Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s Royal Lodge deal has been made public for the first time as he and Sarah Ferguson prepare to leave the Windsor estate.
Andrew submitted a minimum 12 month notice to vacate the property on 30 October.
The 25-page document on Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee goes into depth on the details of Andrew’s lease. The case, dated 8 August 2003, states who the agreement is with, how long it lasts and to whom the tenancy would have been transferred.
The document was signed “between the Queen’s Most Excellent Majesty (1), the Crown Estates Commission (2) [and] HRH The Duke of York (Andrew’s former title before he was officially stripped of it in October)”.
The 75-year agreement began on 16 June 2003 and was due to expire on 15 June 2078, until the intervention of King Charles.
If the lease had been passed, an “acceptable assignee” would have passed to: “the widow of HRH the Duke of York, or Princess Beatrice or Princess Eugenie, or the trustees of a trust which has no beneficiaries other than Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie or either of them.”
The lease details “tenant’s right to surrender,” stating: “If at any time during the term Tenant desires to surrender this Lease, Tenant shall give Tenant’s notice to Landlord.”
The lengthy document comes as Ferguson is on the hunt for a new house, while Andrew prepares to leave the Royal Lodge without receiving any financial settlement.
The Crown Estate informed MPs that necessary repairs to the 30-room property will almost certainly cancel any money owed by the former tenant.
Without the need to terminate the tenancy, Andrew would have owed £488,342.21 on vacating the property on 30 October 2026.
However, the estate’s preliminary view indicates that the costs of correcting delinquencies will effectively negate this potential payout when he surrenders the lease early.
“Our initial assessment is that although the extent of dilapidations and repairs at the end of the tenancy and repairs required are not out of step with a tenancy of this duration, they will in all likelihood mean that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will not owe any compensation for the early surrender of the tenancy when the dilapidations are taken into account,” the Crown Estate said in its briefing to Parliament.
Andrew submitted the minimum required 12 months notice to vacate the property on 30 October. It follows confirmation that King Charles had ordered the removal of two prestigious honors previously awarded to his brother.
Details of the former prince’s living arrangements have come under scrutiny as controversy continues over his links to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The scandal, which has been revived by new allegations of sexual abuse contained in Virginia Giuffre’s posthumously published memoir. While Andrew has always denied claims.
