A lease abstract is only as good as its coverage. Miss one field and you might overlook a $50,000 escalation clause or a termination right that changes your negotiation leverage entirely.
This checklist covers the 125+ fields that a thorough commercial lease abstraction should capture. We organized them by category so you can use this as a reference template whether you abstract leases manually or use an automated tool.
Parties and Identification (12 fields)
These fields establish who is involved and what property the lease covers.
- Landlord legal name
- Landlord contact information
- Tenant legal name
- Tenant contact information
- Guarantor name(s)
- Guarantor contact information
- Property name
- Property address
- Suite/unit number
- Lease execution date
- Lease document type (original, amendment, renewal)
- Amendment history summary
Premises Details (8 fields)
Physical space measurements and descriptions that affect everything from rent calculations to CAM allocations.
- Rentable square footage
- Usable square footage
- Common area factor (load factor)
- Floor(s) occupied
- Permitted use
- Exclusive use provisions
- Parking spaces allocated
- Storage space included
Lease Term and Critical Dates (11 fields)
The timeline fields that drive every deadline in your property management system.
- Lease commencement date
- Rent commencement date
- Lease expiration date
- Original lease term (months)
- Early occupancy provisions
- Renewal option count
- Renewal option term lengths
- Renewal notice deadline
- Termination option details
- Termination notice deadline
- Holdover provisions and rate
Base Rent Schedule (9 fields)
The core financial terms that determine what the tenant pays each month.
- Initial base rent (annual, per SF)
- Initial base rent (monthly)
- Rent escalation type (fixed, CPI, market)
- Fixed escalation percentage/amount
- CPI escalation formula and cap
- Market rent adjustment mechanism
- Abated rent periods (free rent)
- Abated rent amount/duration
- Percentage rent trigger and rate
Operating Expenses and CAM (14 fields)
The section most likely to contain errors and disputes. Capture every detail.
- Lease structure (NNN, gross, modified gross)
- Operating expense base year
- Operating expense stop amount
- Tenant's pro rata share percentage
- CAM included expenses list
- CAM excluded expenses list
- Controllable expense cap
- Management fee percentage
- Management fee cap
- Capital expenditure treatment
- Capital expenditure amortization schedule
- Utility responsibility (landlord vs. tenant)
- Janitorial responsibility
- Property tax responsibility
Insurance Requirements (7 fields)
Coverage minimums the tenant must maintain and evidence regularly.
- General liability minimum
- Property/contents insurance minimum
- Business interruption coverage requirement
- Professional liability requirement
- Workers compensation requirement
- Additional insured endorsement required
- Certificate delivery deadline
Tenant Improvements (6 fields)
Buildout terms that affect both the tenant's upfront costs and ongoing obligations.
- TI allowance amount (total)
- TI allowance per SF
- TI delivery timeline
- TI construction responsibility
- Excess TI cost responsibility
- Restoration/surrender requirements
Security and Guarantees (6 fields)
Financial protections for the landlord that directly affect the tenant's risk.
- Security deposit amount
- Security deposit form (cash, LOC, bond)
- Security deposit reduction schedule
- Personal guarantee scope
- Personal guarantee cap amount
- Personal guarantee burn-off schedule
Assignment and Subletting (5 fields)
Transfer rights that affect the tenant's flexibility and exit options.
- Assignment consent requirement
- Subletting consent requirement
- Landlord recapture right
- Profit sharing on assignment/sublease
- Permitted transfers (affiliates, successors)
Maintenance and Repairs (5 fields)
Responsibility allocation that drives ongoing operating costs.
- Tenant maintenance obligations
- Landlord maintenance obligations
- HVAC maintenance responsibility
- Structural repair responsibility
- Roof and exterior wall responsibility
Defaults and Remedies (5 fields)
What happens when things go wrong. These fields drive legal strategy.
- Monetary default cure period
- Non-monetary default cure period
- Landlord termination triggers
- Tenant termination triggers
- Late payment penalty/interest rate
Special Provisions (11 fields)
The clauses that differentiate one lease from another and often hold the most value.
- Right of first refusal (adjacent space)
- Right of first offer (adjacent space)
- Expansion option details
- Contraction option details
- Co-tenancy clause
- Exclusive use clause scope
- Signage rights
- Rooftop rights (antenna, equipment)
- Building naming rights
- Audit rights for operating expenses
- Subordination, non-disturbance, and attornment (SNDA)
Using This Checklist
Print this list and compare it to your current abstraction template. If your template is missing fields, you have blind spots in your lease data.
For teams processing more than a handful of leases per month, manual extraction of all 125+ fields is a significant time investment. That is exactly the use case where automated extraction tools pay for themselves: they capture every field on every lease, every time, without the fatigue factor that causes human abstractors to skip "less important" fields on lease number 30 of a 50-lease project.
Whatever method you use, completeness matters. A lease abstract that covers 80% of the fields gives you 80% visibility into your obligations. The 20% you miss is where the surprises live.