9.9 A. Base Year

• Jurisdiction: New York

A. Base Year

Office tenants generally must pay the increase in building operating expenses and real estate taxes measured over some base point—either a base year or an expense stop. These escalations can easily outstrip the base rent, and courts will generally enforce the provisions in a lease your client signs, regardless of how much the rent may increase over the years. During the last decade, we have seen low inflation, and therefore relatively low escalation increases, but this has not been the case...