The Crown Estate has told MPs it expects Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor to receive no compensation when he leaves Royal Lodge, Windsor. Although his 75-year lease allowed for a possible £488,000 early-surrender payment, officials say the property’s condition and likely repair bill mean a payout is “in all likelihood” off the table.

Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee will now examine the Crown Estate’s handling of royal leases. Chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown said the disclosure provides the basis for a formal inquiry, expected to begin next year, focused on whether arrangements align with market practice and protect the taxpayer. It is not yet known whether Andrew will be asked to give evidence.

Under the 2003 agreement for Royal Lodge, Andrew paid more than £8.5m up front to fund renovations and prepay a notional rent set at £260,000 a year. The annual rent then falls to a nominal, or “peppercorn”, payment. In long leases this is standard: the rent is effectively capitalised into an initial premium, with ongoing occupation rights balanced by obligations to maintain the property.

For orientation, that notional rent would total about £6.5m over 25 years before inflation; the up-front sum was higher because it also funded renovation works. This helps explain why early-surrender formulas are typically conditional on the building being kept to an agreed standard-otherwise the landlord’s exposure simply shifts from rent to repairs.

The lease included a clause allowing some of the premium to be returned if the tenant left within 25 years. The Crown Estate says Royal Lodge’s condition is not unusual for a tenancy of this duration, yet the cost of rectifying “dilapidations”-the formal term for repair liabilities-would likely exceed any payback, leaving no compensation due.

The timeline is already set. Andrew handed in his notice on 30 October, the same day his titles were removed, giving a year’s notice under the lease. At the point the Crown Estate briefed MPs, that left roughly 10 months to run. He is expected to relocate to accommodation on the Sandringham estate early next year.

In a letter to MPs, Crown Estate commissioners described the Royal Lodge terms as “fair, reasonable and in line with market practice”. For those concerned about preferential treatment, the spending watchdog also released details of Forest Lodge, the Prince and Princess of Wales’s new Windsor home: a 20-year lease on an open-market rent assessed by independent valuers after their autumn move.

For readers who own or manage long leases, two lessons stand out. A peppercorn rent does not mean the deal is free; it means the price is paid up front, and any break right will rarely translate into cash if maintenance has slipped. Equally, a schedule of dilapidations can turn a theoretical receipt into a cost once repair obligations are tallied.

The taxpayer angle is straightforward. The Crown Estate, which returns its profits to the Treasury, is signalling that public assets will not fund a compensation cheque where the building falls short of lease obligations. The PAC inquiry will test that stance and the wider governance of royal leases, but the direction of travel is clear: terms on the public estate should read like any other commercial contract.

The backdrop remains sensitive. Pressure to vacate Royal Lodge had built for over a year, often dubbed the “Siege of Royal Lodge”. Separately, US lawmakers have sought Andrew’s testimony in an inquiry related to Jeffrey Epstein; by last month’s deadline, he had not responded. These reputational pressures help explain why a 75-year arrangement is winding down after just over two decades.