What expenses are typically included in CAM charges?

Standard CAM inclusions across all property types are: parking lot maintenance and repair (not replacement), landscaping and grounds upkeep, snow and ice removal, exterior building maintenance, common area janitorial and cleaning, exterior lighting (electricity and maintenance), trash removal, property management fees (3–5% of revenues), building liability insurance, common area utilities (electricity, water), pest control, fire suppression system inspections, and security costs for common areas. The specific dollar weight of each category varies by property type — outdoor parking dominates retail CAM; HVAC and janitorial dominate office CAM.

What should be excluded from CAM charges?

Tenants should push to exclude: capital expenditures (improvements with useful lives over 2–3 years), management fees above market rate (3–4% cap is standard), costs benefiting only specific tenants (anchor improvements), ground lease rent and financing costs, landlord income taxes and depreciation, leasing commissions and tenant improvement allowances, environmental remediation costs, legal fees for landlord disputes with other tenants or third parties, and any home office or corporate overhead allocated from the landlord's parent entity. The specific exclusions you can negotiate depend on your leverage, lease term, and market conditions.

Do CAM inclusions differ by property type?

Significantly. Retail and industrial CAM is dominated by exterior costs: parking, landscaping, exterior lighting. These can be 60–70% of the CAM pool in a suburban strip center. Office CAM emphasizes interior building systems: janitorial, HVAC, elevator maintenance, lobby services. Medical office adds specialized components: HVAC certification for infection control, biohazard waste disposal, regulatory compliance costs, and often 24/7 operations staffing. Industrial CAM is the simplest — minimal shared spaces mean limited pool — while regional mall CAM is the most complex, with extensive interior amenities and food court operations.

Are property taxes included in CAM charges?

It depends on the lease structure. In a true triple-net (NNN) lease, property taxes are a separate pass-through alongside CAM — not lumped into the CAM pool. In a modified gross lease, some leases include property taxes in CAM; others handle them separately with a base year expense stop. In a gross lease, property taxes are embedded in base rent. When reviewing a CAM statement, always confirm whether taxes are a separate line or included in the CAM total, because the billing mechanics and your audit rights may differ.

What Is Included in CAM Charges in 2026? Full Inclusion/Exclusion List

By Angel Campa·Founder, CapVeriUpdated April 24, 2026

Quick Answer

Standard CAM inclusions are parking lot maintenance, landscaping, exterior lighting, janitorial for common areas, trash removal, property management fees, building insurance, and common area utilities. Capital expenditures, landlord taxes, and financing costs should be excluded. Property type significantly changes the mix.

What Is Included in CAM Charges: The 2026 Reference List

The answer to "what's in CAM?" is always "whatever your lease says" — but here's what that means in practice across the four major commercial property types, plus the items that should never make it into your expense pool.

Universal CAM Inclusions (All Property Types)

These categories appear in virtually every commercial NNN lease:

Parking and Exterior

Parking lot sweeping and cleaning: Regular mechanical sweeping, pressure washing in high-traffic areas
Parking lot striping: Annual or semi-annual restriping as markings fade
Parking lot repairs: Crack sealing, pothole patching, minor asphalt repair (not full resurfacing — see CapEx note below)
Exterior lighting: Electricity costs plus lamp and ballast replacement; parking lot poles, building perimeter fixtures, pathway lighting
Sidewalks and walkways: Crack sealing, repair, pressure washing, ADA compliance maintenance
Snow and ice removal: Plowing, salting, and ice melt application — this is the most weather-volatile line item

Grounds and Landscaping

Mowing and trimming: Regular seasonal maintenance
Irrigation systems: Operation, maintenance, and water costs
Mulching and bed maintenance
Tree trimming and removal (routine maintenance, not storm damage remediation in most leases)
Seasonal color plantings: Annuals and perennials in high-visibility areas
Retention ponds and drainage maintenance

Building Systems (Common Areas Only)

Fire suppression system inspections: Annual and semi-annual inspections, certification
Elevator maintenance: Service contracts, inspections, minor repairs (not full modernization)
HVAC for common areas: Lobbies, corridors, shared restrooms — not tenant suites in single-HVAC systems
Plumbing: Repairs in common area restrooms and common corridors
Electrical systems: Repairs and maintenance for common area panels and wiring

Management and Administrative

Property management fees: Market rate is 3–5% of gross revenues; cap anything above 4–5%
Accounting and reporting: Reasonable costs of maintaining property books and preparing CAM statements
Insurance: General liability, property casualty, workers' compensation for common area staff

Janitorial and Operations

Common area cleaning: Lobbies, corridors, elevators, shared restrooms
Window cleaning: Exterior windows and lobby glass
Trash removal: Dumpster service for common areas (not individual tenant trash)
Pest control: Exterior prevention, common area treatment

CAM Inclusions by Property Type

Retail (Strip, Community, and Power Centers)

Retail CAM is exterior-heavy. A typical community center spends 60–70% of its CAM budget on parking, landscaping, lighting, and snow removal.

Additional retail-specific inclusions:

Shopping center signage and pylon maintenance (electricity and structure)
Common seating areas and outdoor furniture
Shopping cart corrals and maintenance
Center-wide marketing and promotional expenses (sometimes — verify your lease)
Shared loading dock equipment

Retail-specific complications:

Anchor exclusions: Anchor tenants often maintain their own parking fields and building exteriors, reducing the shared pool. But their SF may remain in the denominator — see anchor exclusion CAM and CAM pool definition.
Outparcels: Pad site tenants (banks, fast food, gas stations) may have their own maintenance obligations and separate CAM pools.

Typical retail CAM range: $4–$8/SF/year for strip and community centers; $8–$15/SF for enclosed malls.

Office (Suburban and Urban)

Office CAM — often called "operating expenses" in lease documents — is interior-heavy. HVAC, janitorial, and lobby services typically represent 50–65% of the expense pool.

Office-specific inclusions:

Interior janitorial (lobbies, corridors, common restrooms, elevator cabs)
HVAC maintenance for building systems serving multiple tenants
Elevator maintenance and modernization (sometimes amortized)
Lobby and reception area furnishings and maintenance
Building directory and signage systems
Parking structure maintenance and operations (in urban buildings)
Security staff and systems
Building operating staff salaries (porter, engineer)

Office lease structure note: Many office leases use a base year expense stop rather than pure NNN pass-through. You pay operating expense increases above the base year, not the full operating expense. This is a fundamentally different mechanic — verify which structure your lease uses before comparing numbers.

Typical office CAM: $6–$10/SF suburban; $10–$16/SF Class A urban.

Industrial / Flex

Industrial CAM is the most tenant-favorable by default — minimal shared space means minimal shared costs.

Industrial inclusions:

Parking lot and truck court maintenance (the dominant cost)
Exterior lighting
Basic landscaping (minimal for most industrial)
Snow removal (significant in northern markets)
Roof maintenance (often shared in multi-tenant industrial)
Building exterior maintenance

Industrial-specific issues:

Multi-tenant industrial buildings with shared loading docks may include dock equipment maintenance
Cold storage facilities add refrigeration system maintenance to the pool
Rail-served facilities sometimes include rail spur maintenance

Typical industrial CAM: $1.50–$4.00/SF. Single-tenant net-leased industrial is often $0.50–$1.50/SF.

Medical Office Building (MOB)

Medical office has the highest CAM loads of any property type, driven by specialized building systems and compliance requirements.

MOB-specific inclusions:

Specialized HVAC: Precision temperature/humidity control, enhanced filtration, pressurization requirements — maintenance costs 3–5x standard office HVAC
Biohazard waste disposal: Regulated medical waste pickup and processing
Enhanced cleaning protocols: Clinical-grade disinfection for common areas
Regulatory compliance: Joint Commission, OSHA, state health department requirements for common areas
After-hours HVAC operations: Medical tenants often require extended hours or 24/7 climate control
ADA compliance: Higher accessibility standards than office or retail

Typical MOB CAM: $8–$16/SF, with premium buildings in high-cost urban markets reaching $18/SF.

What Should Be Excluded from CAM

Every tenant should negotiate to exclude these categories:

Capital Expenditures

The biggest single source of CAM disputes. A capital expenditure is an improvement with a useful life extending beyond the current year — roof membrane replacement, full HVAC unit replacement, parking lot reconstruction, building façade renovation.

The appropriate treatment for CapEx in CAM:

Full exclusion: The purest tenant protection; landlord bears the full capital cost
Amortization: CapEx is amortized over its useful life (IRS guidelines or lease-specified), and only the annual amortization is included in CAM. On a $100,000 roof with a 20-year life, that's $5,000/year in CAM vs. $100,000 in a single year.

Without an explicit CapEx exclusion, landlords can dump large one-time expenses into a single year's CAM pool and pass them through fully. On a 10,000 SF space with 10% pro-rata share, a $200,000 HVAC overhaul adds $20,000 to your reconciliation — potentially doubling your CAM bill for the year.

Management Fee Overages

Cap management fees at 3–4% of gross revenues. Require that on-site staff costs not be double-counted alongside the management fee.

Costs Benefiting Only Specific Tenants

If the landlord incurs $50,000 improving an anchor tenant's pad or resolving a dispute with a specific tenant, those costs should not enter the shared pool.

Financing and Landlord Entity Costs

Ground lease rent (if the landlord leases the land from a third party)
Mortgage interest and debt service
Depreciation (non-cash accounting item)
Landlord's income taxes
Home office overhead from the landlord's corporate entity

Leasing and Vacancy Costs

Broker commissions for new leases
Tenant improvement allowances
Costs of preparing vacant space for new tenants

For the full exclusion framework, see the complete CAM exclusion list guide and controllable vs. non-controllable expenses.

The Distinction Between Controllable and Non-Controllable Expenses

Most CAM caps apply only to "controllable" expenses. The distinction matters when verifying cap compliance.

Controllable (typically capped): Management fees, janitorial, landscaping, security, maintenance labor, administrative overhead — costs the landlord can manage through operations decisions.

Non-controllable (typically uncapped): Property taxes, building insurance premiums, utility rates, snow removal in extreme weather years — costs driven by external factors the landlord can't control.

Landlords sometimes try to classify expenses as non-controllable to avoid cap limits. Management fees are almost always controllable. Watch for reclassification attempts on borderline items.

Verifying CAM Inclusions Against Your Lease

When you receive a CAM statement, the verification process starts with matching each line item against your lease's CAM inclusion clause. The steps:

Pull your lease's CAM definition section
List every expense on the reconciliation statement
Match each expense to an explicit inclusion category or flag it
Check for explicitly excluded items appearing in the statement
Verify management fee calculation against the stated rate and revenue base
Flag any single items over $10,000 for invoice support

CapVeri automates this matching process — upload your lease and statement, and the platform maps each expense to your lease's inclusion/exclusion terms and flags discrepancies. Start with the CAM reconciliation template to understand the framework before going to software.

Related Resources

What is a CAM fee? — How fees are calculated and typical ranges
What are CAM charges? — Full 2026 guide
CAM pool definition — How expense pools are structured
CAM cap types — Protecting against year-over-year increases
Top 15 CAM billing errors — Common ways landlords overbill
Pro-rata calculator — Verify your share calculation