[meldrewreborn]

A couple of reclusive people have died near me leaving apparently no will and no known relatives.

If this is proven to be the case, then after a couple of years the case is referred to the Bona Vacentia Department , part of HM Treasury. They will then publish details on their website allowing Genealogy firms to try and trace heirs - heir hunters. Eventually the state will claim all the assets if no heirs are found.

I wondered what happens if there is a property involved, does it just sit there unused and unloved?

Well it turns out that our good friends in the local authority are responsible for safeguarding and maintaining(!) the property even to the extent of insuring it - all paid from our funds. But the properties remain unused /unoccupied, and that to me seems completely wrong when there is under supply of housing.

[Andy65]

I used to watch Heir Hunters on BBC1 years ago @meldrewreborn and the properties are just left unoccupied and not maintained. I suspect those heirs with common sense would be grateful that someone has taken the time, effort and money to maintain a property that they've then inherited. But there'll be an increasing amount of people who'd take the view '...you've no right to do that etc, I want compensation blah blah blah'.

[meldrewreborn]

@Andy65

leaving potentially valuable property empty is criminal in my view and I can’t see why such property couldn’t be refurbished and let while legal beneficiaries are being identified. In essence the council would become temporary executors. Heirs identified later would just have to suck it up.

having an empty property does nothing good towards the area it occupies.

[Andy65]

I wasn't disagreeing with you @meldrewreborn, just pointing out the view that some might take these days. It would be interesting to have an idea of roughly how many properties we could be talking about here.

I don't think that you could have local councils being responsible for it though, they struggle to manage the property that they are responsible for.

[meldrewreborn]

@Andy65

I'm glad we are together on this.

It just that local authorities are legally liable for looking after the properties currently, until the Bona Vacentia Department take the estate on. and the local authorities aren't that happy about the situation. especially if they're liable for a couple of years. Leaving properties empty for no good reason isn't sensible at any time.

It would need a bit of legislation but if it helped to reduce nugatory council expenditure and get a few more households properly housed, then I think it should be done.

[meldrewreborn]

@Andy65

I too used to watch Heir Hunters on the TV - although its not currently in production. Most of their cases came from the Bona Vacentia Department's monthly list list and the companies competed against each other to trace heirs and sign them up on a commission basis before their competitors. The fact that they were able to trace heirs quite quickly surprised me, mainly because it demonstrated that the BVD did precious little to do that themselves.

Why can't people make wills - then these situation would virtually disappear - although wills can be challenged.

[Andy65]

Originally Posted by meldrewreborn

@Andy65

I too used to watch Heir Hunters on the TV - although its not currently in production. Most of their cases came from the Bona Vacentia Department's monthly list list and the companies competed against each other to trace heirs and sign them up on a commission basis before their competitors. The fact that they were able to trace heirs quite quickly surprised me, mainly because it demonstrated that the BVD did precious little to do that themselves.

Why can't people make wills - then these situation would virtually disappear - although wills can be challenged.

As with most series these days it became too repetitive for me, a bit like The Repair Shop. The main hunters, Fraser and Fraser, you could almost see them salivating if they thought a property was involved.

[DebF_EONNext]

I was chatting about this with my Grandad the other day. I love genealogy and I have been delving into my family history and I mentioned his Great Aunty Agnes.

She had a fantastic life! She left Ireland and went to New york while there met a Canadian man and they married. He owned a small logging company however it took off and became one of the largest logging companies in Canada at the time. They never had any children of their own and when he passed she inherited his fortune.

She sold up and moved to Scotland but had lost touch with her family, they all assumed she went back to New York. She passed away and there was no children or immediate family as they had all passed away.

Then one day my Grandad's sister Grace was reading the local newspaper and found an advert looking for living relatives of Anges so they wrote in - thinking nothing of it as they weren't sure it was even their Aunt Agnes. Almost a year later they had a knock at the door from a solicitor it was confirmed it was their great aunt and they had inherited a share.

Her fortune was filtered down and shared through the family tree (76 people in total her nieces & nephews and their children etc) My Grandad said that his parents got around £500 and him and his siblings all got their share of just under £200 each - which back in the late 40's was quite a chunk, so you can only imagine how much Great Aunty Agnes must have been worth!

It's a sad story that she was estranged and that she passed away alone, but it's still a fascinating story and sounds like she had some adventure - a true rags to riches tale!

[meldrewreborn]

@DebF_EONNext

A great story. When families drift apart this is what can happen. While it’s great for the beneficiaries to get an unexpected windfall, it’s so sad that they didn’t know each other. Of course if she’d left a will things would have been entirely different.

Chap down the road from me has died with no will and no relatives, so eventually we’ll all benefit because his estate will go to the treasury.