There are several important topics for both tenants and landlords to consider from a bankruptcy perspective while negotiating lease amendments.

By now it is clear that the New York State legislature is not going to provide rent relief to commercial tenants and are leaving it to the affected parties themselves to navigate these rough and unprecedented waters brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

During the past six months, many commercial landlords and tenants have been engaging in discussions concerning the tenant's difficulty in meeting its monthly lease obligations.  In an attempt to address these difficulties, some of the affected parties have been entering into lease amendments to document their revised monetary obligations, while other tenants were able to enter into lease termination agreements with their landlord to the extent they could no longer continue paying their lease's monetary obligations. Other tenants, who were not able to arrange these amendments, or not economically viable enough to do so, have or will have to, resort to filing bankruptcy. As this pandemic continues, more tenants will need to seek the protection of bankruptcy.