Ex-prince Andrew unlikely to get refund for UK house move
Britain's disgraced former prince Andrew is unlikely to receive compensation for being ousted from his royal residence over his ties to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an official report published Tuesday said.
King Charles III announced in October that Andrew was being stripped of his titles and would leave the 30-room Royal Lodge on the sprawling Windsor Estate west of London, where he has lived since 2003.
The ex-prince now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor could have been entitled to £488,000 ($645,000) for vacating the property before the end of his 75-year-lease, according to the leasing arrangement.
But the Crown Estate, the royal family's independently run land and property holdings, explained in a report to lawmakers that the property's condition meant Andrew will probably not get any money.
"Our initial assessment is that while the extent of end of tenancy dilapidations and repairs required are not out of keeping with a tenancy of this duration, they will mean in all likelihood that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor will not be owed any compensation for early surrender of the lease," it wrote.
The report was published by parliament's Public Accounts Committee, which announced it had also launched an inquiry into the Crown Estate and its royal leases.
MPs are likely to look into the use of so-called peppercorn payments, where up-front payments are made instead of ongoing rent, an arrangement used by Andrew.
"Having reflected on what we have received, the information provided clearly forms the beginnings of a basis for an inquiry," committee chair Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said in a statement.
King Charles's decision, made public on October 30, came amid mounting public anger over his brother's relationship with Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019.
The Crown Estate report showed Andrew handed in his notice on the property on the same day.
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