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Twitter is allegedly being sued for not paying rent for one of its offices in San Francisco, according to CNN.

The plaintiff is a commercial landlord, Columbia Reit - 650 California LLC, also known as Columbia Property Trust.

Twitter had apparently missed a rent payment of US$136,260 (S$182,700) for its 650 California Street office.

This office space is separate from Twitter’s main headquarters, which is located on Market Street.

Landlord filed complaint in December

According to The Guardian, the landlord had served a notice to Twitter on Dec. 16 2022, which said that the company would be in default if it failed to pay the rent within five days.

The lawsuit stated that five days have already elapsed without payment.

Twitter reportedly signed a seven-year lease for the office spaces in 2017, with a starting monthly rent of US$107,526.50 (S$144,200), which would be raised incrementally.

The lawsuit alleged a breach of contract and was filed in San Francisco’s California Superior Court, Wall Street Journal reported.

The landlord had also asked the court to force Twitter to pay the overdue rent with added interest, as well as its attorney fees, according to CNN.

Columbia Reit's spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit, while Twitter did not respond to a request for comment, it was also reported.

Cutting costs

The chief executive of Twitter, Elon Musk, has apparently been cutting costs after his acquisition of the social media company for US$44 billion (S$62 billion) in October 2022.

He has reportedly engaged in cost-cutting measures for Twitter, such as slashing the company’s workforce drastically and telling staff employees not to pay company vendors.

According to The Guardian, Twitter is also allegedly auctioning off high-end kitchen equipment, such as a pizza oven and a commercial-grade kitchen floor mixer, as well as branded office furniture that cost up to thousands of dollars.

Unlikely to push too far

A real estate attorney in San Francisco, David Bornstein, said office space owners are unlikely to push Elon Musk too far as Twitter is considered to be a lucrative tenant.

Those who overplay their hands could drive Twitter to stop renting from them, leading to even more costly periods of vacancy compared to filing a lawsuit.

Bornstein also said Columbia Reit had the choice to ask the court to evict Twitter from its office space but did not do so, which indicated that the social media company still had value as a tenant, CNN reported.

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Top images by Getty/The Washington Post & Columbia Property Trust