Glossary
Taxes & Insurance
Special Assessment
A one-time tax levy a local government charges against a property to fund a specific public improvement, such as a new road or sewer line, separate from the regular annual property tax bill. Many commercial leases define real estate tax narrowly enough to exclude special assessments from CAM.
Firm impact
A special assessment folded into the general tax pass-through inflates a client's CAM bill with a charge many leases never authorized. Because assessments are billed alongside the regular tax bill, this pattern is easy for a landlord to miss disclosing and easy for a firm to catch by requesting the actual tax bill.
How this gets abused
A city levies a $180,000 special assessment against a shopping center to fund a new stormwater system. The landlord passes the full assessment through the general real estate tax line on the CAM reconciliation, even though the lease's tax definition explicitly excludes special assessments and improvement district levies.
Practitioner note
Request the actual property tax bill, not just the reconciliation summary. Special assessments usually appear as a separate line on the bill itself, even when they land in a single combined line in the CAM statement. Compare that separate charge against the lease's tax exclusions before accepting it as recoverable.
Related terms
FAQ
Questions about special assessment
Is a special assessment the same as a regular property tax increase?
No. A special assessment funds a specific, defined improvement and is billed separately from the regular ad valorem property tax, even though both may appear on the same tax bill.
Does CAMAudit flag special assessments passed through CAM?
Yes. CAMAudit's Tax Overallocation rule reviews the tax line items in a reconciliation against the lease's tax definition and flags charges, including special assessments, that fall outside what the lease's tax pass-through permits.
You know the term. Now check the math.
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