Whatever your CAM definition actually lists — and a short, standard list of exclusions.
Short answer
CAM legitimately covers common-area maintenance and services: snow removal, landscaping, parking lot repair and lighting, common-area cleaning and utilities, insurance, and a management fee if the lease allows one. Capital expenditures, other tenants' costs, and leasing commissions are the standard carve-outs — and the difference between a capital reserve contribution and a one-time capital project is where most disputes actually happen.
Treadstone Law's working list covers common areas — lobbies, hallways and washrooms, parking lots and driveways, loading docks and garbage areas, exterior landscaping and signage structures — and the maintenance work that keeps them running: “snow removal, salting, and landscaping; parking lot repair and lighting; roof maintenance and minor repairs; HVAC servicing for common areas; building management and administration fees; cleaning and janitorial services for common spaces; insurance deductibles when certain claims arise.” The broader TMI framing adds property taxes, building insurance, utilities for shared areas, property management fees, and capital repair reserves.
Standard exclusions: “capital expenditures (roof replacement, major structural repairs, parking lot repaving); costs attributable to other tenants' breaches; leasing commissions and tenant inducements for other tenants; depreciation on capital items; executive salaries above a reasonable management-fee level.” The nuance sits between “capital repair reserves” (an ordinary TMI line) and “capital expenditures” (excluded): a modest ongoing reserve contribution toward future capital work can be a legitimate recurring CAM item, while a one-time major project — a full roof replacement in the year it happens — is normally the landlord's own capital cost, not a pass-through, unless the lease specifically permits amortized capital recovery.
A strip mall's annual CAM budget: snow removal $8,000, parking lot lighting and repair $5,000, landscaping $6,000, common-area cleaning $10,000. Subtotal $29,000. A management fee capped at 4% of that subtotal adds $1,160. Total legitimate CAM: $30,160, split pro-rata by leased square footage. If the landlord tries to fold a $40,000 parking lot repaving — a capital item — into that same year's bill, that is exactly what a lease review should catch and challenge, since repaving belongs to the landlord unless the lease specifically permits amortized recovery.
Treating “capital repair reserves” and “capital expenditures” as the same thing. The first is a routine budget line; the second is a landlord cost dressed as one. The Commercial Tenancies Act sets no default CAM rules at all — the lease is the entire rulebook, in every province, though the controlling statute around the lease itself differs outside Ontario.
Related: whether a management fee can be one of those line items, and how vacancy changes what tenants are billed.
Most CAM disputes trace back to one mis-categorized capital item, not the whole budget.
