Firm: Buchalter
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Tag: covid19
Buchalter | July 2020

On July 23, SBA announced that lenders may begin submitting PPP loan forgiveness requests to SBA on August 10.  To assist lenders, SBA issued a Procedural Notice with new guidance regarding lenders’ reviews of forgiveness applications.  The Notice may be found here:  https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/5000-20038.pdf The Notice reaffirmed forgiveness guidance and rules previously issued ...

Buchalter | July 2020

On July 28, the Federal Reserve announced that many of its emergency lending facilities, including the Main Street Lending Program’s New Loan Facility, Priority Loan Facility, Expanded Loan Facility, Nonprofit Organization New Loan Facility and Nonprofit Organization Expanded Loan Facility, are being extended to December 31, 2020.  The facilities were previously scheduled to be available until on or about September 30, 2020 ...

Buchalter | August 2020

It is no secret that business bankruptcies are surging in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, chapter 11 filings increased 26% in the first half of 2020,[1] and some expect the number of cases to increase even more in the coming months.[2] From retailers to airlines to telecommunications companies, few sectors of the economy are immune. As a result, more and more businesses will face the prospect of one or more of their customers filing chapter 11 ...

Buchalter | August 2020

On July 31st the Federal Reserve posted amended versions of a number of Main Street Lending Program (MSLP) transaction documents, including the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Term Sheets for MSLP.  Many of the changes reflect recent announcements, such as the expansion of the program to include the Nonprofit Organization New Loan Facility (NONLF) and the Nonprofit Organization Expanded Loan Facility (NOELF).  Other changes, particularly to the FAQs, provide new guidance ...

Buchalter | August 2020

A recent New York federal court decision has called into question whether businesses may safely rely on Department of Labor guidance regarding the recently passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). The FFCRA provides employees of businesses with fewer than 500 employees with two temporary forms of paid leave—Emergency Paid Sick Leave and Emergency Family and Medical Leave ...

Buchalter | August 2020

While many of us are working from home due to the current pandemic, criminals and scammers are also hard at work from home and have been increasingly more brazen since the stay-at-home orders have been put into effect. In popular media, we see television shows such as “90 Day Fiancé,” “Catfish: The TV Show,” and others depicting people being scammed by unscrupulous individuals online who are pretending to be someone they are not ...

Buchalter | August 2020

On August 27, HUD announced that it is extending its Covid-related foreclosure and eviction moratoriums for FHA insured loans set to expire on August 31, until December 31, 2020, and issued a Mortgagee Letter implementing the extensions. On the same day, the Federal Housing Finance Agency announced that the single-family foreclosure and eviction moratoriums for Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, also set to expire on August 31, will be extended until December 31, 2020 ...

Buchalter | September 2020

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued an order titled “Temporary Halt in Residential Evictions To Prevent the Further Spread of COVID-19” (“Order”) forbidding evictions of residential tenants who do not exceed certain income levels (generally $99,000 for an individual), are unable to make full rental payments due to substantial loss of income, loss of job, or extraordinary medical expense, and have exhausted all available governmental sources o

Buchalter | September 2020

It is no secret that the world has rapidly changed over the last several months. Many companies are reevaluating their business models to adjust to the challenges caused by the world-wide pandemic and to hopefully identify new business opportunities that may arise as a result of a new business environment ...

Buchalter | September 2020

On August 8, 2020, the President of the United States issued a Presidential Memorandum directing the Secretary of the Treasury to use his authority pursuant to section 7508A of the Internal Revenue Code to defer the withholding, deposit, and payment of certain payroll tax obligations for the remainder of 2020. In Notice 2020-65, the IRS provides guidance implementing the payroll tax deferral.  What wages are eligible?  Eligibility is subject to income limits ...

Buchalter | September 2020

On Thursday, August 13, the California Judicial Council elected to rescind Emergency Rules 1 and 2 related to eviction and foreclosure actions in California applicable to both residential and commercial properties, effective September 1, 2020. Emergency Rules 1 and 2, previously put in place on April 6, prevented all unlawful detainer and foreclosure actions statewide, except in cases of public health or safety ...

Buchalter | September 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many hospitality professionals and their clients to confront bankruptcy, insolvency, and loan workout issues for the first time since the Great Recession.  Chapter 11 presents a host of unique issues for hotels and other hospitality businesses ...

Buchalter | September 2020

By: Joshua M. Robbins, Michael C. Flynn, and Robert S. Gillison The past decade has taught lenders much about regulatory enforcement risk.  In the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis and collapse of the housing and related markets, the Department of Justice and other agencies aggressively stepped up investigations of lenders seen as complicit in the misconduct of borrowers and others ...

Buchalter | September 2020

San Francisco’s Department of Public Health (“SFDPH”) issued yet-another update to its Shelter-in-Place Order, C19-07, on September 14, 2020 (now up to version “i”). This order has been frequently modified to reflect changes in other state and local directives, as more is learned about the disease and as more businesses are allowed to re-open ...

Buchalter | October 2020

On September 23, California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order extending the ability of local jurisdictions to enact their own eviction moratoriums on commercial tenancies from September 30, 2020 to March 31, 2021. This extension follows weeks of pressure from mayors and county officials throughout California who argued that a wave of commercial evictions would be coming if no action was taken legislatively or executively by September 30 ...

Buchalter | October 2020

On October 2, the SBA issued SBA Procedural Notice 5000-20057, Paycheck Protection Program Loans and Changes of Ownership (“Notice”).    A link to the Notice is set out below ...

Buchalter | October 2020

On September 17, 2020, Governor Gavin Newsome signed AB 685 into law.  Effective January 1, 2021, AB 685 makes several changes to the California Labor Code regarding occupational exposure to COVID-19.  This includes authorizing Cal-OSHA to essentially shut down a workplace if it determines that the risk of COVID-19 exposure constitutes an imminent hazard to employees ...

Buchalter | October 2020

On September 28, 2020 Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill (“AB”) 1561, which extends “by 18 months the period for the expiration, effectuation, or utilization of a housing entitlement” that was in effect on March 4, 2020 and will expire prior to December 31, 2021 ...

Buchalter | October 2020

On October 8, Treasury issued a new Interim Final Rule Re Additional Revisions to Loan Forgiveness and Loan Review Procedures Interim Final Rules (new IFR), along with a new Loan Forgiveness Application Form 3508S and Instructions for the new Form, addressing applications for forgiveness of PPP loans of $50,000 or less.  Links to the new IFR, the new Form 3508S, and the new Instructions for Form 3508S are set out below ...

Buchalter | November 2020

On October 20, 2020, San Francisco County was upgraded to the “minimal” tier within the California COVID-19 tracking system, meaning it has the fewest restrictions on reopening all businesses as promulgated by the State of California. In order to qualify for the “minimal” tier, a county must have an infection rate of less than one daily new positive COVID case per 100,000 residents and have a positive test rate of less than 2% for two consecutive weeks ...

Buchalter | November 2020

On October 20, 2020, San Francisco County was upgraded to the “minimal” tier within the California COVID-19 tracking system, meaning it has the fewest restrictions on reopening all businesses as promulgated by the State of California. In order to qualify for the “minimal” tier, a county must have an infection rate of less than one daily new positive COVID case per 100,000 residents and have a positive test rate of less than 2% for two consecutive weeks ...

Buchalter | November 2020

On November 17, 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an extension to the commercial eviction moratorium that had been previously enacted and extended on a month-to-month basis by mayoral declaration. The new commercial eviction ordinance (the “Ordinance”) keeps the majority of the terms of the current moratorium in effect, while providing a new four-tiered system for qualified tenants for repayment of deferred rent ...

Buchalter | November 2020

The Federal government’s COVID emergency loan programs and credit facilities have moved into critical new phases.  As highlighted by the recent media focus on the new SBA PPP Forgiveness Questionnaire for borrowers, both borrowers and lenders face new and challenging issues regarding these loan programs, particularly PPP loans and the Main Street Loan Program. PPP Loan Program – For most borrowers, the time period for spending PPP loan proceeds has expired ...

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