The cost of painting, pressure washing, and maintaining the exterior surfaces of a commercial building, including walls, trim, railings, and decorative elements. Exterior painting is typically performed every 5 to 10 years and may appear as a CAM charge.
Exterior painting and facade maintenance covers surface preparation, priming, painting or staining of exterior walls, trim, railings, soffits, and fascia, as well as pressure washing of concrete, brick, and stone surfaces. The classification as operating expense versus capital expenditure depends on scope: routine touch-up painting and annual pressure washing are operating expenses, while a full building repaint or facade restoration is a capital project with a multi-year useful life that should be amortized.
A landlord repainted the entire building exterior at a cost of $145,000 and passed the full amount through as a single-year CAM expense under "exterior maintenance." The repaint had an expected useful life of 8 years. By not amortizing the cost, tenants in that single year absorbed what should have been spread over 8 years of occupancy.
A full building exterior repaint should be amortized over its useful life, not charged in one year. If you see a large exterior maintenance charge, request invoices to determine whether it was a full repaint or routine touch-up work. Only routine maintenance should be a single-year expense.
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