Royal Family under scrutiny for legislative vetting

It’s been revealed that the Royal Family has been using procedure to vet acts of Parliament regarding leaseholders living in Prince Charles’ Duchy of Cornwall estate for years. 

The Queen and Prince were allowed to view the contents of acts to approve them before they were passed to Parliament, giving them the opportunity to amend them in order to protect the Prince’s income from the Duchy of Cornwall. 

Three named acts, spanning decades, were written in order to give leaseholders of properties the right to buy their homes outright in certain exemptions. However, these acts were modified to exclude many people living in the Duchy of Cornwall, the Prince’s 52,000 hectare estate which spans multiple counties.

The estate provides the Prince with an independent income of around £22m a year, with scores of people living across it.

The three named acts that were vetted by the Royal Family were the 1967 Leasehold Reform Act, the 1993 Leasehold Reform, Housing and Urban Development Act, and the 2002 Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act. 

All these acts gave many people living in certain exceptions the right to purchase their homes outright and become freeholders, giving them full control off the asset and improve future sell-on ability. 

The intervention has left thousands of leaseholders across the Duchy of Cornwall struggling to get a fair valuation for their property if they wish to sell on, regardless of how much they themselves have invested in it. 

These cases piqued our interest in particular as experts in conveyancing and property law. If you have any questions regarding conveyancing, lease holding, freeholding or other enquiries about the property market, we’d love to hear from you.