Provided by: Jennifer Kirschenbaum, Esq.
October 25, 2022
Question:
Hi Jennifer,
I moved into a new space about 7 months ago. I just received, at my new address, a bill for CAM from my prior landlord. Do I have to pay?
Appreciate it.
Dr. L
Answer:
Whether or not you have to pay a CAM charge after your lease ends depends entirely on the terms of your prior lease. Do obligations for payment survive the expiration date? Is there a time limit on how long bills can be rendered from the "occurrence" date? These factors and more will decisively dictate whether you have a contractual obligation to remit payment. Hopefully you worked through these potential hypotheticals on the way into the lease, and you can kindly now refer the prior Landlord to the prior lease where (fingers crossed) you are well past an allowed billing timeframe post-expiration.
In all likelihood, you have not limited the billing time and Landlord has preserved the right to bill post-expiration, and you contractually owe the payment. Happy to confirm for you, but I will need to see the lease. This is one of those "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" scenarios - let's catch these issues on the way into a lease, not on the way out.
