How do I know if utilities in my building are individually metered?

Your lease and the building's utility setup determine this. If your suite has its own electric meter, gas meter, or sub-meter, those costs should be billed directly to you, not pooled in CAM. Request a copy of the utility billing arrangement from your landlord if it is not clear from your lease.

Can landlords include vacant unit utility costs in CAM?

Generally no. Utilities consumed in vacant spaces benefit neither the common areas nor the occupied tenants and should not be allocated through the CAM pool. Some leases include gross-up provisions that address this indirectly, but direct allocation of vacant-unit utility costs is not a permissible CAM charge.

What common area utilities are typically legitimate CAM charges?

Parking lot and exterior lighting, lobby and corridor lighting and HVAC, elevator power, common area water for landscaping and restrooms, and similar shared facility consumption are generally legitimate. The key is that the consumption must benefit all tenants collectively rather than specific units.

Can my landlord mark up utility costs before passing them through?

Your lease controls this. Most leases permit pass-through of actual utility costs at cost, without markup. Some landlords add administrative fees or service charges to utility pass-throughs. These charges require explicit lease authorization. A markup without lease authorization is itself an overcharge.

Classification Rule

Utility Overcharge: How CAMAudit Detects This Overcharge

If your landlord is including utility costs for individually-metered tenant spaces or non-common-area services in your CAM pool, you are subsidizing expenses that belong to specific tenants. These misallocations typically run $2,000 to $8,000 per year in multi-tenant buildings.

How CAMAudit Detects This

CAMAudit uses AI classification to evaluate utility line items in your CAM reconciliation and categorize them by consumption type: common area (eligible), individually-metered tenant spaces (not eligible), vacant space (not eligible), and landlord-specific uses such as management offices or storage units (not eligible without lease authorization).

The tool flags utility line items that do not match common area consumption characteristics, including line items referencing specific unit addresses, sub-metered tenant spaces, or consumption categories that are inconsistent with shared facility operations.

When line items are flagged, CAMAudit generates a finding that identifies the specific charge, the consumption category, and the reason it does not qualify as a shared common area expense. The finding includes the documentation request language you need to obtain the utility bills and sub-metering records under your audit rights clause.

Real-World Example

A CAM reconciliation showed $22,000 in utility charges for "building services." The backup documentation revealed $14,400 for parking lot lighting and exterior common area power (appropriate), $4,200 for utilities in Suites 200 and 205 (individually metered tenant spaces), and $3,400 for the landlord's property management office space. CAMAudit flagged $7,600 as non-common-area utility charges that should not appear in the shared CAM pool.

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Utility Overcharge: How CAMAudit Detects This Overcharge

How CAMAudit Detects This

Real-World Example

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Upload your lease. CAMAudit runs 13 detection rules in under 5 minutes.

Find My Overcharges

See a sample report first

Frequently asked questions

Free scan · No account required

Find overcharges in your CAM reconciliation. Most audits complete in under 5 minutes.

Find My Overcharges See a sample report first