Issue link: https://mbozikis.ufcontent.com/i/1422521
104 up to ninety days for cause, 56 or (ii) the date a Chapter 11 plan of reorganization is confirmed. However, in response to the COVID- 19 pandemic, Section 365(d)(4) was amended under the CAA Amendments so that debtors now have an initial two hundred and ten day period to assume or reject non-residential real property leases, as compared to the prior one hundred and twenty day period. The amendment maintains the possibility of a ninety day extension. This amendment will expire in December 2022. 11 U.S.C. ยง 365(d)(4). Sections 365(d)(3) and 365(d)(5) also require that the trustee perform certain obligations arising under leases for both nonresidential real property as well as personal property pending their assumption or rejection. According to Section 365(d)(3), the trustee must perform virtually all of the obligations of a debtor arising from and after the order for relief under a lease of nonresidential real property, provided that the court may, upon a showing of cause, extend the deadline for performance of any such obligation, but subject to the limitation that any obligation that arises within the first sixty days after the date of the order for relief must be performed within such sixty day period. This seemingly straightforward language has led to a split among the courts as to what payments are required. Some courts subscribe to the "performance date" approach. See, e.g., Centerpoint Props. v. Montgomery Ward Holding Corp. (In re Montgomery Ward Holding Corp.), 268 F.3d 205, 211 (3d Cir. 2001). Pursuant to the "performance date" approach, if the debtor files in the middle of a rent cycle, the debtor need not pay rent until the first postpetition payment is due under the lease. This creates two classes of claims that need not be paid currently. First, there is a claim for any unpaid prepetition rent which will be treated as a general unsecured claim. Second, the stub period claim of rent accrued from the petition date through the first postpetition payment date, the so-called "stub rent." 57 Other courts subscribe to the "pro rata" 56 Pursuant to Section 365(d)(4)(B)(ii), subsequent extensions may be granted only upon prior written consent of the lessor. 57 The stub rent would be afforded administrative priority status to the extent that it was an actual, necessary expense of preserving the estate, although it