Twitter sued for failing to pay rent for San Francisco headquarters since Elon Musk takeover

Twitter is being sued by its landlord for dodging rent at its downtown San Francisco headquarters, where the platform has reportedly suffered deep cost cuts under new CEO Elon Musk.

The company owes $136,260 in unpaid rent, according to the lawsuit filed Thursday by Columbia Property Trust.

The Twitter freeload was reported early last month by The New York Times, which wrote that Musk and his advisers hoped to renegotiate the terms of the leases after mass layoffs.

The downsizing has already begun.

Twitter has closed its Seattle offices, The Times reported on Friday – cutting concierge and security services. According to the report, employees had to bring their own toilet paper to work.

Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October and has been cutting costs ever since amid what Musk admitted was a “massive drop” in revenue.

Cleaning and security staff have also been fired from company offices in New York and San Francisco, where workers have been on strike for higher pay. In San Francisco, Musk condensed the company’s footprint at 650 California Street from four stories to two, The Times reported.

On Christmas Eve, Musk ordered staff to a data center in Sacramento to shut down key servers to cut costs, The Times reported.

Meanwhile, layoffs have continued, with cuts to the company’s infrastructure and public policy divisions last week, according to the report.

Employees have been asked to delay payment to contractors or suppliers – including accountants and consultants working on key regulatory projects, The Times reported.

The company is also being sued for failing to pay nearly $200,000 for private charter flights flown the week Musk took over.

Employees expect more layoffs, the report said.

Twitter did not return a request for comment regarding the retrial.

Musk has pledged to step down from running the company after conducting a poll on whether he should step down. A successor has not yet been chosen.

The multi-billionaire’s purchase of the social media company made him the first person to lose $200 billion, according to a report.