Q: Business owner Dallas Texas commercial Triple nnn lease agreement. What are tenant expense rights.

A: In a typical triple net lease, a commercial tenant pays a pro rata share of the taxes, insurance, and common area maintenance expenses incurred by the landlord typically based on a ratio of the square footage of the space rented by the tenant divided by the total rentable square footage of the building, shopping center, etc. For example, if the tenant rents 10,000 square feet of a building with 100,000 square feet of rentable space, the tenant pays 10%.

Typically, amounts are collected monthly in advance based upon estimates from the previous year's expenses and then, when final actual numbers are available (which is often the first quarter of the following year), the landlord performs a calculation based on those actual numbers and sends tenants a reconciliation and "bill-back" invoice if the tenant owes more than what was estimated, or applies any overpayment by the tenants to the next year's expenses.

While commercial landlords and tenants have considerable latitude in making their own lease agreements, I have never seen one that gives the tenant a right to dictate a vendor or contractor providing insurance or common area maintenance or to negotiate prices with such vendors.

Utilities are separate and apart from the triple net aspects of a commercial lease. In most commercial leases for freestanding structures or shopping center suites, tenants are responsible for their own separately metered utilities, including negotiations with utility providers for the services they desire and the price they are willing to pay. In office buildings, tenants usually pay a pro rata share of utility expenses calculated in the same manner as triple nets typically are, but do not have a say in the selection of the utility provider or the price (with the common exception of telephone and internet service which are commonly paid directly by office tenants even when electrical and water utilities are not).

To determine how these general concepts apply specifically to you in your situation, you should schedule an appointment with an experienced attorney who practices in the area of commercial landlord-tenant law, which is one of my firm's area's of practice: https://reiddennisfrick.com/practiceareas/commercial-landlord-tenant-disputes/

If you'd like to schedule a consultation for a lease review, you can certainly contact our office through my Justia profile or our website. We charge a low, flat fee of $500 for a 90-minute initial consultation.