Prince Andrew hasn’t paid rent for 22 YEARS: Disgraced Prince is charged peppercorn rate for 30-room Royal Lodge mansion – and did NOT get significant inheritance from Queen or Queen Mother

Prince Andrew has not paid rent on his Royal Lodge mansion for two decades, it emerged last night.

In a shocking twist on the royal scandal, an unredacted copy of his lease shows that while he paid £1million to lease the property in 2003 and spent £7.5million on refurbishments, he has paid only ‘one peppercorn (if demanded)’ of rent a year since taking on the mansion.

This is because Andrew is deemed to have paid the rent – which was in the region of £260,000 a year – up front through the work he has funded to bring the palatial property up to scratch.

It also means the Crown Estate will have to pay him around half a million pounds if he were to quit his mansion before the lease on it runs out in 2078.

A copy of the agreement was obtained by The Times newspaper following pressure from MPs and campaigners. And it will no doubt add to public outrage over Andrew’s perceived ‘perks’.

Sources have stressed to the Daily Mail, however, that questions still remain over how the King’s brother can afford the vast 30-bedroom property, which comes with multi-million running costs.

The Daily Mail can exclusively reveal that Andrew is not believed to have received any significant inheritance from the Queen or Queen Mother, raising fresh questions about how he can afford to stay in the property – particularly when he now receives no personal allowance from the King, or public funding.

+6
View gallery

Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson (pictured in 2019) are holed up in their grace-and-favour Royal Lodge amid increased scrutiny over his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein

+6
View gallery

Calls are growing for Prince Andrew to be kicked out of the Royal Lodge (pictured), the lavish Windsor mansion he shares with his ex-wife

Charles, 76, has desperately tried to persuade his younger brother to downsize and move out of the grade II-listed mansion in recent years.

He believes many of Andrew’s problems – particularly those that saw him drawn to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein and other shady characters – stem from chasing a lifestyle he simply cannot afford.

But Andrew, 65, has stubbornly insisted that he has a cast-iron lease on the house. And as long as he pays the rent, the King has no legal right to throw him out.

The revelation comes as:

Beatrice and her sister Eugenie are said to have pulled out of a charity ball in London on Saturday amid the torrent of unedifying claims around their father.

While details of the Queen’s will have never been made public, it is thought that Andrew was not left sufficient funds to sustain his apparently lavish lifestyle.

Royal Lodge, in the heart of Windsor Great Park, was the home of the Queen Mother, and was leased to Andrew after her death.

The Crown Estate approved the arrangement, saying its location and ‘security concerns’ made it difficult to rent out on the open market.

+6
View gallery

Princess Beatrice drives from Royal Lodge, home of her father Prince Andrew and mother Sarah Ferguson, at Windsor in Berkshire on Monday

+6
View gallery

Beatrice is the first from her immediate family to break cover after her father was stripped of his dukedom and titles

Andrew had to carry out £7.5million of refurbishment work when he took the property on in 2003. He was given a 75-year lease in return for a one-off payment of £1million.

His rent was believed to be upwards of £260,000 a year, with a legal requirement to keep the property in a good state of repair.

However, sources at Windsor say the house is a virtual ‘money pit’ and there have long been claims Andrew has been struggling with its upkeep.

Until now it had been widely assumed that without any public funding or private allowance from his brother, the prince had been dipping into personal investments and family bequests to bankroll the property.

The revelation over his inheritance will inevitably raise questions about how he can afford to live there. Andrew also has to fund his own security after losing his official police bodyguard.

The King had previously said that if his brother downsized and moved to a smaller property on the estate – potentially Frogmore Cottage, recently vacated by Harry – he would reinstate his personal allowance and help fund his security.

But after Andrew point-blank refused, it is not known whether the offer is still even on the table.

The headlines have been an unfortunate distraction for the King, who yesterday made a moving visit to Manchester to visit the Heaton Park synagogue that was targeted in a terror attack earlier this month.