Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Have you ever been eating at home or a friends house when the cook exclaims, "guess the secret ingredient?"  I heard a story about a Mormon missionary serving in France who thought it would be funny to add a special ingredient in his scrambled eggs for new missionaries.  One disliked the fact that the secret ingredient was cow brains enough to permanently dissuade him from continuing the joke.

A clause in your lease that includes an escalation based upon the CPI index, is a bit like that secret ingredient if you don't know it's there.

I recommend reading the article called How to Use the Consumer Price Index for Escalation published by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS).  You'll then be as smart or more than likely smarter than the Landlord on how it's used while avoiding costly oversights or miscalculations.