The Queen is not exactly your standard landlord.

However one couple were threatened with eviction last month over a £32 bill by the Crown Estate!

Christopher Brown and partner Daisy Bow Du Toit were warned in October they would have to leave their Royal Mews home in Hampton Court after they had used a power socket in the building's boiler room to recharge their electric car.

Mr Brown said the car had previously been charging at his office after the Royal Household rejected his request for the installation of a charge point at the property.

The boiler room charging point was being used as lockdown meant Mr Brown was spending less time at his office.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Brown said: "It just seems they are just so stubborn on their decision making - and also cold and petty - by making us leave our home of five years, during a pandemic.

"The rental market is unprecedentedly competitive due to a lack of properties and our move out date is falling less than a month before Christmas - all over about £32 of electricity which I would gladly pay for plus any fine they want to give me."

Ms Bow Du Toit said the car had been crucial to the couple to ensure they could go shopping during the lockdown as well as in her search for a job after she was laid off earlier this year.

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The pair have since been granted an extra month in their Hampton Court home to allow them to search for a new flat but they insisted it made little difference.

Ms Bow Du Toit said the exchanges they have had with the Royal Family's Crown Estate showed "the lack of forward-thinking when it comes to charging cars in residential lettings, in particular, the royal households."

A spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said the Royal Household relies on "an external agency to lease a small number of residential properties at Hampton Court Mews".

The Crown Estate is not the private property of the monarch or the government but rather an independent organisation headed by a board.

The surplus money from the organisation each year is then paid to The Treasury.