Bankruptcy in a Coronavirus World

Jun 28, 2020

With so many businesses shuttered and federal financial relief delayed, employees, tenants, landlords and lenders are trying to work things out and survive until business gets back to usual. But for some, federal relief may come too late and negotiations may not work out as well as we all hope.

As part of your arsenal of negotiation and survival tactics it is important to be aware of your rights to seek bankruptcy relief either as a landlord or tenant. Let me be clear.

We are not recommending or encouraging anyone to file for bankruptcy protection.But it is good to know what your Plan B might be if things don't go as planned.

Atlas has shrugged and it is hard to know for certain what is going to happen and how well your plans will go. That's why my panelists and I are going to educate and inform you on your bankruptcy options.

This is the audio only recording of a webinar originally presented on April 16, 2020. The video recording of the webinar which contains additional written material is available on YouTube. To watch the full video replay, click here.

The following are some of the topics that we discuss:

• When and Why You Should Be Thinking About Bankruptcy,
  • Canadian bankruptcy perspective if parties cannot negotiate a deal,
• Applying security deposit to past due rents and requesting tenant to replenish security deposit.
  • Applying letters of credit during eviction moratoriums
• CARES Act & Covid-19 changes to the bankruptcy code & Canadian equivalents,
• Do companies come out of bankruptcy?

TENANT PERSPECTIVES

• US Bankruptcy Chapters
• Canadian Bankruptcy Law
• Tenant retention of possession of premises in Chapter
• Difference between Chapter 11, subchapter 5 and a Chapter 13
• Distinction between secured or unsecured creditor
• Landlord strategies to secure judgment for collection purposes
  • Judgment liens and perfection
• Landlord issues in the event of a tenant bankruptcy
• Assumption of Leases
  • Special retail considerations
  • Canadian provisions
• Lease rejection and corresponding damages
• Automatic Stay and Relief from the Automatic Stay
• How do rent moratoriums affect tenant's obligations to pay administrative rent
• Bankruptcy abuse and In Rem relief for repeated or bad faith bankruptcies
• Tenant's perspective of a landlord's bankruptcy
• Retail bankruptcy and how it may differ from other bankruptcies.

 

My Panelists are:

Sara Chenetz,Esq, a bankruptcy lawyer and partner in the US national law firm of Perkins Coie. for more information on Sara, click here.

Richard Golubow, Esq. a bankruptcy lawyer and partner in the California law firm of Winthrop Golubow Hollander. For more information on Richard click here

Catherine Francis, Esq., a Canadian bankruptcy lawyer and partner in the Canadian law firm of Minden Gross, LLP. for more information on Catherine, click here.

My name is Howard F. Kline. I am a general business and real estate attorney with a primary focus on commercial landlord tenant matters, including lease negotiations, rent collections and commercial evictions. I also serve as an arbitrator and mediator focusing on commercial landlord tenant disputes.