What is a CAM recovery audit?

A CAM recovery audit is a review of the common area maintenance charges a landlord billed you, checked against what the lease actually permits. It looks for charges the lease excludes, caps that were exceeded, allocation errors, and costs that should never have entered the pool, then builds the claim to recover them.

Does REAL only check the summary statement, or the ledger too?

Both. The summary review catches allocation and arithmetic errors. When the landlord’s general ledger and invoice detail is provided, which most leases allow you to request under the audit rights clause, REAL reconciles those line items against the statement and the lease.

How far back can we review?

As far as the documents you can supply and the lease permits. There is no fixed limit in the product. What is actually recoverable depends on the lookback period and objection window written into each lease, plus the governing law, and REAL reads those terms from the lease itself.

What kinds of errors show up most often?

Capital items billed into the operating pool, caps on controllable expenses exceeded, leasing and tenant-procurement costs recategorized as general and administrative, management fees at a rate or on a base the lease does not support, services that do not benefit your premises, gross-up applied to the wrong occupancy assumption, and pro-rata shares calculated on a denominator that was quietly reduced.

How does a reduced denominator overcharge us?

Your share is your area divided by the center’s leasable area. If space is taken out of that denominator, for instance floors withdrawn during a renovation, without your share being restated, your percentage rises and you absorb cost that is not yours. REAL checks the denominator against the rent roll each cycle.

Does REAL replace a lease audit firm?

It covers different ground. A contingency audit is a deep one-time review of selected leases in exchange for a share of the recovery. REAL runs every reconciliation every cycle and the recovery stays with you. Many teams use both, with REAL providing coverage and a firm handling a small number of contested disputes.

When is the best time to audit?

Every cycle, which is what REAL is built for. Two moments deserve extra attention: before a renewal, where past errors can be credited against future obligations, and on exit, where the final reconciliation is the last chance to correct anything.

Is our lease data secure?

REAL runs in a single tenant on your data, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified, and your data is never used to train any model.

For lease administration, property accounting, and finance teams

Audit every CAM charge, and keep every dollar you recover.

Every reconciliation checked against the lease that governs it, down to the landlord's ledger.

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Catch the charges your lease never allowed.

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Capital work billed as maintenance, caps quietly exceeded, leasing costs buried in general and administrative, a management fee at the wrong rate. Each one named with the clause that rules it out.

CAM & OpEx Audit

Michigan Ave Chicago

FY25

Disallowed expense · Capital repair

§7.4(c) excludes capital items from CAM pool

−$28,400

Cap exceeded · Controllable expenses

5% cap · invoiced at 8.4%

−$11,200

Leasing costs billed as G&A

§7.4(f) excludes tenant procurement costs

−$9,600

Management fee · rate above lease

§7.6 · 4% permitted · 5% charged

−$4,200

Claim ready · $53,400 · portfolio total this cycle: $412,000 recoverable

An AI CAM expert that audits every reconciliation, traces each overcharge to the clause, and drafts the claim that recovers it.

CAM is where the largest billing errors hide, and where the window to object closes fastest
REAL reads every reconciliation against the lease and the ledger behind it, then builds the claim before the deadline passes

CAM is where the largest billing errors hide, and where the window to object closes fastest
REAL reads every reconciliation against the lease and the ledger behind it, then builds the claim before the deadline passes

An AI CAM expert that audits every reconciliation, traces each overcharge to the clause, and drafts the claim that recovers it.

Catch the charges your lease never allowed.

Capital work billed as maintenance, caps quietly exceeded, leasing costs buried in general and administrative, a management fee at the wrong rate. Each one named with the clause that rules it out.

CAM & OpEx Audit

Michigan Ave Chicago

FY25

Disallowed expense · Capital repair

§7.4(c) excludes capital items from CAM pool

−$28,400

Cap exceeded · Controllable expenses

5% cap · invoiced at 8.4%

−$11,200

Leasing costs billed as G&A

§7.4(f) excludes tenant procurement costs

−$9,600

Management fee · rate above lease

§7.6 · 4% permitted · 5% charged

−$4,200

Claim ready · $53,400 · portfolio total this cycle: $412,000 recoverable

Go past the summary statement to the ledger behind it.

A summary review catches arithmetic. Reading the ledger catches what was actually billed and how it was categorised. When the landlord's detail is provided under your audit rights, REAL reconciles every line of it.

Ledger Review

Northgate Center

FY25

Statement pool

$2,847,000

Ledger detail reconciled

GL 6100–6480 · 1,412 line items

$2,847,000

Services not benefiting your premises

parking deck sealing · separate parcel

−$7,300

Denominator understated

Floors 4–5 offline · GLA not adjusted

−$19,800

Field-level review · ledger tied line by line

Spot the increases nobody explained.

An expense that jumps without a scope change is where a disallowed cost usually enters the pool. REAL holds every reconciliation against the years before it across your whole portfolio.

Year over Year

Northgate Center

Landscaping · +34%

no scope change on record

$41,200Flag

Snow removal · +6%

$28,900

Security · +71%

new line item · not in prior pool

$96,400Flag

Utilities · +4%

$214,000

2 unexplained increases · 4 years compared

Work inside the rights the lease already gives you.

Each lease sets its own objection window, lookback period, and records access. REAL reads those terms first, so a claim is built inside the rights you hold rather than outside them.

Audit Rights

Michigan Ave Chicago

Objection period

§7.8 · 28 days remaining

90 days

Lookback permitted

§7.9

3 prior years

Records access

§7.9(b)

GL and invoices

Claim value at risk

$53,400

Protected before deadline this cycle · $487,000

Send a claim that cites the clause and the ledger line.

Not a note saying something looks wrong. The charge, the clause it violates, the amount, and the supporting statement and ledger references assembled. Your team reviews and sends.

Recovery Claim · Draft

Michigan Ave Chicago

Charge

Capital roof replacement

Clause

capital items excluded

§7.4(c)

Amount

$28,400

Support

GL 6420 p.4

Statement line 12

Ready for review · human approval required

Carry every recovery straight to the books.

A flagged overcharge is an accounting event. The accrual books with the clause reference attached, so the close and the recovery file tell the same story.

CAM Recovery

Agent

Lease Accounting

Agent

Live context update

Recovery accrued · Michigan Ave → Lease Accounting

Auto

Variance booked with clause reference

Lease Accounting

One agent is powerful.
A suite is transformative.

Each REAL agent is an expert in its domain, built to share context and act on what the others know. The more agents work in your portfolio, the more complete each one’s view of it becomes, and the stronger every decision your team makes.

FacilitiesRight issue. Right owner. Right action.Connect asset condition, service history, contracts, work orders and site context to prevent failures and route the work that needs attention.Explore Facilities

ConstructionCatch the gap before it becomes cost.Connect drawings, standards, estimates, bids, scope, contracts and project history from first plan through final cost.Explore Construction

Portfolio StrategyRun the portfolio decision across every location.Combine economics, leases, physical feasibility, operations, market context and external constraints to rank what to do next.Explore Portfolio Strategy

Lease AccountingFrom ASC 842 to every lease-related payment.Maintain lease accounting, validate CAM and rent changes, control payments and trace every calculation back to the governing source.Explore Lease Accounting

Lease AdministrationTurn every lease term into action.Keep rights, obligations, dates, notices and recoveries current across the full lease portfolio, with the governing clause attached to every action.Explore Lease Administration

A contingency audit, or REAL.

	A contingency lease audit	With REAL
Scope	Selected leases, chosen for likely yield	Every lease, every reconciliation
Timing	An engagement, run when commissioned	Continuous, every cycle
What you keep	Recovery net of the firm's share	All of it
Turnaround	Months, including negotiation	Findings as each statement arrives
Clean statements	Not reviewed	Reviewed and confirmed clean
What you own after	A report	Abstracted lease terms that keep working

Firms that audit on contingency take a share of what they find, which means they go where the yield is and skip the rest. REAL runs the whole portfolio every cycle. Teams often keep both, using REAL for coverage and a firm for a small number of genuinely contested disputes.

FAQ

A CAM recovery audit is a review of the common area maintenance charges a landlord billed you, checked against what the lease actually permits. It looks for charges the lease excludes, caps that were exceeded, allocation errors, and costs that should never have entered the pool, then builds the claim to recover them.
Both. The summary review catches allocation and arithmetic errors. When the landlord’s general ledger and invoice detail is provided, which most leases allow you to request under the audit rights clause, REAL reconciles those line items against the statement and the lease.
As far as the documents you can supply and the lease permits. There is no fixed limit in the product. What is actually recoverable depends on the lookback period and objection window written into each lease, plus the governing law, and REAL reads those terms from the lease itself.
Capital items billed into the operating pool, caps on controllable expenses exceeded, leasing and tenant-procurement costs recategorized as general and administrative, management fees at a rate or on a base the lease does not support, services that do not benefit your premises, gross-up applied to the wrong occupancy assumption, and pro-rata shares calculated on a denominator that was quietly reduced.
Your share is your area divided by the center’s leasable area. If space is taken out of that denominator, for instance floors withdrawn during a renovation, without your share being restated, your percentage rises and you absorb cost that is not yours. REAL checks the denominator against the rent roll each cycle.
It covers different ground. A contingency audit is a deep one-time review of selected leases in exchange for a share of the recovery. REAL runs every reconciliation every cycle and the recovery stays with you. Many teams use both, with REAL providing coverage and a firm handling a small number of contested disputes.
Every cycle, which is what REAL is built for. Two moments deserve extra attention: before a renewal, where past errors can be credited against future obligations, and on exit, where the final reconciliation is the last chance to correct anything.
REAL runs in a single tenant on your data, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certified, and your data is never used to train any model.

Audit every CAM charge, and keep every dollar you recover.

An AI CAM expert that audits every reconciliation, traces each overcharge to the clause, and drafts the claim that recovers it.

An AI CAM expert that audits every reconciliation, traces each overcharge to the clause, and drafts the claim that recovers it.

Catch the charges your lease never allowed.

Go past the summary statement to the ledger behind it.

Spot the increases nobody explained.

Work inside the rights the lease already gives you.

Send a claim that cites the clause and the ledger line.

Carry every recovery straight to the books.

One agent is powerful. A suite is transformative.

A contingency audit, or REAL.

FAQ

What is a CAM recovery audit?

Does REAL only check the summary statement, or the ledger too?

How far back can we review?

What kinds of errors show up most often?

How does a reduced denominator overcharge us?

Does REAL replace a lease audit firm?

When is the best time to audit?

Is our lease data secure?

Initial agents live in two weeks.

One agent is powerful.
A suite is transformative.