Indicates whether the tenant possesses the legal right to audit the landlord's CAM ledgers.
By Angel Campa, Founder · Updated March 2026
CAM audits routinely uncover overcharges of 5-15% of total operating expenses. On a $100,000 annual CAM bill, that is $5,000 to $15,000 per year in recoverable overpayments. Without contractual audit rights, the tenant must file a lawsuit to access the landlord's books, making verification practically impossible. This single field can be worth tens of thousands of dollars over the lease term.
Found in the "Operating Expenses," "CAM," or "Audit" section. Look for specific language about the tenant's right to "inspect," "audit," or "examine" the landlord's books and records. The clause should specify the audit window, who can perform the audit, and the landlord's obligations if errors are found.
Lextract uses a combination of AWS Textract OCR and Claude AI to identify and extract the audit rights from your lease PDF. The AI searches for all pages of the document, then assigns a confidence score based on OCR quality and extraction certainty. Fields with lower confidence are flagged for human review.
Lextract automatically checks this field against its 15-rule red flag engine. Issues detected for audit rights:
Lease Structure
The categorization of expense sharing.
Pro Rata Share
The tenant's fractional responsibility for total building operating expenses.
Base Year
The foundational year used to calculate operating expense increases in gross leases.
CAM Cap %
The maximum allowable annual increase for controllable operating expenses.
CAM Cap Type
Specifies whether the CAM cap is cumulative and compounding or non-cumulative.
Gross-Up %
The assumed occupancy level used to extrapolate variable operating expenses.
Industry studies consistently show that 60-80% of CAM audits identify overcharges, with average recoveries of 5-10% of total operating expenses. Common errors include improper capital expense pass-throughs, management fee overcharges, and miscalculated pro rata shares.
Many leases prohibit contingency-fee auditors (who take a percentage of recoveries) because landlords believe they incentivize aggressive findings. Tenants should negotiate the right to use any certified public accountant and push back on overly restrictive auditor qualifications.
The landlord must typically refund the overpayment within 30 days, sometimes with interest. If the overcharge exceeds a threshold (commonly 3-5% of total charges), the landlord may also be required to reimburse the tenant's audit costs.
A practical guide to CAM reconciliation for commercial tenants and property managers. Covers audit rights, common overcharges, and dispute resolution.
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