The decision in Maddox v. Bank of N.Y. Mellon Trust certainly affords safeguards to lenders and mortgagees in that Maddox now narrows a borrower's ability to pursue class damages in federal court for lenders and services for failure to timely record mortgage satisfactions.
When executives aren't sure what normal will look like in where employees work, they can't tell how much office space they need. While some sectors of commercial real estate are stable in terms of tenants, others are a question. That's leading to some pushing for shorter-term leases — ironically, both by tenants and some owners — as well as headaches for underwriting as the predictability of tenancy is up in the air.
As the commercial real estate market undergoes seismic shifts, companies may find themselves in situations where their tenant or their landlord has filed for bankruptcy protection. Questions then quickly arise, such as if and how a landlord may evict a bankrupt tenant, whether a bankrupt tenant may remain as a lessee and continue to occupy the premises, and how to measure damages for a landlord in this situation, both before bankruptcy and going forward post-petition.
A series of strategies and drafting techniques relevant to commercial real estate loan workouts and enforcement. This article isn't a "how-to" primer on loan enforcement or restructuring the distressed loan, it identifies some of the current solutions and insights that have been observed, implemented and proposed during this pandemic-impacted workout cycle.
Commercial insurance prices are rising as increased costs from climate change, the supply chain crisis and inflation take hold, Westchester, a commercial property, and casualty insurance underwriter, said in a new report.
In a recent case, the Tenth Circuit joined other circuits in holding that government closure orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic do not trigger insurance coverage for loss of business income, reasoning that the temporary inability to use property caused by COVID shutdown orders doesn't involve a covered physical loss of property.
Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code grants debtors the ability to assume or reject any executory contract or unexpired lease. Debtors must assume or reject a lease in its entirety and are not free under Section 365 to assume only favorable provisions of a lease. Courts, however, have consistently held that they will not find a multi-property master lease to be a unitary lease merely because such properties are demised in a single document.
The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged commercial landlords to rely on various legal theories to protect their legitimate rights. As federal, state and local governments enact laws to protect tenants from evictions and/or the enforcement of personal lease guarantees, a landlord's counsel must seek avenues to press its clients' rights against any entity who may be liable for outstanding rent arrears due and owing under a commercial lease.
While we all look forward to returning to normal, the normal we left in early 2020 remains elusive. For those who are leading teams (such as executive committees, practice and industry groups, client teams, administrative departments, and firm committees), the struggle is more complex.
The pandemic has highlighted vulnerabilities in two of the most popular forms of tenant security — guaranties and cash security deposits. This article examines the impact of the pandemic on each of those types of security and offers some suggestions for landlords going forward.
