When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex bought their Montecito mansion, the British papers had so many meltdowns. Meltdowns over the size and beauty of the property, meltdowns over Harry and Meghan’s money, meltdowns over… the number of bathrooms. I still don’t know how many bathrooms there are in Casa de Sussex, because every time the papers write about it, the number increases. The Sussexes have anywhere between six and 900 bathrooms, and each flush of their American toilets is a slap in the face of the dead queen! Well, I bring this up because the hysteria over Montecito bathrooms made me realize that British newspapers and British people are sort of obsessed with plumbing, and who has what kind of plumbing and how many bathrooms are in any given house. Which makes this story so, so British (derogatory). Not only is Prince Andrew living in Royal Lodge rent-free, he also gets free water! He is only contractually obligated to pay his water bills from “time to time.” What kind of backwards-ass lease agreement is this?
Freeloading Prince Andrew has paid his water rates only occasionally at his rent-free mansion — while bills for the rest of Britain have rocketed by hundreds of pounds. Details of his extraordinary 75-year cut-price lease for Royal Lodge sparked fury yesterday after they revealed he is required to pay towards maintenance only.
The revelations sparked calls for Andrew, 65, to be kicked out of his 30-room mansion in Windsor, where he continues to live despite relinquishing his Duke of York title in disgrace last week.
He is likely to have avoided thousands in water bills since moving in back in 2003, while Brits struggle to pay theirs. Water at Royal Lodge is supplied by Affinity Water, costing around £375 a year, with sewerage from Thames Water around £368. That means the yearly bill would be around £743, but is likely to be higher as the property is metered.
However, according to documents seen by The Sun, Andrew was only required to pay his water bills “from time to time”.
Meanwhile, the average British household has seen bills rise by 168 per cent since 2001.
In January, a £123 average hike was announced, with the regulator acknowledging “the challenge that some customers are facing with increasing financial pressures”.Andrew has also paid no rent for more than 20 years.
I’ll admit that I’ve idly wondered about utility bills on royal properties before. When Harry lived in Nottingham Cottage, I feel certain that he did not pay any water bills or electric/gas bills. That was Kensington Palace, and I would imagine no one pays any kind of utility bills at KP, right? But on the Windsor estate, with all of those little mini-estates, surely people get individual utility bills? The Sun says that there is a meter at Royal Lodge. So… the water company reads the meter, sends Andrew a bill, and he just… doesn’t pay it. And the water company just shrugs and no one ever turns off his water? Crazy world.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
