Under Elon Musk’s rule, Twitter employees have been required to work from a company office for at least 40 hours per week since November 2022. But following that mandate might get a lot more difficult for a subset of the platform’s Colorado-based workers. To get to their desks, some of the site’s Boulder employees will have to fight their way through the county sheriff.
A judge has ordered one of Twitter’s offices to be returned to the landlord (Lot 2 SBO LLC), as first reported by the Denver Business Journal on Tuesday and confirmed by TechCrunch. Court documents viewed by both outlets suggest that Twitter hasn’t paid rent to its landlord at 3401 Bluff St. in Boulder for at least three months. Now, the presiding judge in the Boulder District Court case has reportedly signed off on an order to forcibly evict the company.
Gizmodo reached out to the court via email and phone to take a look at the case docket ourselves. Court clerk Marizela Cano confirmed that the case exists (case #2023CV30342), and Gizmodo is waiting on the results of a records request.
Twitter skipping out on rent in Boulder isn’t particularly surprising given the numerous other court cases alleging that Twitter has been failing to keep up with its expenses elsewhere.
In London and San Francisco, the company has fallen far behind on rent in at least some of its offices, according to legal filings. Earlier this year, staff at the platform’s Singapore office were reportedly escorted out of the building by the landlords over unpaid rent. Twitter’s former public relations firm sued last month, alleging $US830,498 in unpaid invoices. All of these defaults are presumably part of Musk’s aggressive (if misguided) efforts to cut company costs and make Twitter profitable, but those legal fees probably aren’t cheap either, and accruing debt doesn’t exactly amount to business savvy.
In Colorado, Twitter signed a lease at 3401 Bluff St. in 2020. The 65,000-square-foot office space was once basecamp for ~300 Twitter employees. Under Chief Twit Musk’s expert leadership, that number of staff fell by at least half through layoffs and attrition. Its ad revenue has reportedly been cut in half, as well. Meanwhile, the landlord alleges that Twitter hasn’t paid rent in months, and also failed to replenish a contractually agreed-upon letter of credit intended to cover missed rent, which ran out of funds in March. Twitter didn’t comply with a “demand for compliance or possession” in April, per the Denver Business Journal.
In response, a Boulder County Court judge reportedly filed a writ of restitution on May 31, compelling the sheriff to force Twitter. That order is in effect for 49 days and would be set to expire in July. According to the local outlet, Twitter is also facing legal troubles over nearly $US100,000 in unpaid cleaning fees and rent at another Boulder office located at 1301 Walnut St. The company responded to Gizmodo’s request for comment with the classic shit.