360 LEASE AUDITS: NO RISK, EVERYTHING TO GAIN.

360 Lease Strategies’ Lease Audit is a detailed analytical process through which your lease, and the corresponding operating costs billed to you, are painstakingly reviewed to ensure compliance with the terms of your commercial lease.

It could save your company hundreds of thousands of dollars, adding them right back on your bottom line where they belong. And it costs you nothing. We’re paid a fee from the money we recover for you.
It’s a no-risk service with everything to gain.

Best Case Scenario – you achieve significant cost reductions on your rent expenses.

Worst Case Scenario – due diligence. All of your stakeholders are satisfied that you’re paying exactly what you agreed to pay through your hard-won lease negotiations.

Commercial landlord/tenant relationships are often long-term partnerships. The lease establishes the basis for the standards and practices of that relationship. Too frequently, however, operating costs may be overstated due to any number of reasons – lease clause interpretation, oversight or human error. And your business ends up paying far more than it should.

The reason is simple. Most sophisticated, well-represented tenants are able to negotiate mutually agreeable cost containment changes to a landlord’s standard lease. The landlord’s audited statement is typically audited to its standard lease and vetted to the actual expenses. The hard won negotiated changes in your specific lease are, however, not audited.

360 begins with a detailed review of your lease and the year-end statement of operating costs. That’s followed by inquiries to your landlord for clarification and/or additional details. We identify any potential financial impact to your bottom line that was not intended and/or specifically agreed to under your lease. And our process usually results in savings opportunities.

SAVINGS OPPORTUNITIES THAT ARE OFTEN OVERLOOKED

First and foremost is overhead – management fees, administration fees, salaries, imputed landlord office rent, leasing costs and leasehold improvement expenses. Are operating costs a cost centre or a profit centre? What are the true costs of administering a realty tax bill? An insurance invoice? Depreciation schedules? Does your lease provide that you pay for salaries AND an administration fee? On the flip side: is your landlord incurring expenses to reduce operating costs on your behalf?

Vacancy Gross Up calculations. Some operating cost expenses are variable with occupancy. Is the gross up calculation an accurate, equitable reflection of costs for vacant space? If you have vacant active leased space, are you receiving the full benefit of the credits for premises cleaning? Premises utilities?

Parking. In many commercial office complexes, parking is treated as a separate cost centre with its own revenue and expenses. If not, is parking revenue credited to the parking expenses included in your operating costs?

Capital Expenses. Are they incurred as a result of wear and tear to maintain the building to an acceptable standard, or to improve the building to a new standard? Are they amortized? And, if so, on what basis?

You might wonder why your accountants or your own accounting staff haven’t found these savings. The team at 360 Lease Strategies has uniquely specialized skill sets combining comprehensive auditing techniques with extensive commercial real estate lease knowledge and experience. Quite simply, we find what others most often cannot. And it’s delivered right to your bottom line.

Our question is, why not call us for a lease audit consultation? There’s no risk to you – and everything to gain.