Columbus Standard

Lenders are using "vulture tactics" to prey on borrowers hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic's economic impact, a Columbus hotel general manager said in a recent letter to his congressional representative.

The lenders hovering over the pandemic-distressed properties "are well within their legal rights to do," Courtyard by Marriott Columbus Tipton Lakes General Manager Michele Gates said in his April 2 letter to Rep. Greg Pence (R-IN).

In a copy of the two-page letter obtained by the Columbus Standard, Gates told Pence that the lenders' scheme is "unconscionable from a moral perspective and stand starkly against the principles that we share here in the United States."

"Frankly, to take advantage of this crisis for the sake of better returns for some New York hedge fund strikes me as unAmerican," Gates continued in her letter. "The negative impact to hotel owners and their employees of these vulture tactics will be long lasting."

Gates urged Pence to join with other members of congress, the Federal Reserve and other regulatory agencies "to address this situation before hotels across this country are mercilessly foreclosed on due to no fault of their own." Among other things, Gates called for an 18-month moratorium on foreclosure proceedings to allow hotel owners "time they will need to come up with reasonable solutions and strategies."

Pence, older brother of Vice President Mike Pence, told a Columbus-area radio station late last month that he didn't like the high price-tag on the $2 trillion CARES Act passed by Congress, but said it had to be done.

"I am not happy at all with the bill, with that amount of money," the elder Pence told WKKG. "I have been a proponent for the last two and a half weeks that, number one, we take care of the workers; number two, we take care of the middle class; and number three, we take care of small businesses. There's an awful lot of other things in there that I am very disappointed about."

The stimulus legislation includes some foreclosure relief, mostly for family-owned properties.

In addition, some states have set up foreclosure moratoriums and stays, often covering small and large properties from lender asset seizure when payments aren't made during the pandemic.

Indiana is one of those states, thanks to an executive order issued March 20 by Gov. Eric Holcomb. However, the order, which bars initiation of residential eviction proceedings or foreclosure actions "during the declared public health emergency," only covers single family households.

Larger properties received some protection in an interagency statement issued March 22 by the Federal Reserve, FDIC and other regulatory agencies that encouraged the nation's banks to work proactively with borrowers hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The agencies encourage financial institutions to work prudently with borrowers who are or may be unable to meet their contractual payment obligations because of the effects of COVID-19," the statement said. "The agencies view loan modification programs as positive actions that can mitigate adverse effects on borrowers due to COVID-19. The agencies will not criticize institutions for working with borrowers and will not direct supervised institutions to automatically categorize all COVID-19 related loan modifications as troubled debt restructurings (TDRs)."

Gates called the interagency statement "undoubtedly a step in the right direction" but said not all borrowers have loans from FDIC-insured banks.

"However, billions of dollars of hotel loans in our country come from unregulated non-banks such as hedge funds and other investment funds," Gates's letter said. "Since the Federal Reserve and the FDIC have no direct oversight of these firms, they are unlikely to follow the previously mentioned guidance. They are more likely to take a different approach: the use of vulture tactics to extract as much 'value' out of the hotel as possible without any regard for the current crisis or the hotel employees or hotel owners involved."

Those "vulture tactics" include accelerating the foreclosure process to gather in as many COVID-19-distressed properties as possible, using "small technical ways" to rush loan defaults, denying borrowers existing escrowed funds and slowing reimbursements on collateral, Gates's letter said.

"Representative Pence, I urge you, Congress, the Federal Reserve and other governmental agencies to move quickly to address this situation before hotels across this country are mercilessly foreclosed on due to no fault of their own," Gates's letter said. "To the extent additional legislation related to COVID-19 is proposed, I would recommend adding language that introduces an 18-month moratorium on ALL foreclosure proceedings for ALL lenders to hotels. This should give hotels the time they will need to come up with reasonable solutions and strategies with their lenders to ensure that they have their loans paid off and avoid unnecessarily enriching hedge fund vultures."

The Columbus Standard reached out several lenders and banks for this story, but only two responded saying they were not authorized to speak to the press.