Vacant Cost Recovery in multifamily: a practical guide

Vacant Cost Recovery (VCR) is the practice of identifying utility costs incurred on vacant units and recovering them rather than absorbing them as operating expense. Done well, it turns a leak into a recoverable line item and protects NOI.

VCR depends on knowing which units were vacant, when, and which charges relate to them. That means joining occupancy data with unit-level, validated bill data — exactly the kind of reconciliation that breaks down in spreadsheets.

Start with a clean hierarchy of property, common area and unit, with accounts clearly separated. Then layer in occupancy status so charges can be attributed correctly, and capture bills that arrive by post for vacant units.

With validated bills and occupancy in one platform, VCR becomes a repeatable workflow: detect, attribute, review the exceptions, and report. The result is recovered spend and a defensible audit trail.