Government Heir Hunter Pages Removed

The government has removed its unclaimed estates page given increases in probate fraud.

‘Bona Vacantia’

‘Bona Vacantia’, the government’s online publication of a list of unclaimed estates on death has now been removed.

Bona Vacnatis is Latin and it means 'ownerless goods'.  It occurs when people die leaving wealth but have no known living heirs.

In most cases, people have died with leaving a Will and the Intestate Estates 1952 then details what should happen to estates when people die without a Will.

There is a simple priority list of who inherits the wealth of the deceased.  Usually starting with a share for legally married spouses and children to children, and if there are none then, 100% to parents and if no surviving parents, 100% to siblings (brothers/sisters) and so on.  Ultimately, if there are no relatives or distant relatives then the Crown inherits the estate.

There are different intestate estate laws for England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.

See: Death No Will England Wales Death No Will Scotland Death No Will Northern Ireland

Fraud

You may have seen the UK television programme 'Heir Hunters' where professional heir hunter firms, select estates from the Bona Vacantia list, trace potential heirs and try to sign them up to their services to help claim the estate.  In fact, the director of this firm Ashley Roberts-Clark was contacted by an heoir hunter firm 4 years ago as a potential benecisry of a deceased, distant relative's estate and is one of 27 beneficiaries entitled to a share of the estate.    Recently, a BBC investigation has found that a criminal gang has been operating to set up fake beneficiaries to claim these estates hence the government taking in down.

Comment

This is only a temporary measure and no doubt when additional security and due diligence checks are in place, the Bona Vacantia list will be live again.