Howard's Appliances, Inc., a Southern California appliance retailer, is in the wind-down phase of a Chapter 11 liquidation in the Central District of California, with its stores shuttered, a going-out-of-business sale hearing completed in May 2026, and the docket now dominated by creditor stay-relief and administrative-claim disputes as the estate works toward confirmation of its petition-date liquidating plan.
The Debtor filed for Chapter 11 on December 10, 2025, having already permanently closed its operations and discharged nearly all employees. Rather than reorganize, Howard's filed a Liquidating PlanDkt. 17 within days of the petition, providing for the transfer of all remaining assets to a liquidating trust and the dissolution of the company. Concurrently it sought interim authority to use cash collateralDkt. 8 to fund consolidation of inventory into its City of Industry warehouse and to pay payroll, insurance, and sales-tax obligations during the wind-down. The estate's inventory and assets were valued at roughly $9.34 million against asserted liens of about $6.74 million, with Northpoint Commercial Finance holding a $3.75 million first-priority inventory lien alongside claims by Whirlpool Corporation ($1.17 million) and Haier US Appliance ($1.42 million). No DIP financing was pursued; the case has run entirely on cash collateral subject to adequate-protection replacement liens.
Through the spring of 2026 the Debtor completed its going-out-of-business sale — a sale hearing was held on May 13, 2026 — and the warehouse lease was deemed rejected by operation of law on April 9, 2026. Attention has since shifted to disputed creditor claims. The landlord, Harvard Label LLC, moved under section 503(b) for a $410,658.40 administrative expense claim for post-petition rent covering April 16 through June 30, 2026; the Debtor , arguing the contractual $5,500/day rate exceeds fair rental value for mere passive storage of secured creditors' collateral, and Northpoint Commercial Finance has in that opposition. Separately, Wells Fargo Vendor Financial Services and HYG Financial Services each moved for relief from the automatic stay to recover leased equipment — printers and copiers in Wells Fargo's case, Yale forklifts in HYG's — with setting those matters for hearing on August 4, 2026.
