Real Estate Litigation Partner, Lee Dresie, shares his commentary with Bisnow in a recent article discussing the potential eviction wave to come as Los Angeles rolls back COVID-19 protections for renters. Small businesses make up the majority of businesses in LA and many of them are struggling with thousands in rent debt. City leaders are now exploring ways to help small businesses pay back rent they owe from the hit of the pandemic. With experience winning high-stakes judgments and defenses in real estate, Dresie suggests three months is not enough leeway time for business owners to repay their debt. Factors Dresie is considering in his analysis are whether the tenant's contract included below-market rent, the tenant's history prior to the pandemic, and long-term tenant success projections.

Excerpt:

“[Landlords] are going to have to make a decision whether to enforce the strict requirements about repayment or make a decision that they want the tenant to survive, and therefore, give them more time,” said Dresie, whose clients are both commercial landlords and tenants. “But that'll be on a case-by-case basis.”

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