Fear Not with the Best Lease Administration Software

2 min read
May 2, 2024
CoStar Real Estate Manager Blog

Fear Not with the Best Lease Administration Software

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Askaban, Prof. Lupin teaches his students about the Boggart, a creature that shifts into someone’s greatest fear.

For a lease administrator, one could only imagine that fear manifesting itself into a missed critical date.

If you have the best lease administration software at your disposal, fear not. But for everyone else — including this amazing blunder by POWDR Corp. — Boggarts have a way of wreaking havoc. The story goes like this: The Park City ski resort in Utah was acquired in 1994 by POWDR, which also involved leasing the 2,800 acres of land for only $150,000 a year.

This set up the resort and POWDR for high profitability and success for years ... until, in 2011, a lease administrator made a fateful mistake:

They forgot to renew the lease on time.

The lease was due Saturday, April 30. POWDR submitted the lease paperwork Monday, May 2, thinking the status quo would continue. The land holdings company, on the other hand, realized the growing value of the land and wanted to negotiate more favorable terms, as the lease had technically ended.

This kicked off lawsuits. That’s when Vail Resorts swooped in to A) Pay the legal fees for the holdings company and B) offer a far more profitable lease.

Ultimately, Vail won.

POWDR had to sell physical assets to Vail before being forced to vacate the premises.

All because a critical date was missed!

Lease administrators face opportunities to relive this nightmare scenario all the time. Every corporate real estate portfolio requires constant adherence to critical dates like renewals and rent payments, as well as a host of other common lease changes and charges like common area maintenance (CAM).

It’s more critical than ever to leverage lease administration tools and platforms that can automate these processes, while also streamlining your overall workflow so you never miss a date again.

Maybe you’re looking at your solution and wondering if it’s really the best lease administration software choice?

Don’t fret. Take a deep look at the choices available to you and make sure you make the most out of any demos you schedule. Every organization has a unique set of needs, and you need to be sure that your choice is the one recommended most by the biggest integration services and accounting firms.

After all, if they trust a lease administration platform to keep their Boggarts at bay, shouldn’t you?