GRADUATED LEASE

Long-term lease, normally for commercial property, in which payments are variable and adjusted regularly to reflect changes in its appraised value or changes in a particular publicized benchmark rate including Consumer Price Index (CPI). It gives periodic changes in the payments, rather than using a fixed payment throughout the lease term. Aside from basing payments on current and changing market conditions, the terms on this lease can indicate the payments automatically rise by a specific percentage at regularly specified time intervals.