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The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention extended an eviction moratorium until June this year due to coronavirus, while regulators launched probes into whether renters have been improperly kicked out of their residences, Bloomberg News reported. CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed an order on Monday extending the suspension until June 30, just days before it was set to expire at the end of this month. The move bars landords from evicting tenants who can’t make rental payments amid the pandemic. President Biden asked the CDC to extend bans on evictions and foreclosures shortly after his inauguration, in a bid to mitigate the dual economic and health crises spurred by COVID-19, which has left more than half a million Americans dead, and millions more unemployed and deep in debt. Following the announcement from the CDC, the acting heads of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission said they had also started investigating “deceptive and unfair” eviction practices, focusing on the actions of multistate landlords, private-equity firms and eviction-management services.

Millions of homeowners have been excluded from federal protections providing pandemic-related mortgage-payment relief. Now, many who have suffered setbacks during the public health emergency find their homes are at risk, MarketWatch.com reported. While homeowners with mortgages backed by the federally chartered Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or by the federal government can qualify for up to 18 months of pandemic-related forbearance and are shielded by a foreclosure moratorium that extends through the end of June, among other protections, there’s no nationwide relief for loans that are not federally backed. The result: Non–federally backed borrowers are sometimes offered only short-term payment suspensions and relatively unaffordable repayment plans, and, in the worst cases, they’ve received no relief and lost their homes midpandemic. Their fate often depends on the identity of the loan holder. Many of these loans are held in bank portfolios, where the bank has considerable discretion to offer the type of relief it sees fit, while others are owned by smaller investors or packaged into private-label securities, where the deal documents can govern what types of relief servicers can offer to borrowers.

Mall owner CBL & Associates Properties Inc. reached a truce with bank lenders led by Wells Fargo Bank NA, agreeing to a restructuring proposal that will end negotiations that started months before the company filed for bankruptcy, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. CBL, one of the largest mall owners in the U.S., filed for bankruptcy in November with $4 billion in debt. Under the chapter 11 plan unveiled yesterday, Wells Fargo and other banks owed more than $980 million would walk away with $100 million in cash and more than $880 million in new loans. Bondholders would receive an 89% stake in the reorganized company, $555 million in new secured notes and $95 million in cash. If approved in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston, the restructuring proposal would eliminate CBL’s $1.6 billion in debt and preferred obligations and slash the company’s interest expenses.

Washington Prime Group Inc., the owner of a nationwide group of shopping malls reeling from the pandemic, approached investors to sound out early interest in providing bankruptcy financing as it prepares to file for chapter 11, Bloomberg News reported. Guggenheim, the company’s investment bank, has asked prospective lenders to indicate their interest in providing a potential $150 million debtor-in-possession loan. The real estate investment trust, which owns about 100 malls throughout the U.S., acknowledged that it may have to file for court protection from creditors amid “substantial doubt” about its ability to keep operating. Bloomberg News previously reported that Washington Prime was contemplating bankruptcy. The mall owner’s bankruptcy plans are not yet final and the discussions around the financing could change. Washington Prime is under forbearance with creditors until March 31 after missing a Feb. 15 interest payment. It remains in talks with creditors around a financial restructuring, according to an earnings statement released Wednesday.

Investors will recover less than half of what they put into a collection of Northern California apartment buildings, office parks and other real estate without realizing the business that owned them was running as a Ponzi scheme, according to bankruptcy professionals who took it over after its founder’s death, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. The management of Professional Financial Investors Inc. filed court papers on Sunday outlining a chapter 11 plan that proposes to sell or operate properties and pursue lawsuits to recover as much as possible for creditors owed more than $675 million. The bankruptcy professionals want the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Francisco to aid the cleanup process by making a formal declaration that Professional Financial was a Ponzi scheme as far back as 2007. The company owes at least $237 million to individuals who bought debt instruments it issued, and they aren’t the only creditors. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other bank lenders are first in line to be repaid, secured by top priority on deeds of trust at dozens of properties. Other investors can expect to recover from 35% to 50% of the money they put into Professional Financial, according to court papers. The chapter 11 plan is backed by formal and informal groups of investors who have been on the scene since July 2020, when the business began to fall apart after the death of its founder, Kenneth Casey.

A federal program designed to help people avoid eviction by paying their rent is running into an unexpected hurdle: Some landlords are turning down the payment, saying it comes with too many conditions, the Wall Street Journal reported. Congress has allocated about $50 billion for rental assistance to stave off a surge in evictions of tenants who lost jobs during the pandemic and missed rent payments. The federal support is also meant to help struggling landlords who have to make mortgage payments and have been overwhelmed by tenants falling behind on their rent. But thousands of building owners across the country are rejecting the government offer. They say the aid often has too many strings attached, such as preventing them from removing problematic tenants or compelling them to turn over sensitive financial information to government agencies or contractors. Their decision to forgo the cash could be costly for tens of thousands of renters who have been counting on that aid and who are vulnerable when the national ban on most evictions expires at the end of March, though the government could extend it again. The government has said the money should be used to help low-income tenants pay back part or all of their missed rent for up to 12 months.

Quintessential mall stores from Macy’s Inc. to Kay Jewelers to Gap Inc. are plotting out a post-Covid future — and traditional shopping centers won’t play as much of a role in it, Bloomberg News reported. Signet Jewelers Ltd., which owns chains such as Kay and Zales, said this past week it will expand in off-mall locations while continuing to pull back from the old-school gallerias where it has long had a major presence. The company also plans to add more kiosks in underserved markets. The move brings “an opportunity for a better economic model,” Joan Hilson, Signet’s chief financial officer, said in an interview. “The foot traffic for off-mall locations is better than what we’re seeing in the mall, certainly in this time. It’s really important, and we see that shift continuing.” Retailers are abandoning enclosed malls in growing numbers as the rise of online shopping transforms the industry — a trend that has accelerated during the coronavirus pandemic. Almost a third of retail CFOs are planning to scale back their mall presence, according to a recent survey from consulting firm BDO USA. That’s throwing into question the future of hundreds of traditional malls, already financially struggling before the pandemic, as they grapple with expensive real estate and fewer tenants who want to be there. “Even the ones that haven’t been distressed are being hurt by the lack of foot traffic in the mall,” said David Berliner, head of the restructuring and turnaround practice at BDO. Some are talking about relocating stores from malls to nearby centers anchored by merchants like Walmart Inc. “because they’re going to get more foot traffic than they’re getting at the mall now.”