Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future owes the landlord of its Los Angeles headquarters nearly $1 million after missing rent for the past two months, TechCrunch has learned.
The landlord, Rexford Industrial, filed a previously unreported lawsuit against Faraday Future this week in Los Angeles Superior Court that accuses the startup of missing rent payments for January and February, as well as maintenance fees and associated taxes. Rexford claims the startup owes it $917,887.26 as a result and is seeking to take possession of the building. Rexford's attorney declined to comment.
Faraday Future is also being sued by the owner of the office it has leased in San Jose since 2022. That previously unreported complaint, which BXP Realty filed in Santa Clara Superior Court on Jan. 31, alleges that Faraday Future stopped making rent payments in December. Resulting in an outstanding balance of $127,311.16.
BXP says it applied Faraday Future's security deposit of $99,518 to the balance in January and asked the company to pay the rest; The startup did not pay this amount. As a result, BXP is looking to operate the startup from the building. A lawyer for BXP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The missed payments are the latest sign of trouble for the startup, which only recently began shipping its first luxury SUVs to select employees and celebrities after nearly 10 years and more than $3 billion in losses. Faraday Future warned shareholders in a regulatory filing issued in December that its ongoing fundraising efforts still face significant hurdles, and that without a cash infusion, the startup may not have “adequate resources” to continue operating and “will likely have to file for protection.” From bankruptcy and its assets are likely to 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. A Faraday Future spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Faraday Future has weathered a series of crises over the years while trying to develop and ship its luxury electric SUV, the FF91. 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 from a subsidiary of New York real estate firm Atlas Capital. Rexford took over the lease on Faraday Future in 2022 after purchasing the building for $64.3 million.
Faraday Future managed to survive long enough to merge with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. in 2021, a deal that netted Faraday Future $1 billion in new funding. But Faraday Future has spent the intervening years mired in more drama centering around its billionaire founder, Jia Yueting.
