CAM Charges in a Commercial Lease: What They Cover and How to Audit Them

You Are Probably Paying CAM Charges — but Do You Know What You Are Actually Paying For?

Common area maintenance charges, almost universally abbreviated as CAM, are one of the most contested line items in any commercial lease. Whether you are opening a retail shop in a Port Orange strip center, leasing warehouse space near Daytona Beach International Airport, or signing office space in downtown DeLand, CAM charges will almost certainly appear in your lease. They can add 15 to 40 percent on top of your base rent, and landlords and tenants alike frequently make mistakes in calculating them. The question is whether you will catch those mistakes before they cost you thousands of dollars.

This article breaks down what CAM charges typically cover under Florida commercial leases, how the law shapes your rights, and the concrete steps you can take to audit what your landlord is billing you.

What CAM Charges Are Supposed to Cover

CAM charges are the tenant's proportionate share of the costs a landlord incurs to operate, maintain, and repair the shared portions of a commercial property. In a typical Volusia County shopping center or mixed-use building, that means costs associated with:

• Parking lot maintenance, repaving, striping, and lighting
• Landscaping, irrigation systems, and pest control
• Exterior building maintenance (roofs, gutters, facades) depending on lease structure
• Janitorial services and trash removal for shared spaces
• Security systems and on-site security personnel
• Property management fees (often capped as a percentage of operating costs)
• Common utility costs for shared lighting, hallways, and restrooms
• Property insurance premiums allocated across tenants
• Real estate taxes passed through to tenants under net lease structures

That final category matters because the line between CAM and other pass-through charges is not always clean. Many leases bundle insurance and property taxes into a broader category sometimes called "operating expenses" or "NNN charges." Understanding which structure you are signing is critical. For a full comparison of gross, net, and triple-net lease structures, see this breakdown of gross lease vs. net lease vs. triple-net (NNN) arrangements.

The Florida Legal Framework: Chapter 83 and Your Lease

Florida commercial landlord-tenant relationships are governed primarily by Florida Statutes Chapter 83, Part I, which covers nonresidential tenancies. Unlike residential leases, Florida's commercial landlord-tenant law gives the parties broad freedom to define their own obligations in the lease document itself. That means the specific language of your lease, not a general statutory formula, determines how CAM is calculated, what expenses are included or excluded, and whether you have a right to audit.

Because the statute is relatively permissive, the lease agreement is where disputes are won or lost. Courts interpreting CAM disputes in Florida look first to the four corners of the lease and apply contract interpretation principles to resolve ambiguities. If your lease says "landlord's reasonable management fee not to exceed 5 percent of operating costs," that language controls. If it says nothing about a cap, the landlord may bill a management fee that is difficult to challenge. Negotiating precise definitions and hard caps before signing is far more effective than litigating vague terms afterward. For a full checklist of the provisions every Florida commercial lease should address, review what should be included in a commercial lease agreement in Florida.

The 2025 Sales Tax Repeal: A Major Cost Reduction for Florida Tenants

One development that every commercial tenant and landlord in Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach, New Smyrna Beach, and Palm Coast needs to understand: Florida fully repealed its state business rent tax on commercial leases effective October 1, 2025, under HB 7031. Florida was the only state in the country that taxed commercial rent, and the tax applied not only to base rent but to CAM fees, property tax pass-throughs, insurance reimbursements, and virtually every other line item in the lease. Even after years of phased reductions, the combined state and county surtax rate was still exceeding 2 percent in many Volusia County locations.

That tax is now gone. Landlords and property managers should have already updated their billing to remove the sales tax line item from CAM reconciliations and monthly invoices as of October 1, 2025. If your CAM statement still includes a sales tax charge after that date, you are being overbilled and should address it immediately in writing.

How to Audit Your CAM Charges

Most commercial leases include an audit right, though the window to exercise it is usually narrow, commonly 60 to 180 days after the landlord delivers the annual reconciliation statement. If your lease includes an audit clause, use it systematically. Here is how:

• Request the backup documentation. Ask the landlord for itemized expense reports, vendor invoices, insurance certificates, and the property tax bill. Vague summary statements are not sufficient for a meaningful audit.
• Verify your pro-rata share. Your CAM contribution is typically calculated as your leased square footage divided by the total leasable area of the property. Confirm that the denominator in that fraction is correct. If anchor tenant spaces or vacant units are excluded from the calculation, your share may be inflated.
• Check for excluded expenses. Most well-negotiated leases exclude capital improvements, depreciation, debt service, leasing commissions, and costs attributable solely to other tenants. Review each line item against your exclusion list.
• Verify the post-October 2025 removal of sales tax. Confirm no Florida business rent tax line item appears anywhere in your reconciliation.
• Engage a lease auditor or attorney. For leases with significant CAM exposure, a professional audit frequently recovers more than it costs. Overcharges of 10 to 30 percent are not uncommon, particularly in properties with high management fee allocations or inconsistent expense categorization.

Practical Protections to Negotiate Before You Sign

Prevention is less expensive than recovery. Before executing any commercial lease in Volusia County, negotiate for: a hard CAM cap tied to an annual increase limit (commonly 3 to 5 percent compounded), explicit exclusions for capital expenditures and non-property-related costs, a management fee cap, and a clear audit right with a reasonable exercise window and a dispute resolution mechanism. If a personal guarantee is also on the table, review how personal guarantees on Florida commercial leases work and how to limit your exposure before you sign anything.

Work With a Broker and Attorney Who Understands Both Sides of the Lease

CAM disputes are a product of poorly drafted leases and inadequate oversight. As both a Florida-licensed attorney and a CIPS-credentialed commercial broker, Arthur Simpson brings dual expertise to every transaction handled through Realty Pros Assured and Truestead Law, LLC. Whether you are negotiating a new lease in Palm Coast, auditing CAM charges on an existing Port Orange retail space, or evaluating a commercial investment property in DeLand, you deserve representation that reads the legal language and understands the market.

Contact Arthur Simpson, Esq., CIPS at arthursimpson.com to schedule a lease review consultation before your next commercial transaction.