Twitter Sued for Unpaid Rent at London and San Francisco HQs

Twitter Inc. was sued by the Crown Estate for failing to pay rent at its London office and a landlord in the US for similarly falling behind on rent for its San Francisco headquarters. This is not the first time Twitter has had financial trouble, as the company has been struggling to turn a profit since it was founded in 2006.
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The Crown Estate has filed a lawsuit against Twitter over its London premises in the West End, according to court filings. No further detail was available, and a spokesperson for the Crown Estate declined to comment beyond confirming the suit.
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Twitter has stopped paying rent on its San Francisco headquarters, according to a lawsuit filed by its landlord. The social media company failed to pay the December rent of $3.36 million and the January rent of $3.42 million, the suit says.
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Since taking over Twitter, Elon Musk has been cutting costs. He's fired half the staff, held back rent on the company's other offices around the world and refused to pay some outstanding bills, such as a jet charter. Those measures come as the billionaire is facing his first payment on the $12.5 billion in debt he took on to acquire Twitter.
Musk is set to return to the witness stand on Tuesday in a securities fraud trial in San Francisco, where he is defending his tweet about taking Tesla Inc. private.
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Twitter has rented more than 460,000 square feet of space on eight floors of the San Francisco building, according to the complaint. Sri Nine Market Square held a letter of credit for $3.6 million as security, which Twitter was required to increase to $10 million if there were a transfer in control. This occurred when Musk bought the company in October for $44 billion.
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Twitter argued that it did not have to boost the line of credit, according to the complaint.
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Sri Nine said it used its existing line of credit to cover the December rent of $3.36 million and a portion of the January rent, leaving a balance of $1 on the line of credit.
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Sri Nine is seeking to recover unpaid rent from Twitter, as well as a court declaration that the company is in breach of its lease for failing to increase its line of credit to $10 million.
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Twitter has disbanded its public relations department and did not respond to a request for comment.
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The case is Sri Nine Market Square LLC v Twitter Inc. This case is located in the Superior Court of California in the County of San Francisco. The case number is CGC-23-604136.