As it relates to possible overcharges, there are indicators to watch for as a tenant. How many of these are happening to you?

• Landlord in financial distress
• High vacancy in balance of your building
• You or other tenant(s) in the building is a heavy user of after-hours HVAC
• Personnel Changes In The Management Office
• Accounting Changes In Billings From The Landlord
• Billing Errors On Base Rent And After-Hours HVAC
• Construction In The Building
• Marketing, Promotion & Advertising Around The Building
• Increases In Costs Greater Than 2-4 Percent From The Previous Year

If you recognize one or more of these "red flags", it may be time to have your lease and reconciliations analyzed for potential overcharges. The first step performed by CyberLease's professionals is called a "Preliminary Review". If it appears likely from the Preliminary Review that you have been overcharged, a lease audit should be considered. Also, if your lease is expiring or coming up for renewal, a lease audit might give you added leverage in dealing with your landlord.

While bigger is usually better, it may not be the case every time. If you are willing to get us the information we need to perform a Preliminary Review, we will spend the time to evaluate it. CyberLease has never judged a lease by its size; what matters is how much you are paying and whether or not the bills are correct.

CyberLease offers the type of thorough "Preliminary Review" necessary in order to determine whether an audit is warranted and what range of overcharges may be involved. A complete review of the rental and operating cost provisions of your lease, a summary analysis of your operating cost billings and an explanation of the basis of any recommendation to audit is provided. CyberLease's Preliminary Review is designed to ensure only warranted audits are performed and to identify if any potential liability exists.

A lease audit firm can:

• provide you with an analysis of your landlord's performance in implementing the operating expense and other economic provisions of your lease;
• help you recapture monies previously overpaid, therefore improving your company's bottom line;
• help you reduce your rental obligation over the remaining term of your lease by correcting the landlord's mistakes now;
• provide you with increased bargaining power with your landlord in discussions concerning the future needs of your company;
• troubleshoot lease language to avoid future errors

FIRST: A lease audit firm should have the real estate management/operations, leasing, accounting and legal qualifications and resources necessary to evaluate your operating expense and rental billings from all perspectives. The operating cost provisions of many leases are intentionally vague and complicated, and may have been designed by the landlord's attorney to obfuscate, rather than clarify, operating expense issues. A lease audit firm must have the expertise and ability to interpret these provisions in the context of the entire lease in order to analyze whether the landlord has accurately complied with them.

SECOND: In order to justify recommending an audit, a lease audit firm should provide you with a thorough preliminary review of your lease, any amendments, addenda, riders, estoppel certificates and operating expense billings. The firm should evaluate whether you have been billed correctly by offering you an interpretation of the operating cost and other rental provisions of your lease, identifying the questionable categories of escalations from the yearly breakdown of building operating costs and verifying the accuracy of the calculation method used to compute your operating cost obligation.

THIRD: Unless the scope of the audit has been purposely limited, a lease audit firm should conduct a comprehensive audit and provide you with a detailed report of its findings. In most cases you have only one opportunity to audit each year's operating expenses. If your auditor does not perform a thorough audit or chooses to overlook difficult issues, you may be leaving money on the table which cannot be recovered later if discovered by another auditor. The level of detail contained in the audit report is often an indication of the depth of the audit. The audit report must be able to stand on its own - even in court.

FOURTH: The lease audit firm should have a history of successful negotiating experience and the ability to effectively deal with your landlord(s).

CyberLease specializes in providing comprehensive lease audit services to large, sophisticated office building tenants, the overwhelming majority of whom have multiple leases (as many as 700) spread across North America.

In order for CyberLease to provide a Preliminary Review of your lease(s), we simply need a copy of the following:

• your lease(s) and any addenda, riders, amendments or letter of agreements to the lease(s);
• all annual reconciliation or adjustment statements prepared by your landlord over the past two to four years if possible, or as many years as you have; and
• any estoppel certificates executed over the past four years;

We will be happy to help you in identifying and gathering these documents.

Simply send a copy of these documents to us and we will perform your Preliminary Review.

If you have a large portfolio, CyberLease will review and prioritize it. We will even travel to your location to obtain the necessary documentation to perform the Preliminary Reviews. Thus, the time required by you and your staff is minimal, allowing you to dedicate your time and effort to other important matters.

For over 20 years CyberLease has been exclusively dedicated to representing tenants. By not representing landlords in any capacity we not only avoid direct conflicts of interest, but also avoid “indirect” conflicts of interest.

CyberLease, LLC is an independent audit firm not owned by any landlord, property management or brokerage firm. We respect the fact leasing information is sensitive in nature. Therefore, we do not give this information to anyone outside the firm. We will even sign a confidentiality agreement to satisfy your concerns.

CyberLease has highly experienced CPAs on staff, and can therefore staff any audit assignment accordingly.