Guest Post by Sara Stanley, MCR, Managing Director, Commercial Tenant Services, Inc.

Your requirements shouldn’t be treated like items on a production line. Yet many companies are noticing a decline in the quality and personalization of services from their vendors. With staff turnover, layoffs, and team members juggling multiple projects, companies—and their stakeholders—are often not receiving the level of attention they should rightfully expect (and are paying for).

Engaging a specialized Lease Audit firm, dedicated to maximizing savings for your company, is one optimal solution.  Your chosen Lease Audit firm should possess property management and building operations experience, CPA expertise, extensive knowledge of building systems, comprehension of ever-changing Case Law, and be up to date with Real Estate Tax mandates. Have you spoken to your Lease Audit team lately about goals for 2024? Have they missed audit deadlines? If so, what is the plan to achieve a zero-error rate around these crucial dates?

Discussion points that may improve your Lease Audit program include:

• Is your Lease Audit vendor experiencing employee turnover (a “C-Suite carousel”)?
• What type of evaluation process does your team go through to ensure the best services available from your audit team?
• Are you seeing bottom line results from your current audit program?
• Given security concerns with AI, how important is confidentiality when seeking out a vendor?
• Is your team looking to save/recover money quickly?
• Do you have a team ensuring transaction documents (amendments, estoppels, extensions, etc.) do not contain verbiage limiting your audit rights?

Corporate real estate projects need more than just assembly line checklists. This is the year to update your Lease Audit program!

Sara Stanley, MCR, is Managing Director at Commercial Tenant Services, Inc.