You call up each person/company you owe and you beg, hat in hand, for an extension. Or you get an emergency loan or line of credit or file for bankruptcy and stop paying bills that way.
But you can't just say, "the government made it so we are struggling so we've decided to stop paying our bills."
> But you can't just say, "the government made it so we are struggling so we've decided to stop paying our bills."
Yes, you manifestly can. If people don't like it, they have remedies, but as it turns out, those remefies mostly suck if the rat get is actually insolvent, especially if you are pretty far down the priority list of creditors. And they suck even moreso when the courts aren't open.
You don't get to arbitrarily stop paying, and also keep doing business as usual.
Their landlord can take them to court... when the courts open.
Yes, as has been demonstrated.by lots of companies lots of times, you do get to do that.
If other people don't like it, they have a variety of options of how to respond, of course. But those options kind of suck, because they cost money and, ultimately, you can't get blood from a turnip.
The biggest problem facing trying to do this is getting people to extend new credit, which tends to place a hard wall for most efforts to do it, as not being able to pay your old bills might not shut you down, but being unable to get new goods and services will.
You actually can do this, and Equinox did. The remedy is for their creditors to sue them when the courts reopen.