Martin Santerre :
Your lease audit expert

In 1983, Martin Santerre CPA, CA graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Université du Quebec à Montreal, receiving the award of distinction bestowed upon the student with the best academic performance. He went on to obtain his Chartered Accountant (CA) designation in 1985 after an internship with the largest accounting firm in Canada.

Today, Martin Santerre is a renowned real estate specialist with over thirty five years of experience in the industry. His expertise touches all aspects of real estate, including office buildings, retail properties, industrial premises, residential buildings and retirement residences.

For about fifteen years, Martin Santerre held high-level operation and management positions with leading real estate companies. During this time, he successfully completed several mandates that consisted of managing and reorganizing the accounting and financial services of sizeable real estate portfolios, some of them comprising up to 9 million square feet. He was also actively involved in numerous real estate transactions with a total value of over 2 billion dollars.

In 2004, he founded MJS Financial Management Inc., which focuses on offering his clients very judicious advice and high-level professional services. Not only does Martin Santerre dedicate all of his efforts to the representation and defense of rental space users, but his analytical skills, financial acumen, competence, educational background, creativity and real estate expertise enable him to concretely increase the profitability of each and every one of his tenant clients.

Martin Santerre has an enviable reputation in the area of lease management and audits and is acknowledged as an industry expert by tenants, landlords and attorneys. His many years spent working for real estate companies have allowed him to acquire in-depth knowledge of the means, methods and stratagems adopted by landlords to administer their commercial leases, and now help him identify and implement methods of unmasking these strategies so that tenants can obtain unexpected and surprising rental refunds. Numerous clients, lawyers and other industry stakeholders regularly contact Martin Santerre, be it to ask for advice when drafting commercial lease clauses, to seek his help when conflicts arise between tenants and landlords, or to invite him to share his knowledge during conferences or employee training seminars.

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The MJS services advantages:
Risk-free investment geared towards you.

There are numerous reasons to rely on MJS. Here are a few.

• We have a broad expertise and over 35 years of experience in real estate and commercial lease management.
• The amounts we are able to recoup from landlords are often astounding and unexpected and are much greater than what tenants could have obtained on their own.
• Contrary to our competitors (most of whom perform superficial and fragmented lease audits), our unique audit program focuses on the analysis and scrutiny of every lease component with a direct or indirect impact on the financial relationship with the landlord, all with a view to maximizing quantum of claims.
• Unlike real estate brokerage firms that offer lease audit services as a complement to their main brokerage business, we have no conflict of interest with landlords, since we only represent and are compensated by tenants. In fact, brokerage firms will look to protect landlords, to maintain harmonious business relationships with those who pay them commissions to represent tenants that enter into commercial leases with building owners. Additionally, brokers could then face landlords’ opposition if they wish to rent spaces in one of their buildings coveted by a future client/tenant.
• Thanks to Martin Santerre’s 15 years of experience working for leading real estate companies, we are well versed in the ins and outs of the real estate industry and the landlords’ habitual bag of tricks.
• Our expertise and understanding of the real estate industry allow us to negotiate on even grounds with landlords in a language they understand. We can, moreover, properly gauge the credibility of their case and the explanations they provide with regard to the elements noted during the lease audit.
• Our familiarity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and accounting and financial information corroboration procedures, combined with solid skills in the legal and financial interpretation of commercial leases and extraordinary analytical and conceptual skills, set us apart from the competition.
• We regularly work in close collaboration with legal advisors who specialize in commercial leasing and real estate litigation. This ensures that we are well-informed of the jurisprudence and interpretations ensuing from legal decisions concerning landlord-tenant conflicts.
• When negotiating with your landlord on your behalf, we help protect your future relationship with the latter by taking on the role of “tough guy” and leaving the ‘’nice guy’’ role to you.
• We can help you obtain the right to audit your rental charges if this right is not already granted by your lease.
• Landlords refer to us as formidable adversaries.
• We have established a very flexible fee base for our services.
• We adjust our service offering and strategy to the specific needs of our clients.

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The compensation process:
Three ways to better serve you.

Our services are billed by one or a combination of three different methods, based on the nature and scope of the proposed mandate. These methods are the following:

• Fixed fees: a fixed fee is agreed to by the consultant and client. This method is often used when carrying out a preliminary analysis of a client’s file or executing specific and limited procedures. With a fixed fee, the bill is issued at the end of the mandate.
• Hourly fees: an hourly fixed rate is quoted to the client, and fees are based on actual hours worked (and billed to the case), times this rate. A monthly bill is issued for the duration of the mandate. This method enables the client to monitor costs and compare them to results over time.
• Contingency basis: fees are calculated as a percentage of the rental charges recovered from the landlord. This method is the one preferred by the vast majority of our clients, as it is essentially risk-free for the tenant, with fees payable only if rental charges are recovered. MJS assumes all of the risks, including upfront expenses (time and costs). Any recovered rental amounts are split between the client and MJS, and fees are only payable once the mandate is completed.

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