INTERNATIONAL NETWORK OF LAW AND CONSULTING FIRMS
Landlords are receiving a deluge of requests to provide rent relief to commercial tenants whose operations have either been closed or substantially restricted as a result of state and local governments’ COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and related restrictions.
On May 26, 2020, the New York City Council passed two laws, intended to provide relief to certain commercial tenants during the COVID-19 pandemic. This advisory summarizes these laws, their implications, and their potential vulnerability to legal challenge.
One of the most obvious effects of the state of alarm generated by COVID-19 has been the renegotiation of current rents, and specifically the forgiveness or reduction agreed between the property and the lessee of the amounts to be paid.
Finally, after what has seemed like an interminable wait, businesses are now able to consider the promised legislation protecting commercial tenants from insolvency proceedings (the Coronavirus Act loophole).
The pandemic leads us to a situation typical of science fiction literature. No one had foreseen that this year we would find ourselves in a panorama of restricted freedoms and alteration of our family and economic relationships such as that imposed by this scourge.
