Faraday Future in danger of losing L.A. headquarters for failing to pay rent

Struggling EV startup Faraday Future owes the landlord of its Los Angeles headquarters nearly $1 million after missing the last two months’ rent, 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 its January and February lease payments, as well as associated maintenance fees and taxes. Rexford claims the startup owes it $917,887.26 as a result and is seeking to take possession of the building. A lawyer for Rexford declined to comment.

Faraday Future is also being sued by the landlord of an office it has leased in San Jose since 2022. That previously unreported complaint, filed by BXP Realty in Santa Clara Superior Court on January 31, alleges that Faraday Future stopped making lease payments in December, leading to 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 remainder; the startup did not pay that sum. As a result, BXP is looking to boot the startup from the premises. 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 employees and hand-picked 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 a cash infusion, 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. A spokesperson for Faraday Future did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Faraday Future has survived a series of crises over the years as it attempted to develop and ship its luxury electric SUV, the FF 91. In 2019, after a messy breakup with one of its financial backers, Faraday Future sold the Los Angeles headquarters to generate cash and leased it back from a subsidiary of New York real estate firm Atlas Capital. Rexford assumed Faraday Future’s lease in 2022 after buying 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 netted Faraday Future $1 billion in fresh funding. But Faraday Future has spent the intervening years mired in more drama centered around its billionaire founder, Jia Yueting.