Is buying a title for £195 ever worth it? I'm Lord Toby - and I want an upgrade

Just how easy is it to buy a title? And once you've got one, do you get better deals from shops, banks, hotels and airlines?



Who better to ask than LORD TOBY WALNE (until last Tuesday plain old Financial Mail reporter Toby Walne).



In the first of a two-part report on this apparently booming industry, 'his lordship' looks at where titles can be bought, how much they cost and - crucially - whether they are legitimate.

A random email from elitetitles.co.uk caught my eye with the advert: 'How to Get Royalty Treatment - Even Called Lord or Lady - Everywhere You Go!'

Yes, even I, with not a drop of blue in my blood, could buy a title for just £195, apparently quite legitimately.

Young pretender: 'Lord' Toby Walne paid £195 for his title



The promotion made much of the financial benefits that would flow my way. As soon as my title was observed by people, went the argument, I would have 'red carpet' treatment - everything from private banking, flight upgrades and the best seats at restaurants and theatres to 'complimentary champagne' whenever I stayed at a hotel.

The online application was simple. I could choose a modest lordship from a range of titles that included baron, duke, earl, or viscount. All would cost the same.

The sales literature promised this 'life-changing title IS legal' and could be added to my passport, a driving licence, bank account and credit cards.

I became my new, ennobled self through Elite Titles, but I soon discovered I could have become a lord from one of dozens of websites selling similar titles. But here it gets murky. Titles for sale online start from as little as £18.95 from outfits such as Lord Titles (lordtitles.co.uk). But services that seem similar can cost thousands of pounds.

The deed is done: Scroll clown



Elite, for example, offers 'seated titles' from £995 that are connected to a piece of land - in this case a plot just 8ins by 8ins.

The application for my £195 budget version took minutes and I was promised that within five working days my application would be 'reviewed' and a title posted to me if it was deemed I could be ennobled.

The certificate, if that is what it could be called, duly arrived, with a bit of red ribbon and a few stamps of gold foil. 'Title deed of the most honourable and noble Lord Tobias Walne,' it said. The accompanying letter was signed, very gratifyingly: 'I remain, Lord Walne, Your Lordship's most obedient Servant, Andrew Bulpin.'

But did the paperwork mean anything at all? Apparently not.

I asked Robert Smith, chairman of the Manorial Society, which auctions authentic titles, what he thought of my purchase. 'What you have bought is just a fancy piece of paper - nothing but a change of name that you could have done with a solicitor for just £25,' he said. 'You are still Mr Walne and if you change your name in the way this paperwork suggests, you would be nothing other than Mr Lord T Walne.

'This is not the same as a Lordship of a Manor, enshrined in English law as incorporeal hereditament - property without body. You can call yourself whatever you want as long as you are not defrauding people through its use.'

I asked Charles Kidd, editor of Debrett's Peerage & Baronetage whether my new title merited a place in the prestigious book. Plain Mr Kidd said: 'Sorry, if you come to us with that sort of title there is only one place your details will be placed - and that is not in the book.

'The ''lordship'' you have purchased cannot be used on any legal document. You are actually tarnishing the name of an authentic title and putting it into disrepute.'

What of Elite Titles and Andrew Bulpin, who claimed to be my most obedient servant? The business

operates from the postal address of a photocopying shop in Newton Abbot, Devon. Bulpin, 47, says: 'We are positioned at the fun end of the market. If you want to change your title to lord, it is perfectly legal. And if others choose to give you benefits because of the title, that is their prerogative.'

King's ransom: Perks of the real thing



Lordships had been around for centuries but it wasn't until the arrival of William the Conqueror in 1066 that they became big business.

William handed them out to his followers and by the time the Domesday Book was commissioned in 1086 there were at least 13,000 titles.

Modern title sales were enabled by the 1922 Law of Property Act, which dispensed with the vestiges of feudal tenure but sometimes kept a few ancient rights, such as holding markets, fishing and choosing the vicar. It also allowed investors to purchase a title without buying land.

The Manorial Society is a leading auctioneer of authentic titles in Britain. They start at about £5,000 but can cost six figures. One of the biggest sales in recent years was the sale of the Lordship of the Manor of Wimbledon by Earl

Spencer in 1996, for which he pocketed £171,000.

Robert Smith of the Manorial Society says he does not believe titles should be viewed as investments, but accepts they can increase in value. He also points to the perks a title can offer such as fishing and mining rights and the prestige it may bring in business and private life.

'Buying a title can prove personally fulfilling, but there are fraudsters out there,' he says. 'If you are going to buy, always use a solicitor to validate the title you are interested in.'