Andrew gives up £13k lease on royal property just hours after visit from Palace official

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor moved into his temporary Norfolk home last month.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has requested to end the lease (Image: GETTY)

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has asked to give up the lease on another Crown Estate property just hours after a visit from a Palace official, it has been reported. The 66-year-old is said to have asked to end his lease on East Lodge, which is located near his former home at Sunninghill Park in Berkshire.

Richard Benyon, the most senior member of the household, spent around two hours visiting Andrew at Wood Farm on Monday afternoon, where Andrew has been holed up since his arrest last month. It has been reported, by the BBC, that the disgraced royal was paying £13,000-a-year in annual rent. The news comes just weeks after his eviction from his 30-room Windsor mansion, Royal Lodge.

Amid his eviction at the start of February, Andrew then moved into a temporary property on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

East Lodge, which is a Grade II-listed cottage located about five miles from Windsor, is believed to have been used for staff accommodation.

The property is said to have remained as a separate arrangement between the former Duke of York and the Crown Estate after the controversial sale of Sunninghill Park in 2007.

Lease documents have shown that Andrew took on the tenancy of East Lodge in February 1998. He is said to have paid an initial £3,500 annual rent to the Crown Estate.

The tenancy was renewed in 2020, with the rent then rising to £8,047-per-year.

Andrew previously lived in Royal Lodge between 2004 and February 2026 (Image: GETTY)

Last summer, the charges were reviewed again and a document from late August 2025 shows the rent had risen to £12,922.

Prior to his eviction from Royal Lodge, Andrew lost his royal title and honours last year over his connection to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Andrew has always denied any wrongdoing.