Guide
CAM Charges: What You Pay for Beyond the Rent
Common area maintenance is the third net in a triple-net lease and the charge tenants most often misjudge. It is billed monthly as an estimate per square foot and reconciled once a year against what the landlord actually spent, and a lease that defines it loosely can add a quarter to the rent.
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What CAM Usually Covers
Parking lot and sidewalk upkeep, landscaping, exterior lighting, common-area utilities and cleaning, security, trash, signage, and a management or administrative fee on top of the rest. Shopping centers add the costs of the center's common areas; office buildings add lobbies, elevators and restrooms. Taxes and insurance are usually billed separately as the other two nets.
Estimates and Reconciliation
The landlord estimates the year's CAM per square foot and bills a twelfth of it each month. After the year ends it totals the actual costs, allocates each tenant its proportionate share (its square feet over the building's), and bills or credits the difference. Ask for last year's reconciliation before you sign: it shows the real figure and whether the estimate was honest.
The Clauses That Inflate CAM
Capital replacements charged as maintenance (a new roof, repaving); management fees as a percentage of all costs; gross-up of variable costs when the building is not full; the denominator excluding vacant or anchor space so the rest of the tenants pay more; and an administrative fee stacked on the management fee. Each can be negotiated out, capped or defined.
How Tenants Protect Themselves
A cap on annual increases in controllable CAM (often five percent), a list of exclusions (capital items, the landlord's own costs, leasing commissions), a definition of the denominator, the right to audit the reconciliation within a set time, and a look at the actuals before signing. A tenant representative negotiates these; a Florida real estate attorney drafts them into the lease.
Ask a Commercial Specialist
Call or text (786) 914-1017 or email sales@breakthrurealty.com. A licensed BreakThru Realty agent follows up within one business day.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How much are CAM charges per square foot in Florida?
- They vary by property: a few dollars per square foot a year in a plain industrial park, far more in a managed shopping center or an office tower. Only the building's own reconciliation tells you; ask for it.
- Can I audit my landlord's CAM?
- If the lease gives you the right, within the period it sets. Negotiate an audit right before signing; a lease without one leaves you with the landlord's figure.
- Are CAM charges negotiable?
- The definition, the exclusions, the cap and the audit right are. The actual costs are the building's. Most of the money is saved in the definitions.
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