill, the correction path runs through written communication with both Conservice and your property manager, and through PUCT for submetered properties covered by Rule 25.142. The regulatory coverage for RUBS properties is thinner, and lease language plus civil remedies become the primary tools. Understanding this structure before signing a lease is the most effective way to avoid surprises.