Square footage certification

"Any bozo who can hold a tape measure can measure square footage."
from Lease Audits: The Essential Guide
"This text will assume that the goal of measuring square footage is to achieve an accurate result which is objectively verifiable and which complies with law or standards for measurement as applicable to the lease in question.
The trick is to measure the premises to the same supportable number twice in a row. An even better trick is to measure, arrive at a sum, and then tell another person how you measured it - such that he can do so without further coaching and come up with the same sum. The final coup de grace is to measure the space accurately such that it can be remeasured to the same sum while following instructions which are legally supportable as the proper way to measure space under the lease applicable to those circumstances.
Either of 3 possibilities may permit the motivate novice to attempt to measure a given leased premises:
(1) Blithe ignorance coupled with overconfidence;
(2) Care, study, and innate aptitude; or
(3) Extreme simplicity of premises to be measured.
Issues which are important include each of the following:
A. Whether certified numbers are based upon as-built measurements which are essential to reliable accuracy.
B. The certification must be based upon a configuration of exterior walls, both of the building and of the suite, which exists at a time relevant to the analysis.
C. The certification should state the underlying basis of the measurement, often that it is in accordance with a stated standard - be it BOMA or some other standard which is accepted as the appropriate one for the particular premises at issue.
D. Require that the certification be directed to the tenant who relies upon it so that the person performing the certification knows that tenant is relying upon it." for more information see ; www.houstonrealtyadvisors.net