With the COVID-19 pandemic dealing crushing blows to retailers, restaurants and other businesses and their commercial real estate landlords, attorneys warn that skipping rent or mortgage payments could lead to other legal complications beyond the obvious.

More and more retailers and restaurants, as well as other businesses, have skipped payments to malls and office buildings recently as  COVID-19 shelter-in-place orders shut down operations. Cheesecake Factory and Urban Outfitters are among the large chains that announced they did not pay the April rent during shutdown orders, according to news reports.