News Topic: Commercial Landlords

Recently in the Abengoa SA bankruptcy proceeding ( click here to review prior post), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware entered an order permitting Debtors to reject certain nonresidential real property leases (the “Rejection ... Read full article

On April 7, 2016, Pacific Sunwear of California, Inc. (aka PacSun, aka Pacific Sunwear) filed for chapter 11 protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware. Through the bankruptcy, Pacific Sunwear is seeking bankruptcy ... Read full article

Not uncommonly, the timing of a commercial tenant’s bankruptcy filing will correspond with a landlord seeking to evict the tenant or institute foreclosure proceedings.  What is the effect of a dismissal requested by a commercial debtor after the landlord ... Read full article

In a  prior post , we discussed the ruling of the Northern District of California Bankruptcy Court in the In re Howrey LLP case, whereby the Court found that claims for unpaid rent of landlords of an involuntary debtor were entitled to priority status. ... Read full article

On August 11, 2015, the Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of California ruled on an issue “of apparent first impression” that claims for unpaid rent brought by landlords for office space leased to the former law firm of Howrey LLP should be given ... Read full article

With several significant recent bankruptcy filings such as RadioShack and Saladworks, tenant bankruptcies become a greater risk for commercial landlords. Yet some landlords are not familiar with the rights provided to them under the Bankruptcy Code, nor ... Read full article

With the RadioShack Corporation bankruptcy action affecting the rights of many commercial landlords, it is important to determine ways that landlords can protect themselves during the course of the bankruptcy action. First, requiring a third-party ... Read full article

Security deposits are considered property of the bankruptcy estate, and as such, are generally required to be returned to the debtor.  Even so,  landlords are permitted in certain instances to setoff their rejection damage claim against the security ... Read full article

Landlords may be able to recover attorneys’ fees incurred when a debtor-tenant seeks to assume the lease, or assume and assign the lease to a third party.  To recover attorney’s fees, however, the landlord must meet several criteria.  First, the lease ... Read full article

Section 365(d)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code requires the debtor-tenant to “timely perform all the obligations …. under any unexpired lease of nonresidential real property” until such time that the tenant assumes or rejects the lease.  If a tenant files for ... Read full article

In conjunction with assuming the lease,  the Bankruptcy Code allows the debtor-tenant to assign the lease to a third party.  The party who is assigned the lease must provide the landlord with adequate assurance that it can meet the financial obligations ... Read full article

Assumption of the lease is permissible even if the terms of the lease expressly prohibit assumption.  Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code requires a debtor-tenant to meet certain criteria in order to “assume” a lease.  First, and most importantly, the ... Read full article

If the debtor-tenant seeks to terminate and surrender the lease, that is “reject it”, the landlord may be entitled to a “rejection damage” claim.  A landlord is not entitled to the full amount of unpaid obligations for the balance of the lease.  Instead, ... Read full article

Section 365(d) of the Bankruptcy Code requires the debtor-tenant to satisfy all the terms under the lease during the post petition period until the tenant either rejects the lease, or assumes and assigns it to a third-party.  The landlord’s claim for ... Read full article

The automatic stay is one of the most powerful protections provided to debtors in a bankruptcy proceeding.  The stay acts as an injunction that prohibits creditors (including landlords) from commencing or continuing any proceeding against the debtor which ... Read full article