The Duke's website says the Duchy is a 'private estate'.
When we write to the UK Government about our Duchy Governmnet failing to live up to its responsibilities, the UK Government says it cannot address our concerns because the Duchy Government is a 'private estate'.
Report in the WMN today describes how Scilly Isanders cannot buy their land from the Duchy, despite a 2002 law saying all leaseholders are entitled to buy private freeholders out.
The Duchy is refusing to obey this law as it says, wait for it - it is not a private estate but part of the Crown, or government, of Britain.
Charles 'acting like feudal baron'
10:00 - 03-September-2008
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ANGRY Scilly islanders have accused the Prince of Wales of behaving like a feudal baron for exploiting a legal loophole over rights to buy the ground on which their homes are built.
Residents of around 60 houses on the five inhabited islands are considering a legal challenge against the Duchy of Cornwall, the Prince's landed estate which provides his income.
Alan Davis, secretary of the Garrison Leasehold Group on St Mary's, which represents the affected islanders, said the issue was causing a lot of bitterness.
"We just want the same rights available to everyone else.
"But our problem is that the Duchy of Cornwall enjoys some sort of feudal privilege which is not available to any other landlord in the country."
The controversy surrounds properties on the Scillies – those in the 16th-century garrison on St Mary's and a number of homes on the off-islands, excluding Tresco. Residents like Mr Davis are leaseholders, owning the bricks and mortar of their properties, but not the land on which they are built.
They all have a long lease and each year pay a ground rent to the owner of the land, the freeholder, the Duchy of Cornwall.
Under the 2002 Leasehold Reform Act, most leaseholders in Britain were given the right to buy the freehold of their property. However, the Duchy of Cornwall is exempt as it claims to be part of the Crown.
The Garrison Leasehold Group say this is "unjust" and "unfair" as the Duchy of Cornwall is run as a multi-million- pound commercial concern.
"The Duchy owns holiday cottages on the Isles of Scilly. I do not know why the future King of England is messing about with holiday lets," said Mr Davis. I just don't understand why the Duchy will not back away from this."
The leases granted on the properties can be long-term, but a number are running out, making homes virtually worthless.
"Who is going to buy a home with only ten years left to run on the lease?" he said.
Mr Davis bought his home on St Mary's in 1984 with an 80 year plus lease. "I will be long gone by the time the lease runs out, but that is not the point," he said. "This is about having your rights taken away by this sort of feudal privilege."
The Duchy of Cornwall once owned all the land and properties on the Isles of Scilly but most have been sold off.
A Duchy spokeswoman confirmed there was a small number of sites, including the garrison on St Mary's, which belonged to the Duchy of Cornwall estate and were exempt from the Leasehold Reform Act.
OH WELL, ANOTHER DAY - ANOTHER LAW BROKEN TO AID OUR SECRET DICTATOR!!!!!!
DONT BOTHER ADDING A READERS COMMENT WHICH INCLUDES ANY REREFENCE TO DuchyofCornwall.eu website, IT WILL BE CENSORED BY THE PAPER[See media censorship thread]
Does this just apply to Scilly, or are all Duchy leaseholders denied this possibility, either in Cornwall or elsewhere?
Meanwhile, for those who need advice about escheat, (ie bona vacantia etc) all is fully explained for those outside of Cornwall by the firm of solicitors charged by the Crown Estates to look after this very valuable, and possibly emotive, area:
Some private estate Perhaps now they'll stop telling that particular lie (but I doubt it - never seen goalposts moving more since England's last excuse for their football team not scoring).
As far as I know even freeholders don't really own the land they just hold it for as long as they live (and can pass it on via a will) from the Crown or Duchy. So if they die intestate (no will) it reverts to the Crown or Duchy.
So at the moment the Duchy in the Scillies is a freeholder of some properties but a freeholder from itself! Is that the case?
HERE is the article: 'Charles Acting Like Feudal Baron'.
Apparently this comment from a reader has been blocked:
'It's high time all the assets and incomes of The Duchy Of Cornwall(corp.div.)
in and derived from The Duchy Of Cornwall are put in trust
for the benefit of ALL the people of The Duchy Of Cornwall.
The Absentee Duke, whoever he might be, could be a trustee.
If you die intestate any land you own (land includes any buildings e.g. houses) goes to your next of kin. If no relatives can be traced then it reverts to the Crown (or Duchy) as feudal superior. It's rather difficult to see what else could happen, in the Irish Republic afaik the land also goes to the state.
If the Act referred to (I haven't checked) reforming leasehold includes saving clauses for the Crown and Duchy of Cornwall, then there is no illegality as Parliment exempted them in the first place. That's not to say it's fair, but whoever said the law had to be fair?
Seventy Percent of "competent & frequent" Cornish users prefer to write KK! (MAGA/CLP Survey)
Look, it's all very simple! Professor Morvran does not understand the concept of intestacy. You are intestate if you have no descendents to whom you leave your estate on your death.
The Duchy of Cornwall in Cornwall is the owner of land of last resort in Cornwall - it cannot, therefore, be a private estate.
The owner of last resort of land in the remainder of the UK is the Crown. (In the Duchy of Lancaster, it is the Duke of Lancaster, or Queen Elizabeth 1 of Scotland), neither of which are private estates.
In the event that someone dies intestate in the UK, the public at large benefits through the Crown Estate. (In similar circumstances in the Duchy of Lancaster, the people residing within it are the beneficiaries).
In Cornwall, the people of Cornwall receive no benefit whatsover from the profits of bona vacantia (this includes intestate estates) since the profit arising from it go solely to one man, to do as he pleases, unencumbered by taxation. This one person is the Duke of Cornwall. Since the Duchy of Cornwall in Cornwall is the analogous body to the Crown Estates in the remainder of the UK and must, therefore, fulfil similar functions and responsibilities, it cannot, on this basis also, be a private estate.
To treat analogous groups of people, i.e. the Cornish and the rest of the UK, differently, is discriminatory.
Does that assist the understanding of the nutty professor Morvran?
Morvan admits that the Duchy Government forms part of the apparatus of state, and then suggests that it is not illegal for the state authorities to falsely represent and portray, in Parliament, the Courts and to imnternational bodies, this entity as a 'private estate' - and by doing so, deliberately deny a people their history, territorial rights and status.
One can only wish them the best of luck and hope that they get the best of advice. I get the feeling though that the Duchy will try and avoid any such court action that might throw light on its janus faced nature and, if pushed, will probably back down.
Don't forget that the Duke will have the benefit of Section 40, 2(g) of the crown Proceedings Act (1947) that gives him the right to, 'control or otherwise intervene in proceedings that affect his rights, property and profits'!
I doubt very much whether any English legal advisors will acquaint their clients with this and a plethora of other relevant Duchy/Human Rights deficiencies.
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