With prom season and summer approaching, the COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges and confusion for shore rentals and hotels. Unlike the regulation of most other businesses during the pandemic, the regulation of short-term lodging and hotels has been delegated to municipalities and counties by the state. As a result, there now exists a patchwork of varying regulations on a county-by-county and town-by-town basis. Those who own hotels or rental properties, and thwarted travelers looking for remedies, must undertake a careful evaluation of municipal and county directives in effect for the relevant locations. Executive Orders No. 107 and No. 108 and Administrative Order No. 2020-8 Executive Order No. 107, entered March 21, 2020, expressly closed all “non-essential retail businesses” and all recreational and entertainment businesses. In an effort to standardize restrictions throughout the state, Executive Order No. 108, entered on the same day, invalidated any existing or future restriction by a county or municipality that “in any way will or might conflict with any of the provisions of Executive Order No. 107, or which will or might interfere with or impede its achievement, or the achievement of Administrative Orders issued as authorized by [the Governor’s] Executive Orders.” Executive Order No. 108, however, had an exception for the lodging industry. Specifically, the Governor granted the Superintendent of...

Over the last several weeks, our phones have been ringing – a lot. Landlords and tenants want to know what lease obligations they can temporarily forego and what rights they do or do not have, given all that has been wrought by COVID-19, including mandatory closures, suggested closures, social distancing, and the inability to access government offices or courts, to travel, to obtain inventory, supplies, or materials, and, generally, to conduct business and meet responsibilities as contemplated when the governing document was signed. In the last four weeks, there has been much written about the lease clauses and avenues to pursue that are the most relevant to a technical analysis of the questions posed – the force majeure (a/k/a impossibility of performance) clause; the long-shot condemnation clause; the equitable theories based on impossibility, mutual mistake, or simple fairness; insurance recovery; and bankruptcy. So what’s happening in the “real world”? Here’s what we are seeing in our practice. 1. Everyone is nervous. Although this anxiety is, in large measure, due to the facts that we know, it is also clearly driven in large measure by having to plan for the unknown – how bad, how long, what does the “recovery” look like? 2. Obviously, many businesses have already seen drop-offs – in many instances, precipitous drop-offs...

In response to the challenges faced by taxpayers as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS issued Notice 2020-23 on April 10, 2020, which extends many tax filing and payment due dates to as late as July 15, 2020. Notably, this guidance includes deadlines associated with like-kind property exchanges under Section 1031 and investments in Qualified Opportunity Funds (QOFs) under the Qualified Opportunity Zone (QOZ) regime. A like-kind exchange is a tax-deferred transaction that allows for the disposal of an asset, typically real property, and the subsequent acquisition of another similar asset without generating capital gains tax liability from the sale of the initial asset. QOFs allow taxpayers to invest qualified capital gains into real property or businesses located in QOZs, and to defer and partially reduce taxation on the original capital gain while potentially eliminating all taxation on appreciation while in the QOF. Under Notice 2020-23, any person with a specified federal tax payment obligation or a federal tax return or other form filing obligation that would otherwise be due to be performed (originally or pursuant to a valid extension) on or after April 1, 2020 and before July 15, 2020 is deemed to be an affected taxpayer eligible for the later due date. The Notice also lists time-sensitive actions that may be...