Charges passed through to tenants for the upkeep of shared building areas - parking lots, lobbies, landscaping, lighting, and other spaces accessible to all occupants. CAM is billed monthly as an estimate and reconciled annually against actual costs.
CAM is defined in the lease as a subset of operating expenses attributable to maintaining common areas. The precise scope - which expenses are included or excluded - is a matter of lease language, not statutory definition. Disputes arise when landlords include expenses the lease explicitly excludes or allocate costs using a denominator that understates occupancy.
Landlords routinely include capital expenditures (roof replacement, HVAC upgrades), management fees exceeding the lease cap, and above-grade salaries in the CAM pool. The tenant sees one line item ('CAM: $42,000') with no breakdown.
Request a detailed CAM expense breakdown every year - not just the reconciliation statement. Compare each line item against your lease's CAM definition and exclusions list. If you need to pull those definitions from your lease PDF before you start, lextract.io extracts CAM definitions, exclusion lists, and 124 other structured fields automatically.
Worried about cam (common area maintenance) in your lease?
Need to extract lease terms before your audit?
A CAM audit is only as accurate as your lease data. lextract.io extracts 126 structured fields from any commercial lease PDF: CAM definitions, pro-rata share, caps, base year, and audit rights. So you have the exact terms your landlord is supposed to follow.
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Find My OverchargesThis page provides general educational information. It is not legal advice and may not reflect the most current law in your state. Consult a licensed attorney for advice specific to your situation.
