5 Ways Landlords Overcharge CAM — and How to Catch Them
Common Area Maintenance (CAM) is the operating-cost passthrough every commercial tenant pays on top of base rent. It's also the single biggest source of landlord–tenant billing disputes — one industry analysis (Tango Analytics, 2023) found material errors in roughly 40% of commercial reconciliations. The catch: the bill comes from the landlord's own accounting team, and most tenants never check it. Here are the five patterns that show up most often.
1. A management fee that isn't in your lease
Landlords who self-manage often add an "industry-standard" management fee — or stack an administrative fee on top of a management fee — that the lease never authorized. How to spot it: find the management-fee cap in your lease, then check the percentage actually billed. No cap language at all? That's a flag.
2. Capital expenses disguised as operating costs
A new roof, repaving, restriping, or structural repair is a capital improvement — not routine maintenance — yet it often lands in CAM. How to spot it: look for large one-time line items (roof, parking lot, HVAC replacement) bundled into operating expense.
3. Your share calculated off an inflated building size
Your pro-rata share equals your space divided by the building's total square footage. If the landlord understates the building size, your percentage — and your bill — goes up. How to spot it: compare the building square footage on your statement against the county assessor's recorded figure. This outside cross-check is exactly what most lease tools miss.
4. Paying for vacant space that isn't yours
Maintenance and utilities for unoccupied units shouldn't be spread across paying tenants. How to spot it: a fixed-cost category that rose while occupancy fell is worth questioning — this is the "gross-up" issue.
5. An unexplained jump at reconciliation — with no backup
Your estimated CAM is "trued up" against actual costs once a year. When actual comes in far above estimate with no explanation, that's the moment to ask for documentation. How to spot it: compare this year's reconciliation line-by-line against last year's, and flag any category that jumped sharply.
You don't need a $3,000–$15,000 professional review to find out whether something's off. Start with the numbers you already have.
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Informational only; not legal advice and not an audit or attest service. ReCAM is not a CPA firm and these services are not regulated by the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy. © ReCAM Technologies LLC.