The date the legal term of the lease officially begins.
By Angel Campa, Founder · Updated March 2026
The commencement date is the anchor for calculating the expiration date, renewal deadlines, and every date-dependent obligation in the lease. If the commencement date is contingent on landlord delivery and gets delayed, it can cascade into delayed rent commencement, shortened free rent periods, and disrupted business opening timelines. Missing this date during abstraction undermines the entire critical date calendar.
Defined in the "Term" section of the lease, usually within the first 5 pages. If contingent on delivery, look for a "Commencement Date Confirmation Letter" exhibit that memorializes the actual date after the conditions are met.
Lextract uses a combination of AWS Textract OCR and Claude AI to identify and extract the commencement date 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.
Execution Date
The date the lease agreement was fully signed by all parties.
Rent Commencement
The date the tenant is legally obligated to begin paying base rent.
Expiration Date
The date the lease term naturally concludes without renewal.
Lease Term (Months)
The total duration of the initial lease term expressed in months.
Possession Date
The date the landlord grants the tenant physical access to the space.
Free Rent Period
The duration during which the tenant is excused from paying base rent.
The commencement date can be a fixed calendar date, or it can be triggered by an event like the landlord delivering the premises in "tenant-ready" condition. Some leases tie it to the earlier of the tenant opening for business or a specified date.
It is a document signed by both parties after the actual commencement date is determined, memorializing the official start date, rent commencement date, and expiration date. It is especially important when the commencement date was contingent on construction completion.
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