As far as I know.. (and I'm ready to be corrected by others knowing better..).

For  the electricity  you can make an appoinment with the SIG to bre present when the man comes and  reads the meter. The meter is usually located in  the basement in a locked room. 

For the water, not sure about that as i believe that in the vast majority of rented flats it is mostly collective with the other tenents -as with the central heating - and the cost divided. 

Thank you for the info. What happens in the case if a person living in an appartment uses excessive amount of water? Is it still shared between all persons leaving in a buiding or there is a penalty fee for that person?

Don't really know.  The charges for elecricity and central heating are fixed per month for the majority of appartments, except i think for some older flats where you pay for the fuel for the central heating in your appartment. In that case however, you would know the situation regarding that kind of payment as it would have been explained to you and stated in your contract at the beginning of the tenancy.

Again as far as I now,  in collective appartments it is independant of the amount you use. At least at the moment.

For the electricity, your have a personal electricity meter for your flat and this personal use of electricity is supposedly calculated each month. It could be however that some of the readings are approximated during the year based on what they believe to be your 'usual amount used in a month'  and then at the end of the year the total adjusted. I know this has been done with me, and I think it might even be explained on the bill, but haven't got one handy right now to check that.

For more info best to phone the SIG to ask for more details, or make an appoimtemt for when he next comes to the building.

..' make an appointment' that was supposed to read..

Pity still no edit button..

For water usage in a rented apartment it's the landlord who pays . . . let it pour !

it is not like in Eastern Europe where they measure every m3 of water. So usually there is no meter per appartment for the water. So how would anyone be penalized? Based on what?

OK, so I see that the only thing that is mesured per appartment is electricity. Thanks you all for your responses.

Of course if you have a gas cooker you have a gas meter too that is read by the SIG

I also got a repsponse from SIG regarding reading an electricity meter:

Merci pour votre question et bravo pour l’intérêt que vous portez à votre consommation, c’est important. 

Pour suivre sa consommation d'électricité, il est nécessaire d’avoir accès à son compteur. 
En appartement, vous le trouverez dans le hall d’entrée, l’armoire technique sur le palier ou le local technique au sous-sol. 

Si vous y avez accès, je vous conseille de vous inscrire à Activéco habitat. C’est un service en ligne gratuit qui vous permettra de suivre vos consommations et, si vous le souhaitez, d’être facturé en fonction de votre consommation réelle. 

Si vous souhaitez plus d’informations, voici le lien : http://bit.ly/1Mc3N5m

Je reste à votre disposition si besoin et vous souhaite une belle journée.