When National Lease Advisors first onboards a lease administration client, we use it as a great opportunity to audit leases and uncover errors by landlords. When recently onboarding a national law firm client, we discovered an alarming issue. The firm had been charged in excess of $800,000 over the past decade due to a critical error in billing by their landlord!
As part of our standard onboarding process, we undertook a detailed examination of the law firm’s lease agreements and billing history. It was during this audit that we discovered a significant discrepancy. The law firm had been billed for Common Area Maintenance (CAM) costs on a triple net (NNN) basis, while their lease agreement specified a base year CAM structure. The billing error was also supported by the buildings rental rate being well below what the client was paying.
Armed with the necessary evidence, we opened a dialogue with the client and landlord to rectify this error. This required careful negotiation, as we had to balance the need for a swift resolution with maintaining the law firm’s relationship with their landlord.
This result demonstrates the critical importance of thorough lease administration and regular audits. Our professional approach allowed us to uncover a significant billing error and the experience has also reinforced the importance of clear communication and professionalism when resolving such discrepancies.