It’s only been a few weeks since Dispatches and the Times revealed how King Charles and Prince William “really” make their money. Charles, as monarch, owns the Duchy of Lancaster. William, as the Prince of Wales, owns the Duchy of Cornwall. Both duchies are vast networks of commercial and residential real estate, but it’s more complicated than that. Basically, both duchies are making millions off the taxpayers by charging the NHS for ambulance garages. They’re charging rent on fire stations. They’re charging the Navy for use of the seabed. It’s insane. Alongside all of those revelations, the Mirror ended up publishing an interesting exposé on the slum-like conditions of the residential rentals in the Duchy of Cornwall. William basically traps seniors into horrible conditions and the residents are contractually obligated to make any improvements (which they cannot afford). Well, obviously, King Charles is a slumlord too. Despite my bitching about how few royal reporters are covering this scandal, the Mirror recently revealed that the rentals controlled by Charles are in pretty bad shape too.
The King owns dozens of rental properties on his Sandringham Estate that fail minimum energy efficiency standards for landlords. We previously revealed that the Duchy of Cornwall is leaving vulnerable tenants at risk of fuel poverty, and some are living in cold, damp and mouldy homes. Now, after examining Energy Performance Certificates for scores on the West Norfolk estate, we have found more than 30 properties fail to meet minimum requirements.
One tenant said: “It is very cold and the main problem is the single glazing. It lets out all the heat. Some tenants have single glazed windows that are completely rotten. We think it is because King Charles does not like the look of double glazing, but you have to be careful what you say because they are so powerful. Many of these properties were built under Queen Victoria and they need to be modernised.” A Sandringham spokesperson would not comment on individual properties but said it “invests in an ongoing programme of improvement” and that “energy efficiency was prioritised”.
Since 2020, it has been illegal for landlords to rent out homes rated below E under the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards regulations. Of more than 30 rated F or G at Sandringham, eight were rated G with one getting the lowest possible score of one point out of 100. Three were exempt from the regulations – one because the work would cost over £3,500 to carry out, another because insulation would “have a negative impact on the building” and a third because “all relevant improvements have been made”. Loopholes in the regulations mean the rules do not apply to properties where the same tenant has lived there for many years and the EPC was done “voluntarily”.
It is not clear if the King has immunity from the regulations, which carry fines of up to £5,000 per property for breaches. A 2022 investigation by the Guardian found the monarch has personal exemption in his private capacity written into more than 160 laws.
Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “Everyone should have a decent and safe place to call home. Too often, tenants are forced to endure poor conditions in draughty, freezing homes that aren’t up to standard, unable to challenge landlords for fear of being slapped with a rent hike or being pushed out altogether. A chronic shortage of genuinely affordable social homes combined with record high private rents and years of under-regulation has created a huge power imbalance in private renting and left tenants at the mercy of landlords.”
Note: these are not Crown Estate rentals nor are they Duchy of Lancaster rentals. Sandringham is privately owned by the monarch – it was originally owned by Queen Victoria, and on and on through King George VI and QEII inherited it from her father. This is a privately owned estate and Charles is choosing to be a sh-tty landlord to his tenants. Not only that, he’s likely exempt from any and all tenant-protections, which means he can be a slumlord without any sort of legal repercussions. This is all the tenants have – publicly shaming him for being such a terrible landlord.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
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- King Charles III attends the Royal Film Performance and Global Premiere of “Gladiator II” at Odeon Luxe, Leicester Square, London, England, UK on Wednesday 13 November, 2024.,Image: 934094040, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: Please credit photographer and agency when publishing as Justin Ng/Retna/Avalon., Model Release: no, Credit line: Justin Ng / Avalon
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla during the Diplomatic Corps reception at Buckingham Palace in London. Picture date: Tuesday November 19, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL Diplomatic. Photo credit should read: Aaron,Image: 936503943, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon/Avalon
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- King Charles III and Queen Camilla during the Diplomatic Corps reception at Buckingham Palace in London. Picture date: Tuesday November 19, 2024. PA Photo. See PA story ROYAL Diplomatic. Photo credit should read: Aaron,Image: 936503979, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: *** NO UK USE FOR 48 HRS ***, Model Release: no, Credit line: Aaron Chown/Avalon/Avalon
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- Celebrities attending the Royal Film Performance and world premiere of Gladiator II, in aid of the Film and TV Charity which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, central London Featuring: King Charles III arrives for the Royal Film Performance and world premiere of Gladiator II, in aid of the Film and TV Charity which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, central London. Picture date: Wednesday November 13, 2024. Where: London, United Kingdom When: 13 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
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- Royal Film Performance and Global Premiere of ‘Gladiator II’ held at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 13 Nov 2024 Credit: CelebrityPhotosUK/Cover Images
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- King Charles III during the Diplomatic Corps reception at Buckingham Palace in London Featuring: King Charles III Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Nov 2024 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
My mind stopped at those G-level rated homes that earned 1, *1*(!!!), point out of a scale from 1–100. Holy crow, that sounds awful! How can you treat your tenants like that, especially if they’re poor and elderly. They all seem scared of him, too.
It brings me shivering back to the rural rental homes homes mum and I lived in during the 90’s, you kept one room warm when you were home and your clothes smelt damp all the time. None connected to the royals in any way but I definitely know what these properties are like.
When I started university a housemate revealed they thought I was really prudish because all my pj’s were long and thick fabric. Nope, just trying to stay warm at home.
SarahCS, I’ve lived in some interesting, subpar housing in Europe without central heating, too, so I know how rough it can be when it gets cold. My husband grew up in a home where only the downstairs (minus the WC) had heating. But…
KC is really wealthy, these tennants seem to be elderly and/or poor, he’s having them do the upkeep for the property he owns. On a scale of 1-100 it just shocks me that a property in which people are living can even score a 1, much less that he’s renting multiple properties in that state. And the palpable fear of losing their homes these tennants clearly have if they are known to have asked for humane conditions is also shocking. They obviously expect KC to evict them. That blows my tiny little mind. Slumlord is an excellent description of what he, QE2, and PW are.
Let’s not forget that the housing that William now controls under the Duchy of Cornwall, was under Charles’ prevue for decades. I’m not letting William off the hook but most of it probably began with Charles.
And this at Sandringham can be laid at QE’s door also. No letting her off the hook either.
Yes, thanks for pointing that out!
The Queen manipulated politics and passing of laws during Covid to ensure she was exempt from laws stating landlords couldn’t evict tenants during lockdown.
Charles did not go around bragging he could end homelessness. Though both are culpable.
What is William actually doing to end homelessness? I haven’t read any reports in the newspapers about how many homeless people are now housed thanks to William’s work.
No, but Chuck has gone around bragging about how much he’s supposedly doing for the “environment,” i.e. his “environment” at least. Because he and Betty before him had the power to exempt themselves (under Queen Consent, then King Consent) from all kinds of environmental regulations, before they ever saw the light of day in any parliament. And for all the people who claim Chuck’s a good guy because of his bags of cash repository, the Prince’s Trust, really need to do point by point comparison with all his substandard residential rentals, and milking the British treasury for comm rentals.
If making improvements (like double glazing) “ruins” the historic nature of the building, then that building is not suitable for housing people.
And I knew it would be Charles & his love for historic architecture! His little Transylvania village with nothing allowed if it was invented after the 18th century or whatever. So stupid. And Chuckie’s ideas give historic preservation a bad name. You can modernize while maintaining the historic character of the home.
And what even is this aesthetic objection to double glazing? Does that 75yo man even see well enough to be able to count the panes of glass in a tenant’s window he’s never seen? Property managers could just comply with the law, replace the windows, and Chucky wouldn’t even notice.
It’s not an aesthetic objection. It’s a financial one. He thinks the plebes should freeze so he can invest in more golden wallpaper or add more golden coins to his hoard.
A lot of those old buildings have lattice windows, which are far more expensive in double glazing. C-Rex is simple cheap.
I recently renovated and isolated the 120 year old house I am living in and renting out a flat.
Funfact, my tenant and I split the savings from needing less energy evenly. While he is paying a theoretical higher rent, he is still saving money and my renovations will be payed of in 8 years. Win for both and the environment.
You’d think “modernizing the monarchy” would include modernizing their properties. I don’t understand the exemption for repairs costing over 3,500 pounds – wouldn’t that mean it’s a serious repair that needs to be addressed? And adding insulation would have a “negative impact on the building”? What about the negative impact on the tenant?
Also I’m pretty sure Charles can afford it. And much more. It’s like he really does think he can take it with him.
In a way, Charles is right. He can’t personally take it with him, but the system is set up so the monarchy and his heirs can keep everything.
Well who leaked that? The pedo or the other slumlord?
I would say the other slumlord.
But honestly – as much as I dislike William – Charles was praised in the media for his great handling and the supposed widespread improvements to all areas of the properties associated with the PoW title.
I very much doubt William even looked at the deeds much less actually visited the area. That said – even if he knew about horrific state of his rentals – he would not care. Throwing some empathy around is only for in front of the cameras.
Yes! Let’s keep talking about the Royal Slumlords. Keep it in the public’s face. Being racists really didn’t do any damage to their reputations…but maybe the ongoing mistreatment and grifting of the poor and elderly in grossly dilapidated, cold, moldy housing will final be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
This is all pretty freaking outrageous. And people bow down and defer to this man. My god.
The whole thing about if it costs more than 3500 to bring up to code then you don’t have to do anything makes zero sense. How about requiring whatever can be done up to 3500 then? At least some improvement would be made. And a 5000 pound fine for non-compliance is a pittance.
The GBP 3500 exemption limit shows that the law is woefully inadequate. It protects rich landlords rather than poor and defenseless tenants. Imagine the tin foil tiara alone could have have adequately repair 10 houses and bring relief to tenants suffering from mouldy and energy deficient houses.
The monarch should live by the same rules that the rest of the country does. He should have no exemptions. However, I’m not surprised that people are living in low standard housing. The Royal Family let BP get rundown and Harry ahd Meghan had to renovate Frogmore Cottage.
So it’s too much to expect him to pay over 3,500 pounds to make a tenant’s apartment habitable in winter … he needs that 3,500 pounds to buy “bespoke opera shoes”.
You can’t make this up.
Why do you guys keep these people around? There are more of you than there are of them. The staff that protects them would probably join you in ousting them with as little as they are paid. I guess I’m sick of rich people receiving honors and accolades which are easily cancelled out by how they really treat others.
I’m not sure what you think we can do. I’m a republican as were my father and mother before me. It’s just not an appropriate system for a supposed democracy. But no major political party has the end of the monarchy as part of their manifesto. So it’s not possible to vote to end the system. I doubt there would be many people prepared to risk life and limb by making some sort of direct attempt to oust them. I know I’m not.
Because our entire system of government is based around them.
I’m as aggressively anti-monarchy as they come, but moving to being a republic would involve throwing our entire political system, legal system, literally EVERYTHING out the window, and writing a whole new political system from page one.
It would be the equivalent of the USA getting rid of the office of the president, AND the Senate, AND the Congress, AND the Supreme Court – all of it, the whole of it, thrown out.
Then people (who?? Which people, if US President isn’t a title that exists anymore?) having to sit down with a blank piece of paper to invent something from scratch to replace the Senate, replace Congress, replace the concept of having a President.
And in practical terms it would cost billions. For example, the entire post system would been to be replaced. And we would have no way to pass laws until any new system was in place, unless there’s some kind of weird transition phase, but then all laws passed during that transition phase would be subject to legal challenge.
So for example if we moved from a system where the House of Lords has to approve all laws, to an actual written constitution, anyone who’s ever been convicted of a crime could make a legal challenge arguing that a conviction and sentence passed down under the old monarchal law was unconstitutional. Even if you take pains to grandfather stuff in, you’d still face a million billion issues and problems that all have to be considered and fixed first.
What I personally advocate for is a tightened more European style monarchy with just the heirs being royal, strict limit on funding, anyone not in direct line of descent loses their title and gets no funding. And make them do royal duties. They can have one palace. Turn the rest over to the people.
Remember all these properties were inherited. So QEII was a slumlord too.
Sandringham estate was bought by Queen Victoria in 1862. It wasn’t bought by George VI.
George VI had to buy it from his older brother, who had inherited it.
George VI bought it from his older brother, who had inherited it personally.
So am I the only one laughing at the Burger King 🍔 🤴 reflection in the car window?
No, LOL