Landlord Sues Twitter For ‘Unpaid Rent’ In London Office

A British landlord on Twitter said Tuesday that he will take the social media to court for failing to pay rent for his central London office.

Crown Estate, a company that manages land and property belonging to the British royal family, said it had filed a lawsuit in the High Court over rent arrears for her office space near Piccadilly Circus.

A representative said they reached out to Twitter earlier and are currently in discussions with the company.

Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, bought Twitter for his $44 billion (£35 billion) last October. He laid off half of his employees and reportedly stopped paying rent for office space to raise money after taking on a large amount of debt to buy the company.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported Monday that the landlord of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters has sued the company for failing to pay him nearly $6.8 million in rent in December and January.

Twitter has a London office in a complex on Air Street called Air W1, whose landlord is the Crown Estate.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Twitter’s signs and logos have been removed but a member of staff said the company was still present there.

Twitter UK began using this office in 2014, according to Companies House, which gives this as its registered address.

The Crown Estate is an independently managed portfolio of land, property and other assets belonging to the monarchy.

Its commercial income goes to the Treasury and the monarch receives an annual allowance of 15 percent of its profits called the Sovereign Grant.

The Crown Estate says it owns more than 2.6 million square feet (241,550 square metres) of office space in central London.