common charges - can lanlord do what he wants?

i rent 1000sq ft office space in a new york suburb, i pay a fixed base of 200$ every month toward common charges: (taxes,expenses,management fee).
at some point during the year (usually late sept.) we recieve a refund (will never happen) or bill for the last years common charges if the base was too much or not enuff. welp, this landlord decided to manage the place himself (there is only 10 tenants) and charge us the full 6% of the gross rent as allowed by the lease. He lists the gross rent, multiplies it by 6% and comes up with the number. He did not list how much the management fee cost for the year in manhours etc. he is just charging 6% for the hell of it. i cant believe i am paying approx 120/month for management to a guy i havent seen or talked to in 14 months. For 1999 i am paying total common charges of approx 4500$ which is more than two months rent. The bitterness on my behalf is fueled by the fact that he told me at lease signing that there would most likely never be a management fee and if anything expect a refund, he told 2 other tentants the same, I assume this was a lease signing inducement trick, or he sucks at estimating the extra rent figures. we are approaching double the estimate of common charges he gave us. How far is too far, can this guy go out and landscape 100 bannana trees and have us pay for it? I now know i should have tried to corner him into capping the common charges but thats hindsight and i guess i'm a sucker. how should i handle this? thanx
ps. he lists taxes this year increased by 40%, how do i check this?

[HomeGuru]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by peptobismol:
i rent 1000sq ft office space in a new york suburb, i pay a fixed base of 200$ every month toward common charges: (taxes,expenses,management fee).
at some point during the year (usually late sept.) we recieve a refund (will never happen) or bill for the last years common charges if the base was too much or not enuff. welp, this landlord decided to manage the place himself (there is only 10 tenants) and charge us the full 6% of the gross rent as allowed by the lease. He lists the gross rent, multiplies it by 6% and comes up with the number. He did not list how much the management fee cost for the year in manhours etc. he is just charging 6% for the hell of it. i cant believe i am paying approx 120/month for management to a guy i havent seen or talked to in 14 months. For 1999 i am paying total common charges of approx 4500$ which is more than two months rent. The bitterness on my behalf is fueled by the fact that he told me at lease signing that there would most likely never be a management fee and if anything expect a refund, he told 2 other tentants the same, I assume this was a lease signing inducement trick, or he sucks at estimating the extra rent figures. we are approaching double the estimate of common charges he gave us. How far is too far, can this guy go out and landscape 100 bannana trees and have us pay for it? I now know i should have tried to corner him into capping the common charges but thats hindsight and i guess i'm a sucker. how should i handle this? thanx
ps. he lists taxes this year increased by 40%, how do i check this?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Before you pay ask for a full accounting with backup of all the charges and expenses. And review all the documents and the methods to determine your percentage. Some expenses would be easy to verify such as electricity and real property taxes by just looking at the bills. Others may be subjective such as the management fee and banana farming.