Asset Lending and Loan, LLC, also known as AccoLend, GBcap Fund, LLC and GBcap Asset Lending loaned my company, Palmetto Construction Services, LLC, $135,000.00 on the property located at 290 Schooleys Mountain Road, Long Valley, New Jersey. The loan had a maturity date of March 31, 2018.
In November 2017, the property had a fire. It was fully insured. However, the insurance company lowballed the initial assessment of the claim and we had to go back and forth with it. Negotiations extended beyond the loan’s maturity.
Payments on the note to Asset Lending were never late. On maturity, rather than give consideration to the peril caused by fire and extend the loan as lenders routinely do, Boris Grinberg (the owner) and his erstwhile managment team decided to “help” us. The company lawyer Isaac Koyfman send us the following:
Dear Edward and Nia [Nia is my child],
in order to provide you with a speedy resolution and accommodation proposal, we took advice of counsel and could suggest the following:
To resolve the payment default on the Schooley Loan and a resulting cross-default on the 3 other ALAL loans to Palmetto ("Other Loans"), Borrower and Lender will enter into a Forbearance Agreement in respect of each of the 4 loans as quickly as possible; each such FA will contain the following key terms:
1. Borrower recognizing default under the relevant Loan Documents and Lender agreeing to forebear to exercise its Event of Default rights for a period of 3 months;
2. Lender agreeing to defer all default interest to Loan Maturity; provided all payments required by the Loan Documents are kept current and there is no further breach of the Loan Documents or any of the Forbearance Agreements. If there is no further default, all default interest shall be waived upon full payoff of the Schooley Loan. The default interest shall immediately become due and payable upon any further breach of the Loan Documents or the Forbearance Agreement.
3. For Schooley Loan, Borrower will continue to use its best efforts to resolve the insurance situation and to make the required payments as soon as possible.
4. For Other Loans, Borrower will continue to make all payments as they come due;
5. Forbearance Agreement will contain customary provisions including without limitation a requirement for Borrower to deliver Deed in Lieu and Confession of Judgement;
6. Going forward, Borrower shall apply any proceeds from any of the 4 mortgaged properties to pay down principal, first on the Schooley Loan and then on the Other Loans;
7. Guarantor will consent to the Forbearance Agreement; and
8. Borrower will pay the Lender's outside counsel legal fee in connection with the negotiation and execution of the Forbearance Agreements and related documentation.
Boris and I will call you later to discuss.
Best regards,
Isaac
Basically, they decided to use the fire to squeeze onerous terms. Acceptance of their help would have been sure death for our company.
When we did not accede to their demands, they proceeded to call the Schooleys Mountain loan, declare it delinquent for not being paid at maturity, declare our other loans with them to be in default as a result (using the cross-default provisions of the related loans), accelerated all of the loans, charged default interest rates ranging from 24% to 45% per annum and proceeded to seek foreclosure of all four properties.
We stand to lose everything we’ve worked for the last couple of years. They were not satisfied with charging us more than the 9-11% interest with no points that they advertise. They want to take it all.