Anyone here in commercial real estate or a commercial landlord?

[Rain Man]

My office landlord assesses us a Common Area Maintenance charge every year where they estimate the costs, and then add it to our rent. Up until last year it was reasonable, and at that point they added about $400 a month to our rent, which was about $7,000 a month. I wasn't too happy about that. Before that I think it was negligable.

I just got a letter today where they claim that this charge is going to be $2,100 a month for the next year. So they're claiming that the Common Area Maintenance cost has quintupled this year. This would be a 20%+ increase in our rent in a market where deals abound.

WTF is up with this? I think I'd rather pay a lawyer to break the lease than pay these thieves $25,000 this year. We've received no extra services and I don't think the janitor has quintupled their price.

Anyone know what a reasonable charge is?

We had a real estate attorney review our lease before we signed it (5 years ago). If this is really allowable in our lease, I'm going to be making a pretty hostile visit to that attorney.

[DaFace]

They're probably trying to recoup some of the costs they're incurring because the entire HVAC system is screwy.

[Bwana]

Time to hire "Veto" and have him knee capped.

[Rain Man]

Originally Posted by DaFace

Well, it definitely has more than two floors. I guess I've just never paid that much attention. Still, how do they fit five floors up there?

I think it worked for them because there were five empty floors up there anyway.


Actually, in a bit of trivia, the building wasn't originally this tall. I remember reading somewhere that it was originally shorter and someone came later and added more floors. I wouldn't have thought that possible.