At the beginning of each year, landlords reconcile their buildings’ actual expenses with the amounts contributed by their tenants during the prior year. They then issue adjusting statements that settle each tenant’s liability and establish the new estimates for the current year.

Although landlords are obligated to follow the leases when issuing these statements, tenants have the burden of identifying errors and bringing them to their landlords’ attention. If there is anything wrong with these end-of-year statements, and no objection is raised, the statements are deemed correct and errors can become …