Newly-released documents have shown that Prince Edward has also been paying “peppercorn rent” on his 120-room home in Surrey. The King’s youngest brother initially leased 51-acre Bagshot Park for 50 years for £5,000 a year in March 1998.
He shares the property with his wife, Sophie, and the pair have brought up their two children there. The couple’s teenage son, James, Earl of Wessex, still lives with them, while their daughter, Lady Louise Windsor, 22, largely resides in Scotland as she attends the University of St Andrews.
The news comes after it emerged earlier this year that Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor had been paying “peppercorn rent” – a term used to describe a small, nominal rent, such as one peppercorn, to satisfy a legal requirement for a contract to be binding – on his 30-room Royal Lodge.
The Times have reported that Edward signed the lease with his company, Eclipse Nominees Limited, in 2007 and “he paid £5 million upfront for a lease of 150 years, but pays only a peppercorn rent.”
Despite originally signing the lease in 1998, the sum later went up to £90,000 a year after Edward paid £1.36 million to help renovate the property. The Crown Estate covered the rest of the £3 million refurbishment costs.
The Ministry of Defence returned the site to the Crown Estate in 1996, attracting two commercial proposals. Both were rejected before the Estate opted to lease the property to Edward.
It later made it “impossible to establish” whether he continued to pay a market rent due to the Land Registry report being heavily redacted.
The documents also note that there are no conditions set on the further sale of Edward’s lease, beyond that the new tenant could afford the property’s maintenance. This means that Edward could profit from its sale.
Andrew, who was stripped of his royal titles and honours last month, will be leaving Royal Lodge very soon.
His ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, is also set to move out of the property, which is where she has been living with Andrew since 2003.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
