About once a month some dude comes and checks the meter.  then you drop that amount into the account. If your not there he leaves a little note on your door.  But they never come when someone is there.  Hmm if YOUR working 9-5  perhaps others are too!  Anyways, they never cut it off, i wasnt there for about 9 months straight, so no bill, therefore no paying the bill. No cut-offs no notices, no nothing.

Generally service is good, if there is a power outage , its usually back on within minutes, although the buildings electric water pump is pure shit and as I live on the top floor, I often have crap water pressure which wont trigger the water heater, so about twice a month i get undressed ,go start the shower and realize no hot water is going to come. 

TIC

I have, 'Use first pay later' situation. I remember the unpaid bill for previous month is still missing but no electricity outage so far.

As far gas is concerned, I had 150 RMB left in the card by the previous renter. My manager said its enough amount for gas here at Wuhan. From last 7 months I haven't paid gas bill(No information of it) and it still goes on. I don't know how much I have to pay at the end?

Feeling lucky if compare with your situation...

I've been living in my little apartment since september, and it's never come up. I know there's a separate meter for me, but nobody has asked me to pay anything yet. If it's a pay-when-you-leave deal, then I can't do a runner, because the owner is from my wife's hometown. I'm just hoping it's an oversight on their part, or consdidered to be included in the rent...

I guess it depends on where you are.

My first apartment was a debit-card abomination setup. You could not take the debit card to the front office pay all of your utilities. You had to go to 20 different buildings to pay each one, including ChinaPost. But my landlord didn't even give me my utility ID until 1 month later.

What the heck kind of system are you using now? I've never heard of it.

Try getting your utility id and going to ChinaPost?

My first place they slapped up a bill near the mail box, which in turn , needed to be paid-IN PERSON-at China Grid!   Now we've set up an account with the utility which we pay every two months-on line.

My flat (short term rental) have a credit system :
* you buy a volume of water/gas/electricity (all separated)
* you consume all that
* when you're close to be out of credit, you got a paper on the door telling you about it

* refill your credit or it's cut. You do that by talking with the staff at the lobby and paying them

It mostly works, mess-up are very uncommon. I would prefer a monthly bill, with some stats of my consumption yearly, monthly and weekly.

School in Fuk. was responsible for my utilities. Before end of the Contract, School official asked me to sign fapiao in Chinese, where I could understand/read only 582 Rmb. When asked for the meaning of fapiao, Chinese teacher couldn't explain to me, so I refused to sign.

It was bill for Residence tax (sweeping of the roads, cleaning garbage bins, and so on).

When I spoke to my Chinese friend, he told me Contract translation doesn't match. In Chinese version, School will pay for electricity, gas, water and Internet.

In English: 'School is responsible for all cost with the apartment'.

Now, I am in big, 3 floors condo in Taizhou. 7 rooms, 1 kitchen, 2 bathrooms with sit down WC, 2 balconies. New development area in Taizhou.

I will live in alone, but it's enough room for 3 persons.

If they ask me to pay utilities, I won't argue, 'cause of all space I have!

The community I live in puts a note on my door whenever I need to pay for something. It's a prepay system but if you get behind they won't shut you off, or not without a lot of warnings first.

I pay for everything in the same office in the community which is a lot easier than some of the other apartments I lived in.

Water and electricity is billed to the owner of the apartment (landlord) Gas is charged to a card that we plug into the gas meter, which then goes beep and allows the purchased amount to flow through. 

We pay the landlord once in a while. Actually the landlord will call each time the outstanding amount for utilities grows to be the same as out deposit, then we even out, so we again have two months deposit paid. 

It's weird how the payment of utilities is a factor to consider when you rent an apartment, for me at least. I never gave it a thought before I came to China.

If I need to go to several different places that I don't know where they are, figure out some new card system,get a new card or bank book because the previous tenant didn't leave it behind, never know if I owe money and could be cut off tomorrow and need to stand in line for 45 minutes every time I pay for something then the apartment better be awesome !

The only utility that I pay for is electricity. It's a very simple process. I just go to the grid station that is in charge of my neighborhood. Show him my address and give him 100rmb on the 23rd of every month(pay day). Since my power has yet to be shut off before I have gone to pay, I am confident that I am using less than 100rmb  in electrocity every month. This month I did start running a fan in my bedroom 24/7, so we'll see if this still remains true by May 23rd