What is TICAM? Taxes, insurance + CAM, explained.
By someone who reads the leases and reconciles the numbers — not a glossary site.
How TICAM is supposed to work
An NNN lease splits what a tenant pays into two parts. Base rent is the number everyone remembers. The reimbursements are everything else: the tenant's share of the property tax bill, the building insurance premium, and the common-area costs — parking lot, landscaping, snow removal, shared utilities, repairs.
Each tenant owes a pro-rata share, usually based on their square footage. The lease typically has the landlord collect monthly estimates, then perform an annual reconciliation (a "true-up"): compare estimates collected against actual costs, and bill or credit the difference. That reconciliation is the part that requires someone to read the lease, pull the actual bills, and build the math.
Why it goes unbilled in small buildings
Here's the gap I see over and over. The bookkeeper categorizes transactions — they won't read four leases and build a reimbursement model. A real estate attorney will interpret a clause, but won't model anything. Your CPA files the tax return once a year. So the TICAM sits there, accruing quietly, year after year, while everyone assumes it's someone else's job.
When we reconciled his leases against his actual operating costs, about $172,000 was still collectible. The rest — roughly $95,000 — was gone forever, because one sentence in one lease waived any charges not billed within 120 days of year-end. He didn't lose that money to a tenant dispute. He lost it to a deadline nobody was watching.
The deadline problem
Time-bar clauses are the reason this can't wait. Many leases are generous or silent on how far back you can bill. But some cap it hard: bill within a set window after the year closes, or the tenant's obligation is waived. Every month that passes without a reconciliation is potentially money crossing from "collectible" to "gone." You don't know which kind of lease you have until someone reads it.
What to actually do
- Pull every lease and find the reimbursement and reconciliation clauses — look for "operating expenses," "additional rent," "CAM," "true-up," and any billing deadlines.
- Build the model: each tenant's pro-rata share, applied to your actual taxes, insurance, and common-area costs for each year, respecting caps and exclusions in the lease.
- Check the time bars first. If any lease has a billing window, reconcile that one before anything else.
- Bill with backup. Tenants pay reconciliations that arrive with the tax bill, the insurance declaration, and a clean statement of the math. They fight vague invoices.
Common questions
What's the difference between CAM and TICAM?
CAM is just the common-area maintenance piece — landscaping, snow removal, parking lot, shared utilities. TICAM is the whole reimbursement package in an NNN lease: property Taxes, Insurance, and CAM. Most leases let you pass all three through to tenants; most small landlords only think about the rent.
Is it too late to bill tenants for prior years?
It depends entirely on your lease language. Some leases have no time bar at all — I've recovered charges going back four years. Others have clauses that waive anything not billed within a window, sometimes as short as 120 days after year-end. The only way to know is to read the reconciliation clause in each lease. That window is why waiting is the most expensive option.
My tenants have paid the same flat rent for years. Do they still owe TICAM?
If the lease says rent is 'triple net' or lists reimbursements for taxes, insurance, or CAM, then yes — those amounts have been accruing whether or not anyone billed them. Tenants owe what the lease says they owe, subject to any time-bar language.
Why won't my bookkeeper or CPA just handle this?
Because it isn't bookkeeping and it isn't tax prep. Reconciling TICAM means reading each lease's reimbursement clauses, building a model of pro-rata shares, caps, and exclusions, and tying it to your actual operating costs. Your bookkeeper stops at the ledger, a lawyer won't build the model, and your CPA files the return. It falls between all of their chairs — which is exactly why it goes unbilled.
What does it cost to have you do it?
10% of what I find, and $0 if I find nothing. You can also do it yourself with my free reconciliation workbook — the same model from the case study, anonymized.
Reconcile it yourself — or have me do it for 10%.
The free workbook is the exact model from the case study, anonymized — lease rules, ledger, caps, taxes, statement, every number checkable by hand. Or skip the digging: I read the leases, reconcile them against your books, and you pay 10% of what I find. $0 if I find nothing.
1 · Anonymized composite case study — names, places, dates and amounts are fictional. Not legal or tax advice — your lease language controls. Contingency engagements subject to a written agreement.