Glossary
Expenses & Charges
Administrative Fee
A separate line item some landlords bill for general administrative work on the CAM pool, such as processing invoices and preparing statements, apart from the management fee for day-to-day building operations. Some leases fold administrative costs into the same capped bucket as the management fee; others allow a separate charge only if the lease names it.
Firm impact
When a lease caps "management and administrative fees" as one number, a landlord who bills both fees separately can push a client past the ceiling the lease actually allows. Checking whether the administrative fee sits inside or outside the management fee cap is a fast, repeatable test your team can run on every reconciliation.
How this gets abused
A lease caps management fees at 4% of CAM costs with no separate mention of an administrative fee. The landlord bills the 4% management fee, then adds a 2% administrative fee as its own line item, as if the cap only applied to the first charge. On a $500,000 CAM pool, that second fee adds $10,000 the lease never approved.
Practitioner note
Read the fee-cap clause word for word before accepting an administrative fee as a separate charge. If the lease defines "management fee" broadly enough to sweep in administrative costs, or caps all fees for management and administration together, a separately billed administrative fee is likely a stacking violation.
Related terms
FAQ
Questions about administrative fee
Is an administrative fee the same as a management fee?
No. A management fee covers day-to-day building operations. An administrative fee is billed for the paperwork side, like preparing statements and processing invoices. Whether a lease allows both depends on how the fee-cap language is written.
Does CAMAudit catch a stacked administrative fee?
Yes. CAMAudit's management fee rule checks the total fees billed against the fee cap and fee base the lease specifies, so a separately billed administrative fee that pushes the total over the cap gets flagged with the exact dollar overcharge.
You know the term. Now check the math.
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