Your lease does not specify any exclusions from CAM charges, allowing the landlord to pass through virtually any expense as a common area maintenance cost. Without exclusions, capital improvements, legal fees, leasing commissions, and other non-recurring costs can be billed to tenants.
By Angel Campa, Founder · Updated March 2026
Flagged when the CAM exclusions list is an empty array, indicating no expense categories are excluded from pass-through charges.
Without CAM exclusions, landlords have included expenses such as roof replacements ($150,000+), parking lot repaving ($80,000+), leasing commissions for other tenants ($50,000+), and even legal fees from disputes with other tenants. A 10,000 RSF tenant with a 10% pro-rata share could be charged $15,000 for a single roof replacement they had no say in. Over a 10-year lease term, missing exclusions can result in $30,000 to $75,000 in unexpected pass-through charges that would be excluded under a well-drafted lease.
Insist on a comprehensive list of CAM exclusions. Standard exclusions include capital expenditures over a specified threshold, landlord's leasing commissions and marketing costs, legal fees from disputes with other tenants, depreciation and amortization, executive salaries above property manager level, costs reimbursed by insurance proceeds, and costs attributable to other tenants' specific needs. Negotiate that any expense category not specifically listed as includable in operating expenses is automatically excluded.
Standard CAM exclusions include capital expenditures, leasing commissions, legal fees from landlord disputes, depreciation, above-market management salaries, insurance reimbursements, ground lease rent, income taxes, and costs benefiting only specific tenants rather than the common areas.
Without proper exclusions, yes. Well-drafted leases exclude capital expenditures entirely or amortize them over their useful life with a reasonable interest rate. A $200,000 roof replacement should be amortized over 20 years at a fair interest rate, not charged in full in the year it occurs.
Legitimate CAM charges are recurring operating expenses that benefit all tenants and the common areas. They include landscaping, janitorial services, parking lot maintenance, common area utilities, security, and property management fees at market rates. Anything unusual or non-recurring should be questioned.
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