• Credentials
  
• For Lawyers
  
• For Auditors
  
• For CFOs & Audit Committees
  
• Lease Auditing
  
• Joint Engagements
  
• Seminars
  
• Published Articles and Letters from Clients
  
• Contact Me
  
• Home
  

The term "Lease Auditing" is generally recognized as an activity associated with insuring the correctness of certain commercial property lease costs that are passed on to tenants. Otherwise, the term is wholly inapplicable to the circumstances to which it is taken to apply and is widely misunderstood, much to the benefit of landlords.

The root of the misunderstanding is the failure of the commercial tenant populace either to know or to accept the fact that the great majority of landlords and management companies regularly engage in overcharging.

As opposed to bookkeeping and accounting errors that can be addressed by auditing procedures, auditing in any form is simply not a reliable modality with which to deal with intentional overcharging. Nonetheless, an entire industry based upon the auditing of leases has evolved and is generally accepted as the norm by (unfortunate) tenant companies.

Are the net proceeds of a $50,000 recovery that is subject to a 25% contingency fee somehow more desirable than obtaining a $466,000 overcharge recovery against which the tenant company must pay $35,000 in professional fees based upon time spent? (Figures based upon an actual occurrence where a lease auditing company represented one tenant in an office building and Hal represented another tenant, both tenants having the identical applicable lease provision.)

A tenant company might ask, "What if the professional fees must be paid and there is no overcharge recovery?" The answer is, the Rosenthal screening and evaluation method determines in advance the probability and range of overcharge recovery and the tenant's approval is required before the initiation of services resulting in any significant fees.

Importantly, Hal's litigation consulting background combined with his experience as consultant to real estate developers and landlords provides the know-how to conclude a settlement while avoiding the need for extended litigation, and the ability to insure a positive relationship between landlord and tenant after settlement.

Hal's average recovery is in excess of $300,000 per individual lease having premises of at least 10,000 square feet. The larger overcharges he has identified and recovered well exceed $1,000,000 per individual lease.

Note that a tenant can elect to trade its overcharge claim for desirable modifications of lease provisions, which modifications may have a value several times the amount of the overcharge claim.

Sophisticated tenant companies have found and continue to find that intelligently applied Property Lease Analysis along with highly developed know-how in the area of the Overcharge Recovery Process produces benefits dramatically beyond those available through the lease auditing approach.

Published Articles

Sitting On The Horn Of Plenty
I was selected to write this article on Lease Auditing by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants

You will need Acrobat Reader to view this file. If you do not currently have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed click on "Get Acrobat Reader".

Finding the Hidden Costs in your Office Lease Could Save You Big Bucks

In House Seminars
A Full Day Seminar: Identification and Recovery of Property Lease Cost Overcharges for Tenant Company Internal Auditors, Lease Managers & Legal Depts.
Prevention, detection and recovery of property lease cost overcharges constitute a significant corporate profit center when addressed by specially trained internal personnel of tenant companies. Overcharges in the range of $500,000-$1,000,000 or more per individual lease are routinely undetected by even the best auditing procedures. Special training is needed and we provide it.

Contact Hal