How to track commercial lease expiration dates
The critical dates in a commercial lease beyond expiration, how to count notice deadlines the way the lease does, and a 90/30-day system that catches them.
Small commercial owners rarely forget when a lease expires. What they miss are the dates around it: the last day to send a renewal notice, a rent step nobody billed, a tenant's termination right, the deadline to deliver a CAM reconciliation. Each of those has a dollar value, and several can only be missed once. This guide lists the dates worth tracking, shows how to count a notice deadline the way a lease does, and lays out a simple review cadence, with a worked example for one property. It is general information, not legal advice; your lease language controls every date.
EVERY DATE, SORTED
Enter each lease's dates once; see every deadline in order.
Notice deadlines and option windows are worked out from the expiration and the day counts you enter, saved in your browser, and exportable to CSV.
01 / 08
Expiration is the date you remember; it isn't the one that hurts
A lease's expiration date is printed on page one and on every rent roll. The expensive dates sit in the body of the lease and its amendments: a notice window that closes six months before expiration, a rent increase that starts on an anniversary nobody wrote down, a reconciliation statement the lease says you must deliver within 120 days of year-end.
Missing one is rarely dramatic on the day. It shows up later as a lost renewal, a year of under-billed rent, or a tenant who refuses a CAM true-up because the statement was late. Tracking dates is cheap insurance against all three.
02 / 08
The critical dates in a small commercial lease
Pull these from every lease and amendment, with the page they came from. Not every lease has every date; the point is to check for each one.
Key points
- Commencement and rent commencement, if free rent delays the first payment
- Expiration, and any holdover terms that apply after it
- Renewal option window and the last day to give notice
- Termination or kick-out rights, and their notice deadlines
- Each scheduled rent step or CPI adjustment
- CAM estimate notices and the reconciliation delivery deadline
- Tenant insurance certificate expiration
- Guaranty burn-offs, letter-of-credit expiry, and estoppel response periods
03 / 08
Count the deadline the way the lease does
A notice deadline is only as accurate as the arithmetic behind it. Read the clause for four details before you put a date on a calendar.
Key points
- Months or days: “six months before” and “180 days before” can land on different dates
- No earlier than and no later than: many options have a window, not just a deadline
- When notice counts as given: on sending, on receipt, or a set number of days after mailing
- How notice must be sent, and to which address, including any copy to an attorney
04 / 08
Worked example: one property on October 3
Take a fictional five-tenant center reviewed on October 3, 2026. The café's lease in Suite 110 expires December 31, 2026, with no option left: that is 89 days away, so the renewal conversation needs to start now, not in December. The dental office in Suite 101 expires June 30, 2027, with a renewal option the tenant must exercise no later than 180 days before expiration. Counting back 180 days gives January 1, 2027, exactly 90 days from today.
The nail salon in Suite 104 has a 3% rent step on January 1, 2027, from $3,000 to $3,090 a month; if nobody updates the billing, the owner under-bills $90 a month, $1,080 over the year. The tax-prep office in Suite 120 has an insurance certificate expiring November 15. And every lease at the property requires the 2026 CAM reconciliation to be delivered within 120 days after year-end, which is April 30, 2027.
Five dates, five different kinds of action, all inside about seven months. On a spreadsheet they live in five different columns, and only one of them is the expiration date.
05 / 08
Keep one list for the whole portfolio
Dates tracked tenant by tenant get reviewed tenant by tenant, which means they get reviewed when someone happens to open that tenant's file. The fix is one list, sorted by date, across every property you own: each row a date, what it is, the tenant, the clause it came from, the action, and who owns the action.
Build it from the leases, not from the rent roll or a seller's summary, and cite the page for each date. When a lease is amended, extended, assigned, or a tenant exercises an option, update the list the same day; the amendment usually changes more than one date, such as the expiration, the next rent step, and the next option window together.
06 / 08
A review cadence that catches dates in time
Lead time matters more than the reminder itself. A renewal negotiation takes months; a rent step takes one billing update. Use horizons that match the work.
Key points
- 12 months out: every expiration and option window; decide renew, re-tenant, or reposition
- 90 days out: expirations, option notice deadlines, and rent changes get a named action
- 30 days out: CAM notice deadlines, certificate renewals, and anything still undecided
- Monthly: a 15-minute review of everything inside 90 days
07 / 08
Make the reminder land somewhere you look
A shared calendar works for a handful of leases, as long as each event carries the clause, the action, and the person who owns it. Spreadsheets fail more quietly: the dates are right, but nobody opens the file until after the deadline. Whatever you use, the test is simple: would you hear about the January 1 deadline in the example above without opening anything?
Also record what happened. When a tenant exercises an option, file the notice and update the expiration, the rent schedule, and the next option window the same day. A tracker that still shows the old expiration a year later is worse than no tracker.
08 / 08
Where TenantPoint fits
In TenantPoint, lease dates live on the tenant record, extracted from the uploaded lease with a citation and activated only after you approve them. Upcoming lease expirations and rent changes appear in Home's “Needs your attention” list and the alert bell, alongside unpaid rent and insurance certificates that need review.
Owner alert emails cover the same ground by email: each morning with anything new, lease expirations, renewal options, and rent changes in the next 90 days, and CAM notice deadlines in the next 30; or a single weekly summary if you prefer. Each item is emailed once and links to the screen where you handle it. If you just want the dates sorted without an account, the free lease date tracker on this site does that in your browser.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
How far ahead should I start a lease renewal?
For most small retail and office tenants, start the conversation 9 to 12 months before expiration, and earlier if the lease has an option window or the space would be hard to re-lease.
Is “six months before expiration” the same as 180 days?
Not always. Counted by calendar months and by days, the two can land on different dates. Use the exact wording in the lease, and when in doubt, act before the earlier of the two.
What happens if a tenant misses its renewal notice deadline?
Generally the option lapses as written, but leases and state law vary, and courts sometimes consider the circumstances. Talk to your attorney before treating an option as lost or accepting a late notice.
What happens if a commercial tenant stays past expiration?
That is a holdover. Many leases set holdover rent at a premium, often 125% to 150% of the last rent, and say whether the tenancy becomes month to month. Check the holdover clause and decide before expiration whether to renew, extend short-term, or require the tenant to leave.
Which dates besides expiration matter most?
Option notice deadlines, rent steps, termination rights, CAM reconciliation delivery deadlines, and insurance certificate expirations are the ones most likely to cost money if missed.
Free checklists
Get the lease abstraction and renewal checklists
The fields to pull from every lease, the renewal steps to calendar, and a rent roll template to keep the results in one place.
- Commercial Lease Abstraction ChecklistPrintable checklist
- Commercial Lease Renewal Checklist for LandlordsPrintable checklist
- Commercial rent roll templateSpreadsheet template
Put it into practice
TenantPoint handles this workflow in Commercial lease administration software and AI lease abstraction. See all TenantPoint solutions or how it compares with other software.
This educational material is not legal, accounting, tax, or investment advice. Review controlling lease language and consult qualified professionals when appropriate.
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