Accounting Rule Change Might Impact HVAC

By Mike Kaler
Thursday, November 4, 2010

There is a proposed change to accounting rules that could impact the HVAC industry.  FASB 13 is now in final draft form and is scheduled for implementation 1/1/2012.  The significant change to the accounting rules is that corporations would be required to capitalize their lease agreements as opposed to expense their lease payments.  According to the Domestic Real Estate Leader for Genworth Financial this will drive companies to only accept very short lease terms (3 years at most) and triple net leases.  Sarah Bagby commented that capitalizing the energy cost component of a full service lease will make no sense.  She would be equally reluctant to sign long term leases that would show up on the books as a capital expense.  She also questioned why Genworth should lease at all under this scenario versus purchasing a building.  One implication of this thought might be to all but eliminate speculative development for larger corporate clients.