Andrew unlikely to receive compensation for giving up Royal Lodge home
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor is unlikely to receive any compensation for his early departure from Royal Lodge due to necessary repairs.
Andrew is set to move out of the Windsor Mansion residence after he was officially stripped of all his titles due to his ties to late pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In the 2003 lease, it was agreed that he would be paid a “compensatory amount” if he moved out of the 30-room mansion before 2078.
Andrew gave a minimum of 12 months notice to surrender the property on 30 October and is entitled to £488,342.21 to end his tenancy on 30 October 2026.
But the Crown Estate told MPs on the Public Accounts Committee that the King’s brother would probably not receive compensation for the repairs.
This, he said, was because the “initial assessment” of the 30-room mansion meant that “taking into account dilapidations, no compensation would be owed for the early surrender of the lease.”
“However, before this position can be fully substantiated, a full and comprehensive assessment by a post-occupation dilapidation expert is required,” the Crown Estate said.
The royal family faced anger after it was revealed that the King’s brother had been living in the 30-room mansion on a ‘pepper rent’ since 2003, but paid £1 million for the rent and a further £7.5 million for the renovation.
Meanwhile, it was revealed that the Prince and Princess of Wales, who moved to their new home Forest Lodge with their children during the October half term, paid “open market rent” for the property for a 20-year lease.
The details were shared in a letter to the Crown Estate’s Public Accounts Committee last week, responding to questions about the Royal Lodge’s rent arrangements.
The committee published the cable on Tuesday, saying it would now launch an investigation into the Crown Estate’s properties leased to the royal family.
Committee chairman Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said: “We would like to thank The Crown Estate Commissioners and HM Treasury for their thoughtful responses to our questions.
“By publishing these responses the Public Accounts Committee is fulfilling one of its primary purposes: to assist transparency in information in the public interest as part of its overall mission to secure value for money for taxpayers.
“On consideration of what we have received, the information provided clearly forms the beginning of the basis for an investigation. The National Audit Office supports the investigative function of this Committee.”
“We now await the NAO’s conclusions from this information and plan to conduct an investigation based on the emerging evidence base in the new year.”
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