LEASE AUDIT
Lease audit: check every charge against the lease
A lease audit checks what a landlord actually billed against what the lease actually allows: the base year, the pro-rata share, the CAM cap, the gross-up method, and the exclusions. Most overcharges hide in the gap between the reconciliation statement and the lease language nobody re-reads. Leaseabstracts abstracts the recovery terms from the lease itself, source-linked to the clause, so you can audit a CAM or operating-expense bill line by line.
Last updated July 2026
THE PROBLEM
Built for tenants, lease auditors, and tenant-rep advisors recovering overcharges
Lease auditors spend hours re-reading each lease to find the base year, the gross-up method, the cap, and the exclusions before they can even start checking the landlord's math. The overcharge is often real; the bottleneck is reading the lease.
Pull every recovery term
Base year, pro-rata share, CAM caps, gross-up method, exclusions, and the audit-rights window, all extracted from the lease so you know what the landlord can and cannot pass through.
Source-linked, so it holds up
Every extracted term points to the exact page and clause, so when you challenge a charge you can put the lease language on the table next to the bill.
Audit the whole portfolio faster
Abstract every lease into one consistent format and check each annual reconciliation against it, instead of re-reading leases one at a time.
What a lease audit is
A lease audit is a review of the charges a landlord bills a tenant, typically the annual CAM or operating-expense reconciliation, to confirm they match what the lease permits. It is a tenant-side exercise: the goal is to find and recover overcharges, and to correct the billing method going forward.
Overcharges are common and rarely deliberate. A landlord grosses up occupancy incorrectly, passes through a capital expense the lease excludes, ignores a negotiated cap, or uses the wrong base year. Each error is small on its own and large across a five-year term, which is why sophisticated tenants audit every reconciliation instead of paying it.
What lease auditors check
A lease audit follows the recovery clauses. These are the terms an auditor pulls from the lease before touching the landlord's statement:
| Term | What the audit checks |
|---|---|
| Base year | Whether expenses are measured from the correct base, and grossed up consistently |
| Pro-rata share | Whether the tenant's percentage matches leased area over the right denominator |
| CAM cap | Whether controllable expenses respect the negotiated annual or cumulative cap |
| Exclusions | Whether capital items, ownership costs, and other excluded categories were billed anyway |
| Gross-up | Whether variable costs were grossed up to the lease-specified occupancy, usually 95 to 100 percent |
| Audit rights | The window and process the lease grants the tenant to demand backup and dispute |
The full method is in our CAM reconciliation guide. The point of abstraction is to get these six terms out of the lease accurately before the clock on your audit-rights window runs.
How to run a lease audit from the lease up
The reliable order of operations:
- Abstract the recovery terms from the current lease and every amendment, source-linked to the clause.
- Request the backup for the reconciliation: the general ledger detail behind each expense category.
- Test each category against the lease: is it includable, correctly allocated, and within the cap?
- Recompute the pro-rata share and gross-up and compare to what was billed.
- Document the variance with the lease clause beside the billed figure, and file the claim inside the audit-rights window.
Tenants who track this alongside their lease obligations catch overcharges the year they happen, when the backup is still available and the deadline has not passed.
Do you have the right to audit? Check the lease first
Most commercial leases grant the tenant an express right to audit operating-expense billings, but they hedge it: a short window to object after the statement arrives, a requirement to use a non-contingent auditor, a duty of confidentiality, and sometimes a threshold that shifts the audit cost to the landlord if the error exceeds a set percentage. Miss the window and the year's charges become final. Abstracting the audit-rights clause tells you the deadline and the process before you commit to the work, which is the first thing any lease auditor confirms.
WHAT WE EXTRACT
Every lease term, source-linked
FAQ
Common questions
What is a lease audit?
A lease audit is a tenant-side review of the charges a landlord bills, usually the annual CAM or operating-expense reconciliation, to confirm they match what the lease allows. It checks the base year, pro-rata share, caps, gross-up, and exclusions against the lease language, and recovers any overcharge.
What do lease auditors do?
Lease auditors read the lease to establish what the landlord can pass through, request the ledger backup for the reconciliation, and test each expense against the lease terms. They recompute the pro-rata share and gross-up, document any variance with the supporting clause, and file the claim within the tenant's audit-rights window.
How do you audit CAM charges?
Start from the lease: pull the base year, pro-rata share, cap, gross-up method, and exclusions. Request the expense backup, then test each category for whether it is includable, correctly allocated, and within the cap. Recompute the share and gross-up, and compare the result to what was billed.
Can a tenant audit the landlord's operating expenses?
Usually yes. Most commercial leases grant an express audit right, but with conditions: a limited window to object after the statement, a qualified non-contingent auditor, and confidentiality. The clause also sets the process, so abstract it early to know the deadline before the year's charges become final.
Lease audit: check every charge against the lease
Upload a lease, review a source-linked abstract, and export to a spreadsheet you own.