Duchy of Lancaster Theft

[Roussette]

Just when I thought I could not be more taken aback at some of the practices undertaken by our Monarchy, and the sheer greed.

I then read this article. Bottom line.... anyone who dies intestate in Lancashire, and parts of Merseyside, Grtr Manchester, Cheshire and Cumbria... their assets are scooped up by the Duchy of Lancaster who has collected more than £60M over the last 10 years. Not charity as is the norm.. but into the pocket of our King You need to read the article to see what he actually does with it and how it benefits his personal income.

The article explains it well and will answer any questions and queries about it.

Someone yesterday accused me of 'despising' the RF. I disagreed but I am beginning to wonder if that poster was right. Especially when I read something like this.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/23/revealed-king-charles-secretly-profiting-from-the-assets-of-dead-citizens?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

The Royal family are weathy liars only interested in their own benefit at the expense of the people? There's a shocker.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment. A Duchy of Lancaster spokesperson indicated that, following his mother’s death, the king endorsed the continuation of a policy of using bona vacantia money on “the restoration and repair of qualifying buildings in order to protect and preserve them for future generations of the Royal Family”. Fixed their quote for them...

Thank you for starting a thread on it @Roussette I just read this and honestly, it makes me feel sick. Its brazen theft. How on earth people can support a monarchy with awful practices like his is beyond me. I always encourage people to make sure they have a will but if some don't, that should be transferred to the treasury and distributed as it is in other areas. I cannot believe they take this money. Have they no shame? None at all??

Write a will and it isn't a problem

If it were to preserve castles open to the public or similar, I would be more understanding of this practice. But it's not.
It's converting rundown properties to high end in order to rent them out, and commercial properties... all to line Charles's pockets.

The duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall are run by professional executives and make millions each year by managing and renting out farmland, hotels, offices and shops. They exist to generate supposedly "private" income for the monarch and heir to the throne.

What happens to the estate of people who die intestate outside the Duchy? Does the same thing happen in Cornwall?

Yes. Same in Cornwall. It is limited to the areas covered by the Duchies.

It’s not intestate, it is intestate and with no relatives. We do after all live in a feudal monarchy with a few electoral trimmings on top …

Yes, it does.

But what happens to the money in other counties, does it not go to the state anyway? The Tories are hardly likely to be spending it on the vulnerable either. Not that I'm justifying it, but I'd rather money was spent on the upkeep of some of the most beautiful areas of England, rather than spent on sending refugees to Rwanda.

Not that I'm justifying it, but I'd rather money was spent on the upkeep of some of the most beautiful areas of England

That's the whole point. It's not. If it were used for upkeep of beautiful castles and buildings that are maybe open to the public or will be enjoyed for generations to come... I could understand it.
But no... it's commerical properties, doing up farmhouses to rent out at high rents, and even to facilitate pheasant and partridge shoots! The profits from this goes into Charles's pocket as 'private income'

Hardly for the people is it...

This isn't news

It's always been the case that if you die without a will and that no heir can be found under intestacy laws, the money goes

In Lancaster - the monarch
In Cornwall - the PoW
Everywhere else - the monarch

King Charles profiting from the assets of dead citizens | Mumsnet

If you want none of those to inherit, then make a will specifying the charities you prefer. Because once assigned to them, bona vacantia, it is theirs to do as they wish with. Just as it has been for centuries.

But what happens to the money in other counties, does it not go to the state anyway? The Tories are hardly likely to be spending it on the vulnerable either. Not that I'm justifying it, but I'd rather money was spent on the upkeep of some of the most beautiful areas of England, rather than spent on sending refugees to Rwanda.

Yes in other counties it goes to the treasury instead of into the hands of a private estate, which surely is much preferable. The thing is, we can all vote on the government. Someones private assets should never go to the King or queen, its obscene. Its not used to keep beautiful areas of England, he uses it for his own private estate!

It is obscene, I was so shocked by this, and the amounts are astronomical!! Think if it went into the NHS or other health programmes in those areas.

Well it isnt a secret, everyone knows it and anyone qho cares can just make a will to avoid it.
And it is not theft.it us the law of the land ans has been so for centuries

Did you read the article? they have claimed they use the money for charities. But thats not the case. Much of it is used for his own private estate.

The fact it has been this way for centuries doesn't make it right. Imagine if any other family was benefiting int his way.

You have to remember that a lot of people without wills aren't leaving huge fortunes, it's small amounts- that add up to 60 million. So the cost of writing a will may be out of some peoples reach. You can use the free wills network, some people may not realise, but charities have to pay the cost of that which is why I didn't use it.

Everywhere else - no it does not go to line the Monarch's pockets. As the article specifies.
This applies to the areas the Duchies cover.

And it is not theft.it us the law of the land ans has been so for centuries

Just because its the law, does;t make it right.

From the article:
It has long claimed that, after deducting costs, bona vacantia revenues are donated to charities.However, only a small percentage of these revenues is being given to charity. Internal duchy documents seen by the Guardian reveal how funds are secretly being used to finance the renovation of properties that are owned by the king and rented out for profit.

A leaked internal duchy policy from 2020 gave officials at the king’s estate licence to use bona vacantia funds on a broad array of its profit-generating portfolio. Codenamed “SA9”, the policy acknowledges spending the money in this way could result in an “incidental” benefit to the privy purse, the king’s personal income.
Properties identified in other leaked documents as eligible for use of the funds include town houses, holiday lets, rural cottages, agricultural buildings, a former petrol station and barns, including one used to facilitate pheasant and partridge shoots in Yorkshire.
Upgrades include new roofs, double-glazing windows, boiler installations and replacements of doors and lintels. One document references the renovation of an old farmhouse in Yorkshire, helping transform it into a high-end residential let. Another upgrade is helping turn a farm building into commercial offices.

Did you read the article? they have claimed they use the money for charities. But thats not the case. Much of it is used for his own private estate.

From the Guardian:
It has long claimed that, after deducting costs, bona vacantia revenues are donated to charities.However, only a small percentage of these revenues is being given to charity. Internal duchy documents seen by the Guardian reveal how funds are secretly being used to finance the renovation of properties that are owned by the king and rented out for profit.

Claiming to use the money for charities when in fact only a portion of it is going to charity is a bit deceptive of them. It actually seems quite sneaky to me.

I would object to them taking it at all, but it just is even worse they use it for their own private means. It just blows my mind that people have got soooo upset about certain people using titles, talking about 'the family'... but this is excused or ignored? Anyone with a decent moral compass would think this is wrong.

And we have to bear in mind that Charles took £26million from the Duchy of Lancaster just last year. This is classed as "private income" .

As a pp said make a will.

There are “thefts” from estates all the time and no one is interested in stopping it.

Husband and Wife have 2 children, Mum dies and has no will or leaves everything to their husband. Husband remarried leaves everything to new wife who then disinherits their step children. So the DC from the first marriage get nothing.

Family members using POA to drain vulnerable relatives savings. Strangers/neighbours/care staff doing the same.

A lot of people who inherit money don’t necessarily spend it in the way their deceased relative would approve.

Charities are renowned for being very keen on getting every penny from estates. To the point they will question the cost of the wake by going through the invoice. Plus they pay some staff (not all) high salaries from these donations.

Another article about it

Outside the elegant Town Farmhouse on the Cloughton estate, the duchy’s crest is emblazoned on the signpost. The property is let out for £1,450 a month thanks to a restoration project that, the duchy boasted in a press release, enabled the mid-19th-century building *to be “sensitively refurbished and modernised”. The upgrade was partly funded with bona vacantia money, on the basis that the building, which is not listed, is part of the village of Cloughton, which is in a conservation area and can therefore be categorised as a “heritage asset”.
The practice of upgrading duchy properties in this way is understood to have been going on for several years. In 2020, officials at the king’s estate introduced a policy to formalise the process, significantly expanding the number of its properties it said could receive bona vacantia funds by deeming them “heritage assets”, to include properties located in conservation areas, areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs) and those merely deemed to be of “local historical importance”.
The Town Farmhouse is one of 20 duchy-owned properties in one street in Cloughton, all of them marked with navy blue doors. The Land Registry states all are owned by “the king’s most excellent majesty in right of his Duchy of Lancaster”. Together, this single street of properties could bring in rental income of about £190,000 a year to the king’s estate.
A document leaked to the Guardian suggests most of the houses on the street were identified as eligible for upgrades using bona vacantia funds. The renovations include the installation of double glazing and boilers, damp surveys, and guttering and roof repairs.

“I think it’s a disgrace, to be honest,” said Stanley Kostrzewski, a friend of David Fry, an IT worker from Liverpool whose assets were transferred to the king’s estate after he died aged 50. “I was never aware of his personal circumstances as regards family and next of kin. It sticks in the throat a bit to see his funds being used in this way.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/nov/23/turn-in-his-grave-the-dead-whose-assets-went-to-king-charles-estate

As a pp said make a will.

Well people don't.

I am actually surprised at how many people aren't bothered. If the assets went to political parties to use for their own benefit instead of into the treasury for our benefit, people would rightly complain. Why is this different?

@RoseAndRose

This isn't news

It's always been the case that if you die without a will and that no heir can be found under intestacy laws, the money goes

In Lancaster - the monarch
In Cornwall - the PoW
Everywhere else - the monarch

King Charles profiting from the assets of dead citizens | Mumsnet

If you want none of those to inherit, then make a will specifying the charities you prefer. Because once assigned to them, bona vacantia, it is theirs to do as they wish with. Just as it has been for centuries.

Exactly this.. not news. but maybe news to those who did not know !

The duchy collects these funds with the help of an elite London law firm that has been serving members of the royal family for decades: Farrer & Co.
The lawyers are partly responsible for tracking down relatives of people who die in places linked to the medieval Lancashire county palatine – an area consisting of Lancashire and parts of Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Cumbria.
However, when John Talbot first learned of the death of his estranged father, Julian Talbot, it was not from Farrer & Co. Instead, a letter was sent to him nine months after Julian Talbot’s death by an heir hunter who had managed to track him down as a person who had a legal right to his late father’s assets. For John Talbot, contact from the heir hunter meant he could make a late claim to his inheritance. But news of his father’s death came late. By the time he was contacted, the duchy had arranged for Julian Talbot’s bungalow to be cleared out: his photographs and letters – and, with them, memories – were all destroyed. Only six guitars and a Toby jug were left.
But friends say it is not possible to erase the principles that Julian Talbot stood for. A lifelong socialist who had protested at Orgreave, he was, according to friends, a trenchant republican.
He is unlikely to have approved of the notion that, had it not been for some heir hunters, his worldly belongings would have gone to the king’s estate. Ceri Hutton, a longtime friend, said: “Julian would turn in his grave if he knew.”

It's not anyone who dies intestate, it's anyone who dies intestate with no blood relatives. We get that you hate the RF but at least be accurate.