Moving In After an Ejar Lease: Electricity Meter and Handover Form

The short answer: the electricity meter’s details go into your lease when it is registered on Ejar (Ejar, in Arabic), and that is where it’s decided whether the electricity and water bills pass to you or you pay a fixed amount. After that, as the tenant you are responsible for declaring the meter as its actual beneficiary on the Saudi Electricity Company’s website or app. The condition of the home on the day you take it over goes into Ejar’s handover form (in Arabic) within 7 days of the lease starting, and if you don’t fill it in, that counts as implicit acceptance that the unit is in good condition (in Arabic).

This guide takes you through it step by step: what happens to the electricity meter when the lease is registered, how to move the meter into your name, how to fill in the handover form and what to photograph, and how all of it connects to your security deposit.

Looking for the government Ejar platform itself? Its official address is ejar.sa. This guide is from Ejari, a private service that is separate from the platform. New to Ejar? Start with our guide to the Ejar platform.

The steps in this guide are as Ejar and the Saudi Electricity Company publish them on their websites, checked on 30 October 2026.

Before You Accept the Lease: Check the Meter Details

The electricity meter doesn’t wait until you move in. Ejar makes recording the meter details and the actual beneficiary of the water and electricity service mandatory while the lease is registered (in Arabic), at the financial-details step. Ejar calls this service “transfer of financial liability for water and electricity” (نقل الذمة المالية للمياه والكهرباء), and it works like this:

Who pays the bills is decided. Either a fixed amount, or the bills themselves.
If the bills pass to you, the electricity meter’s location number and the reading date are entered, Ejar checks whether the electricity bills can be transferred to you, and you get a notification with the result.
If you agree to pay by meter reading, the meter’s current reading must be entered in the lease. With a fixed amount, the charge for the services is added to the lease’s total value.
If the meter is shared with other units, the landlord and tenant agree an amount paid periodically towards the bill.

The person entering these details is usually the real estate broker, and the service meter number is part of the lease data, with its accuracy the broker’s responsibility. But accepting it is up to you: you get a link by text message, and you review the lease and accept it with a verification code. So before you enter the code, review the lease details and check the meter number, the reading and how electricity and water will be paid. If both parties haven’t documented the lease within 7 days, it goes back to the broker as a draft.

Moving the Electricity Meter Into Your Name With SEC

What people search for as “transferring ownership of the electricity meter” is, for a tenant, registering yourself as the meter’s actual beneficiary. The Saudi Electricity Company (its website now calls it “Saudi Energy”) is clear about this: the tenant is responsible for declaring the meter while the lease is active, because they are the one using it, and the owner counts as a non-beneficiary. And meter declaration is mandatory to keep the service running and to use all of its services.

How to Transfer the Electricity Meter to the Tenant

These are the steps as the meter declaration page publishes them:

Log in to the Saudi Electricity Company’s website or app. You need an account, and you don’t need to visit a customer service office.
Under “My Services”, choose “Account Management”.
Submit an “Add Account” request to declare the meter.
Enter the details of the account you want to declare.
Choose the type of beneficiary: tenant.
Agree to the Consumption Agreement and submit the request.

There’s a related service called “Add Beneficiary”, in the same “Account Management” menu, where you pick the start date from which you take responsibility for the account and agree to the Consumption Agreement.

How do you know the meter is declared? A meter counts as declared if its account number begins with “300”. If the actual beneficiary changes, it has to be declared again.

What the Landlord Does, and What Happens Automatically

Old bills aren’t yours. SEC states that tenants are not responsible for any previous electricity bills on the meter linked to the lease.
A shared meter is the owner’s. If the meter is shared between you and the owner, the owner is responsible for declaring it as its primary beneficiary.
At the end of the lease it goes back to the owner. When the lease ends or is terminated, the meter is transferred to the owner’s name, and responsibility passes back to them once you leave.
If you get alerts about a meter that isn’t yours, you can choose “Account not mine” on the website or app.

The Unit Handover Form on Ejar

Ejar has a receiving and handover service (in Arabic): electronic forms that record the condition of the home on the day you take it over and the day you hand it back, linked to your documented lease on Ejar. The parties fill them in and agree them within seven days at the start and at the end of the lease. The service is free, and for now it covers residential leases only.

How to Fill In the Move-In Form

As described on the service page and its guide (both in Arabic):

Log in to your Ejar account, or open the link you get by text message at the start of the lease.
Fill in the move-in form. If you answer “no” to any item, you can write notes and attach photos showing the unit’s condition.
The other party can open the form and read your notes once you’ve filled it in.
The property’s condition is recorded in the lease.

Don’t let the seven days pass. The time allowed to fill in the form is 7 days, and if it runs out before you fill it in, that counts as implicit acceptance that the unit is in good condition. Any scratch or leak you didn’t record will be hard to prove later as being there before you.

What to Record on Move-In Day

Ejar defines inspecting the unit as the tenant standing in the rented property in person or through an agent, seeing its description and contents, and accepting them. So take your time, and before you unpack:

Photos: photograph every room and every defect you see, and attach the photos to the form at the item you answered “no” to.
Meter readings: photograph the electricity and water meters and their readings. If your lease is billed by meter reading, compare them with the reading in the lease.
Keys: write down how many keys, access cards and remotes you received.
Defects: leaks, appliances that don’t work, walls and floors, the air conditioners. Put everything in the form’s notes, not only in WhatsApp.

Your Security Deposit and the Handover Form

If your lease includes a security deposit, it is held from your Ejar wallet when the lease is documented (in Arabic), and Ejar keeps it until you hand the home back. At the end of the lease, getting it back depends on the handover form both parties agree, and the amounts are returned automatically as available balance in each party’s e-wallet.

This is why the move-in form matters: if you agree there’s no damage, or agree on the cost of the damage, you get the deposit back in full, or what’s left after the agreed amount is deducted. If you disagree at handover, an expert is brought in to assess the damage, and the amount is refunded based on that assessment. A move-in form full of photos is the strongest thing you’ll have at that point.

What a landlord may deduct, and how to escalate if your deposit is held back, is in our guide to security deposits.

Water

The same Ejar step above covers water and electricity, so how you pay for water (a fixed amount or the bills, or an agreed amount if the meter is shared) is set in your lease. Ejar also says its network is linked electronically with the National Water Company, among other bodies. We didn’t find published Ejar steps for the water account itself, so ask the landlord or broker how water will be billed before you accept the lease.

The Short Checklist

Before you enter the verification code: check the electricity meter number, the reading, and how electricity and water will be paid, in the lease details.
Accept the lease within 7 days of getting the link.
Declare the electricity meter in your name on the Saudi Electricity Company’s website or app, and check that the account number begins with 300.
On move-in day: photograph the home and the meters, and write down the keys and the defects.
Fill in Ejar’s move-in form within 7 days, with the photos attached.
Keep a copy of everything until handover day.

If this is your first home on your own, see our guide to living alone for the first time too.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I move the electricity meter into my name as a tenant? On the Saudi Electricity Company’s website or app: “Account Management” → “Add Account”, choose tenant as the beneficiary type and agree to the Consumption Agreement. The tenant is responsible for declaring the meter while the lease is active.

Does the Ejar lease need the electricity meter number? Yes. The Saudi Electricity Company says the electricity meter number must be included when the lease is documented, and Ejar makes recording the meter details mandatory (in Arabic) while the lease is registered.

Do I pay electricity bills left on the meter from before I moved in? No. Tenants are not responsible for previous electricity bills linked to the lease.

Where do I find the unit handover form? In your Ejar account, or through the link you get by text message at the start of the lease, under the receiving and handover service (in Arabic). The service is free.

What happens if I don’t fill in the move-in form? After 7 days, it counts as implicit acceptance that the unit is in good condition (in Arabic).

Ejari is a REGA-licensed platform that lets you pay your rent in monthly instalments. See how Ejari works.