Britain’s Royal Family has sued against the social media giant Twitter over unpaid rent on the company’s London offices. The Crown Estate, an independent commercial business that manages the property portfolio belonging to the British monarch, filed a case in the High Court in London last week.
The Crown Estate, which has owned and managed property for 260 years, includes 10 million square feet of property in London’s West End alone. Profits from the collection of land and buildings are collected by the British government and have generated over $3 billion for public spending in the last 10 years.
Since taking over Twitter last year, CEO Elon Musk has been cutting costs, including auctioning surplus office furniture and laying off more than half the workforce. Reports suggest the tech giant’s London office near Piccadilly Circus has been deserted for some months, with Twitter signage and logos removed.
This isn’t the first time Musk’s company has had trouble paying rent. Earlier this month another San Francisco landlord accused Elon Musk’s company of not paying rent. In addition to the British case, Twitter failed to pay almost $6.8 million rent on its San Francisco headquarters (Twitter leases over 460,000 square feet of space across eight floors in the San Francisco building, according to the complaint) in December and January. The landlord, Sri Nine Market Square, drew $3.6 million from Twitter’s security deposit to satisfy the payment missed in December, leaving $3.1 million still owed in unpaid rent from January.
The landlord is also seeking to increase Twitter’s letter of credit to $10 million due to the transfer of control of the company, but Twitter has refused to do so. Earlier this month, another San Francisco landlord accused the tech giant of not paying rent, claiming it had avoided $136,260 in rent payments for use of the 30th floor.
The Crown Estate’s lawsuit against Twitter is the latest in a string of legal disputes over unpaid rent involving the tech giant. Critics allege that nonpayment has become part of Musk’s business strategy, and this case shows that Twitter is not exempt from being held responsible for its unpaid rent.
