Lease Abstraction Table
When you need the key terms of a lease in a consistent, cited format for onboarding, diligence, a rent roll check or calendaring, separate from any risk review.
Lease abstraction is the unglamorous foundation of real estate work. Acquisitions, financings, portfolio onboarding and lease administration all depend on a reliable summary of who pays what, when the term ends, and which options must be exercised by when. Abstracts are tedious to build by hand, and errors in a rent schedule or an option notice window can be costly. A consistent, cited format makes them faster to produce and easier to check.
This prompt puts the full lease and its amendments in a tag, states which side you act for and why, and then asks for a neutral, facts-only abstract in a three-column table: field, abstract and source. Claude quotes short phrases where wording matters, writes 'Not found' instead of inferring missing terms, reports the current term when amendments change it, shows any date calculations, and ends with conflicts and missing referenced documents. It deliberately does no risk review.
Claude can misread a scanned page, miss a term defined in an exhibit, or carry an amendment forward incorrectly, so every figure and date should be checked against the executed lease. The source column exists to make that check quick. Risk analysis is a separate task, and the attorney remains responsible for the accuracy of any abstract relied on in a transaction or provided to a client or lender.
The Prompt
<lease> [PASTE THE FULL LEASE, INCLUDING ALL AMENDMENTS, EXHIBITS, RIDERS AND THE WORK LETTER] </lease> Context: We act for [LANDLORD / TENANT / LENDER / BUYER] on [PURPOSE, e.g., portfolio onboarding, acquisition diligence]. Premises are [PROPERTY TYPE, e.g., retail, office, industrial]. Prepare a neutral lease abstract. Extract facts only. Do not assess risk or recommend changes. Output a table with three columns: Field | Abstract | Source (section, exhibit or amendment and page if shown). Use these fields: - Parties: landlord, tenant, guarantor - Lease date; amendments (list each with date) - Premises: address, suite, rentable square feet, usable square feet, pro rata share - Term: commencement date, rent commencement date, expiration date - Base rent schedule (by period, annual and monthly amounts) - Escalations (method and dates) - Free rent or abatement - Operating expenses, CAM and taxes: structure (gross, net, base year, expense stop), caps, exclusions, reconciliation timing - Security deposit or letter of credit - Permitted use and exclusive use - Renewal, expansion, contraction, termination and purchase options (with notice windows) - Assignment and subletting: consent standard, recapture, profit sharing - Insurance requirements (types and limits) - Maintenance and repair responsibilities - Holdover rate - Notice addresses for each party, and notice method Rules: 1. Quote short phrases where wording matters (for example, consent standards and notice windows). 2. If a field is not in the lease, write "Not found." Do not infer it. 3. If amendments change a term, give the current term and cite both the original and the amendment. 4. If dates require calculation, show the calculation. 5. After the table, list conflicts between sections and any referenced documents that were not provided. This abstract is a draft for attorney or paralegal review against the executed lease.
Example Output
A three-column abstract table covering parties, term, rent, expenses, options, assignment, insurance and notices, each with a section cite or 'Not found,' followed by conflicts and missing documents.
Illustrative example — names, figures, and facts are fictional.
LEASE ABSTRACT (DRAFT) Property: 4410 Harbor Commons Blvd, Suite 210 (fictional) | Acting for: Buyer, acquisition diligence Field | Abstract | Source Landlord | Harbor Commons Owner LLC | Preamble Tenant | Saltmarsh Dental PLLC | Preamble Guarantor | Dr. Mira Castellan (personal) | Exhibit E Lease date | March 1, 2022 | Preamble Amendments | First Amendment, June 15, 2024 | First Am. Sec. 1 Rentable SF | 3,420 RSF | Sec. 1.4 Pro rata share | 6.84% | Sec. 1.5 Commencement | May 1, 2022 | Sec. 2.1 Rent commencement | Aug. 1, 2022 (3 months abated) | Sec. 2.2; Sec. 4.3 Expiration | July 31, 2032 (extended from July 31, 2029) | Sec. 2.1; First Am. Sec. 2 Base rent | Lease Yr 1: $27.00/RSF ($92,340/yr; $7,695/mo), then per Exhibit C schedule | Exhibit C Escalations | "three percent (3%)" annually; effective date conflicts (see below) | Sec. 4.2; Exhibit C Expense structure | NNN; tenant pays pro rata share of Operating Expenses and Taxes | Sec. 5.1 CAM cap | Controllable expenses capped at 5% per year, non-cumulative | Sec. 5.4 Reconciliation | Within 120 days after calendar year end | Sec. 5.6 Security deposit | $15,390 cash | Sec. 6.1 Permitted use | "general and cosmetic dentistry and related office uses" | Sec. 7.1 Exclusive use | Not found | Renewal option | One 5-year option; notice "not less than nine (9) nor more than twelve (12) months" before expiration | Sec. 20.1 Assignment/sublet | Landlord consent "not to be unreasonably withheld"; 50% profit sharing; no recapture found | Sec. 12.1, 12.4 Insurance | CGL $1M per occurrence / $2M aggregate | Sec. 11.1 Holdover | 150% of last monthly base rent | Sec. 22 Notices: Landlord | 900 Pier St, Ste 5, [CITY] | Sec. 1.10 Notices: Tenant | The Premises | Sec. 1.10 Notice method | Certified mail or overnight courier | Sec. 25 Calculation: Renewal notice window opens July 31, 2031 (12 months before) and closes Oct. 31, 2031 (9 months before), measured from the amended expiration of July 31, 2032. Confirm the day-counting convention before calendaring. CONFLICTS AND MISSING ITEMS - Sec. 4.2 escalates on "each anniversary of the Commencement Date" (May 1); Exhibit C escalates on Aug. 1. Confirm which controls. - Sec. 5.2 references "Exhibit D (Excluded Expenses)," which was not provided. Draft for review against the executed lease.
Tips
- •Paste amendments in date order after the base lease. Claude can then report the current term while citing the original and the change.
- •Ask for the output as CSV or a markdown table if you are loading abstracts into a spreadsheet for a portfolio.
- •Use lease-review-analyzer separately if the client also wants risk commentary. Keeping the abstract neutral makes it easier to share.
- •Run deadline-date-extractor on the same lease to calendar option notice windows and expiration.
- •Spot-check every rent figure and date against the executed lease. The abstract is a draft for review, not a substitute for the document.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Claude read a lease accurately enough to abstract it?
Claude handles clean lease text well and can produce a complete, cited abstract quickly. Accuracy drops with poor scans, handwritten changes, and terms spread across many amendments. That is why the prompt requires a source cite for every field and 'Not found' instead of guesses. Treat the abstract as a draft and check each figure and date against the executed lease.
How is this different from the Lease Review Analyzer?
The abstract is neutral data extraction: what the lease says, where it says it, and what is missing. The Lease Review Analyzer evaluates risk and suggests negotiation points from one side's perspective. Keeping them separate makes the abstract suitable for sharing with lenders, buyers or property managers, and lets you run risk review only where a client needs it.
Can I change the fields to match our firm's abstract template?
Yes. Replace the field list with your template's fields in the same order, and keep the three rules about quoting, 'Not found' and citing amendments. If your template has fields specific to a property type, such as co-tenancy for retail or hazardous materials for industrial, add them. Consistent fields across abstracts make portfolio comparisons much easier.
What about leases with many amendments?
Paste the base lease followed by each amendment in date order, and tell Claude how many amendments there should be. The prompt asks for the current term with cites to both the original and the amending section. For heavily amended leases, ask Claude to add a short amendment history table so a reviewer can trace each change.
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