I cannot seem to find any mention of utility bills e.t.c on the forum and wondered if they are included typically in the rental on homegate.ch and are these the additional charges?

In my case water and heating are included (but usually i pay a bit extra once per year). Electricity is always extra

Depends on your agreement - some contracts specify what is included in the Nebenkosten ( search this term on the forum for more threads ) aka NBK.

Swiss law on Extra Nebenkosten Scam

The answer to your question is not a yes or no. It depends on the type of property you are renting. If it is an apartment, it is very likely you will be billed separately for your personal use of water and electricity, but this is not always the case. The "nebenkonston" that are referred to in the ad generally apply to heating and your share fo maintenance and running costs for the common areas of the building.

As Mrs. Doolittle says above the electricity included is for common areas of building-the washing machines, lighting etc. and not your own appartment. You need to budget for extra heating and water charges once a year, if the nebenkosten were charged too low all year or if the price of oil goes up, for example.
Then you will have your own electricity, tv license, telephone and internet etc. all the usual things to budget for, separately. Every rental agreement is a bit different.

You just have to ask the landlord. They all vary.

Our heating & gas is included in our rent...electricity is not. We get free cable too which is nice.

I just realized Allgemeinstrom (general electricity) did not mean electricity usage in the apartment. It is as Mrs. Doolittle mentions power in common spaces...stairwells, etc.

Electricity for two months was only about chf50, but that is more than I was expecting (chf0.) I did get a nice lesson in a German term though...

I always thought NK was only for the "common" building expenses...in our case, heating and hot water are measured individually per apartment...still our NK is a good 200 chf +

Utilities are not ususally included in the rent unless the apartment was not meant to be leased.

they are called "nebenkosten"