Struggling EV startup Faraday Future owes the landlord of its Los Angeles headquarters nearly $1 million after missing the past two months’ rent, according to TechCrunch.
The owner, Rexford Industrial, submitted a previously unreported treatment against Faraday Future this week in Los Angeles Superior Court that accuses the startup of missing January and February lease payments, as well as related maintenance fees and taxes. Rexford claims the startup owes her $917,887.26 as a result and is seeking to foreclose on the building. An attorney for Rexford declined to comment.
Faraday Future is also being sued by the owner of an office it has leased in San Jose since 2022. That previously undisclosed complaint, filed by BXP Realty in Santa Clara Superior Court on Jan. 31, alleges that Faraday Future stopped makes rent payments in December. resulting in an outstanding balance of $127,311.16.
BXP says it applied Faraday Future’s $99,518 security deposit to the balance in January and asked the company to pay the balance. the startup did not pay that amount. As a result, BXP tries to boot from the premises. A lawyer for BXP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“We are actively working with the owners of our offices in both San Jose and our headquarters in Gardena and are in negotiations to resolve the situation as amicably and as quickly as possible,” a Faraday Future spokesperson said in a statement.
The missed payments are the latest sign of trouble for the startup, which only recently began sending its first luxury SUVs to employees and select celebrities after nearly 10 years and more than $3 billion in losses. Faraday Future warned Shareholders in a December regulatory filing that its ongoing fundraising efforts continue to face major hurdles and that without an influx of cash, the startup may not have “sufficient resources” to continue operating and “will likely have to file for bankruptcy protection and its assets will likely be liquidated.” Faraday Future became a publicly traded company in 2021 after merging with a special purpose acquisition company.
Faraday Future reported just $8.5 million in cash at the end of September 2023. The startup is also under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Faraday Future has survived a series of crises over the years as it tried to develop and ship its luxury electric SUV, the FF 91. In 2019, after a messy split with one of its financial backers, Faraday Future sold its Los Angeles headquarters to generate cash and leased it back to an affiliate of New York real estate firm Atlas Capital. Rexford took over Faraday Future’s lease in 2022 thereafter purchase of the building for $64.3 million.
Faraday Future managed to survive long enough to merge with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. in 2021, a transaction that Nets Faraday Future $1 billion in new funding. But Faraday Future has come a long way in the intervening years immersed in more drama centered around its billionaire founder, Jia Yueting.
This story has been updated to include a comment from Faraday Future.
