Client Asks If Their CAM Charges Are Right: How Do I Check?
Your client is a commercial tenant. They received an annual CAM reconciliation from their landlord and the true-up is larger than expected. They want to know if they are being overcharged. They are asking you because you do their books.
CAM audit work is not typical accounting engagement territory, but the analytical skills transfer directly. Here is how to do a useful 10-minute first-pass assessment and when you need to go deeper.
What to look for in 10 minutes
These three checks will tell you whether the reconciliation deserves more scrutiny before you spend additional time on it.
Check the management fee percentage. Find the management fee line in the reconciliation. Calculate it as a percentage of total gross CAM expenses. Compare that to what the lease allows. Most commercial leases cap the management fee at 3% to 5% of gross operating expenses. If the fee is above the cap, or if it is applied to a base the lease does not authorize, that is a finding.
Check the year-over-year variance. Ask for last year's reconciliation if the client has it. Compare total CAM charges year over year, line by line. An overall increase of 3% to 8% in a stable year is typical. Specific line items that jumped 50% to 100% without explanation warrant documentation requests.
Check the pro-rata share percentage. Find the pro-rata share percentage used in the calculation. Verify it against the lease's pro-rata definition. Most leases define it as the client's leased square footage divided by total leasable square footage of the property. If the denominator seems low relative to what you know about the property, the percentage may be inflated.
These three checks can be done in 10 minutes with the reconciliation statement and the lease's key CAM provisions. If all three look clean, the reconciliation is probably in order. If any one of them looks off, it is worth going deeper.
Documents to request from the client
For a proper first-pass review, you need:
The lease. Specifically pull these sections: the CAM definition and exclusions clause, the pro-rata share definition, the management fee terms, and the audit rights clause. These four sections control everything you can challenge.
The reconciliation statement. The version the landlord sent. If it is a single-page summary without line-item detail, the client should request the full expense ledger.
Prior year reconciliation (if available). Year-over-year comparison is the fastest way to identify anomalies.
Paid estimates. A record of the monthly estimated CAM payments the client made during the year. This lets you verify the net balance calculation independently.
When the charge is clearly wrong versus needs deeper analysis
Clearly wrong situations are mechanical errors you can identify without industry expertise:
- Management fee exceeds the lease-stated cap
- Pro-rata share percentage does not match the square footage calculation in the lease
- The net balance calculation is arithmetically incorrect (gross charges minus paid estimates does not equal the balance due)
- A line item appears for a cost explicitly excluded in the CAM exclusions clause
These are documentable findings. You can identify them, calculate the corrected amount, and support a written dispute.
Needs deeper analysis situations require CAM-specific expertise:
- Capital expenditure misclassification: determining whether a specific line item (parking lot work, HVAC repair, roof work) constitutes a capital improvement or routine maintenance under the lease and general accounting standards
- Gross-up calculations: verifying whether the landlord's gross-up of variable expenses for occupancy is mathematically correct and lease-compliant
- CAM cap violations: if the lease includes an annual CAM increase cap (e.g., a 5% cumulative cap on controllable expenses), verifying compliance requires multi-year analysis and an understanding of which expense categories are controllable versus non-controllable
- Base year calculations in gross leases: if the lease is structured on a base year model, verifying the base year expense total is correct
For the deeper analysis, the question is whether the engagement economics justify your time. A $5,000 dispute does not necessarily support a $3,000 accounting fee. A $30,000 dispute probably does.
How to refer a client to CAMAudit for the forensic layer
If the client's dispute warrants systematic analysis across all the standard detection categories, and the engagement economics do not support your direct time investment, CAMAudit handles the forensic layer efficiently.
The client uploads their lease and reconciliation statement. The tool runs 14 detection checks covering the most common CAM overcharge categories, including management fee overcharge, CapEx misclassification, pro-rata share errors, gross-up violations, and CAM cap violations. The output is a structured finding report with specific findings tied to specific lease terms and specific dollar amounts.
I built CAMAudit to give tenants without accounting backgrounds access to this analysis. For CPAs, it is a useful tool to scope whether a dispute is worth pursuing before committing to a full audit engagement. The free scan is a reasonable starting point for most clients.
If the scan turns up findings, you have a quantified dispute basis. If it does not, the client can pay the reconciliation with confidence.
Practical note on audit windows
Remind your client: most commercial leases include an audit window of 60 to 180 days from the date the reconciliation is delivered. If that window closes without a formal dispute being filed, the client waives their challenge rights regardless of whether errors exist.
If the client came to you with a reconciliation they received recently, move quickly. The documentation request and first-pass review should happen before the window is close to expiring.
Read next: What Is a CAM Audit? | CAM Audit Rights: What Your Lease Allows | How to Read a CAM Reconciliation Statement