Disputed CAM Charges? Get Clear Answers on Your Lease Options

Your landlord sent a CAM bill or a year-end reconciliation, and the total is higher than you expected. You may be reading this for an owner, partner, or manager who has to decide what happens next.

When a business questions common area maintenance (CAM) charges, the review usually starts with the lease, because its exact wording often decides which charges are allowed. Whether the claim holds up also depends on the records behind each charge.

What CAM Charges Cover in a Florida Commercial Lease

CAM charges are a tenant’s share of the costs to run a shared property. The lease defines which costs count.

Common area maintenance (CAM) usually covers shared spaces. Typical costs include:

• Landscaping and parking lot upkeep
• Janitorial work in shared hallways and restrooms
• Lighting, security, and trash removal for common areas
• Insurance and property taxes, if the lease passes them through

How much you pay depends on the lease type:

• Gross lease: Rent usually covers operating costs. You pay little or no separate CAM.
• Modified gross lease: Some costs sit in rent, and others pass through to you.
• Triple net (NNN) lease: You pay most operating costs on top of base rent.

Start with your lease, not with what other landlords charge. Find these sections first: the CAM or operating expense definition, the list of exclusions, any cap on administrative fees, and the audit rights clause.

How CAM Charges Are Calculated and Reconciled

Your CAM share is usually your leased square footage divided by the total rentable area, applied to the year’s shared costs.

Three terms drive most of the math:

• Pro rata share: Your rentable square feet divided by the building or project total. The lease defines what counts in that total.
• Base year or expense stop: Some leases make you pay only increases above a set year’s costs or a set dollar amount.
• Annual reconciliation: You pay estimated monthly CAM. At year end, the landlord compares those estimates to actual costs and bills or credits the difference.

Here is an illustrative example with made-up numbers, not your lease:

• Your share is 20 percent of the building’s shared costs.
• The landlord estimates $150,000 in shared costs. You pay $2,500 a month, or $30,000 for the year.
• Actual costs come to $165,000. Your 20 percent share is $33,000.
• The reconciliation shows $3,000 due from you ($33,000 minus $30,000).

Check both the inputs and the arithmetic. A small error in the cost pool or the square footage changes every monthly bill.

Common Grounds for Challenging a CAM Charge

A CAM charge can be challenged when the lease does not allow the cost, the amount, or the way it was split between tenants.

• Duplicate charges: The same cost is billed twice, or under two categories.
• Capital improvements: A major upgrade is billed as a yearly operating expense when the lease excludes it or limits it to certain costs.
• Fees over the cap: A management or administrative fee exceeds the lease limit or uses a base the lease does not allow.
• Unsupported allocations: Costs tied to other properties, vacant space, or areas you don’t use get charged to your share.
• Excluded costs: Items the lease rules out, such as leasing commissions or the landlord’s own legal fees.
• Late or missing statements: Reconciliations arrive late, never arrive, or bill charges outside your lease term.

Timing matters too. If a written lease covers the costs, a separate unjust enrichment claim often fails. Florida courts hold that where an express contract covers the same subject matter, claims from that contract won’t support unjust enrichment (Williams v. Johnson).

Gather the Documents and Deadlines Before You Act

Before you send a dispute letter, collect the full lease and every CAM statement tied to it.

• The signed lease, with amendments, exhibits, and renewal options
• Monthly estimate notices and annual reconciliation statements
• The landlord’s invoices or general ledger detail behind each charge
• Your payment records, including any payment made under protest

Keep every letter and email. Note what you sent, when you sent it, and what came back. A clear paper trail is easier to follow for a judge, an arbitrator, or the other side.

Read the notice and audit windows closely. Many leases start the clock when the reconciliation statement is delivered. Missing that window can narrow your options, even when a charge is wrong.

Don’t stop paying rent to pressure the landlord. Read the default and remedy clauses first. If a landlord sues to recover possession, Florida law generally requires the tenant to pay the claimed unpaid rent into the court registry, plus rent that accrues during the case, unless the tenant has raised a defense of payment or satisfaction of the rent in the amount claimed (§ 83.232). Failing to pay into the court registry as ordered is an absolute waiver of the tenant’s defenses, and the landlord is entitled to an immediate default for possession without further notice or hearing (§ 83.232).

Options Before Filing a CAM Dispute Lawsuit

Most CAM disputes move through a written demand, a records review, and settlement talks before anyone files suit.

1. Dispute notice: Identify each disputed charge, the lease section you rely on, and the accounting you want.
2. Audit right: Use the lease’s audit clause if it has one. Check who pays for the audit and what happens if an overcharge turns up.
3. Negotiation: Propose a credit, a payment plan, or a corrected allocation.
4. Mediation: On one party’s request, Florida courts must refer many civil damages cases to mediation, provided the requesting party is willing and able to pay the costs of the mediation or the costs can be equitably divided between the parties, under Supreme Court rules and subject to listed exceptions, including landlord-tenant disputes that do not include a personal injury claim and actions governed by the Florida Small Claims Rules (§ 44.102). Fla. Stat. § 44.102 reads: “(2) A court, under rules adopted by the Supreme Court: (a) Must, upon request of one party, refer to mediation any filed civil action for monetary damages, provided the requesting party is willing and able to pay the costs of the mediation or the costs can be equitably divided between the parties, unless: 1.” Your lease may also require it.

Settlement talks have protection. Evidence of an offer to compromise a disputed claim, as well as any relevant conduct or statements made in negotiations concerning a compromise, is inadmissible to prove liability or the claim’s value (§ 90.408).

Litigation or arbitration becomes the practical route when the landlord refuses to produce records or the landlord itself is in default under the lease. If your lease requires arbitration, Florida law generally enforces that agreement, except on grounds that exist to revoke a contract (§ 682.02).

Ayala Law PA focuses on business litigation, including commercial lease, contract, and real estate disputes in Florida courts and arbitration. Our office is at 1646 W Snow Ave in Tampa, Florida. We represent businesses in Tampa, Hillsborough County, Brandon, Riverview, Plant City, Temple Terrace, and the wider Tampa Bay area. Eduardo A. Maura is the responsible lawyer for this page. Where appropriate, a matter may be referred to another lawyer or firm.

How a CAM Charges Lawsuit Proceeds in Florida Courts and Arbitration

A CAM charges dispute lawsuit is usually filed where the defendant lives, where the claim arose, or where the property in litigation is located. Florida law sets those venue rules, which do not apply to actions against nonresidents (§ 47.011). If the leased property sits in Hillsborough County, that county is one proper place to file.

A typical case moves through these stages:

1. Pre-suit demand and records request
2. Complaint filed and served on the landlord
3. Discovery into the general ledger, vendor invoices, and reconciliation math, governed by the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure
4. Mediation or settlement offers
5. Trial or arbitration hearing

The statute does not apply to causes of action that accrue after the act’s effective date (§ 45.061).

Expect the landlord to raise unpaid rent, late fees, or your own lease defaults.

Many CAM cases involve an accountant who reviews the reconciliation math. Cost depends on how many charges are disputed and how much records work is needed. Results depend on the lease language and records in each case, and no outcome can be promised.

Questions Tenants and Landlords Ask About CAM Disputes

Short answers to common CAM questions are below.

If a CAM reconciliation has your business stuck between paying and disputing, you don’t have to sort out the lease alone. Call (305) 570-2208 or request a case evaluation to talk through your next step.