Glossary
Legal & Compliance
Lookback Period
The number of prior lease years a tenant can audit or dispute under the lease terms and applicable statute of limitations. The lookback period determines how far back an overcharge recovery can extend.
Firm impact
The lookback period defines the total dollar scope of a multi-year engagement. A client with four auditable prior years and a $20,000 annual overcharge represents an $80,000 gross recovery opportunity. Firms that run year-by-year audits within the lookback window maximize recovery per client.
How this gets abused
A tenant discovered systematic overcharges going back seven years. Their lease limited audits to 'the immediately preceding lease year.' Despite a six-year state statute of limitations, the tenant recovered only one year of overcharges.
Practitioner note
The lookback period is the shorter of what the lease permits and what the state statute of limitations allows for written contract claims. Most leases allow 1 to 3 years. Most states allow 3 to 6 years. Run audits every year on time to preserve the full rolling window.
FAQ
Questions about lookback period
How many years back can a client audit CAM charges?
It depends on two things: what the lease allows and the state's statute of limitations for written contracts. Most leases allow 1 to 3 years; most states allow 3 to 6 years. The shorter of the two governs.
Can CAMAudit audit multiple years of reconciliations at once?
Yes. Audit pack credits cover multi-year work. Each audit checks one year of CAM charges. That lets your firm work through prior years before the window closes.
You know the term. Now check the math.
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