Letter about unclaimed estate - intriguing!

[Cantdecidewhich]

Dp received a letter from France yesterday from a man who says he is a private geanealogist, he said he is not looking for any financial gains it is a pastime.
Anyway the letter goes into great detail about his relatives and places they lived etc. and says that he had a great aunt who died in 1993 with no will and he is entitled to claim her estate in his Mother's name (deceased) and he asks if DP to pursue it with his assistance or appoint a solicitor or do it himself.
Has this happened to anyone else on here?

[SquirtleSquad]

Ooooo interesting

[TeacupDrama]

if it is in UK and from 1993 you have just over 2 years to claim you can't claim after 30 years

[JacobReesMogadishu]

I think for the cost of a few certificates it's worth a punt.

[HollowTalk]

Anyway the letter goes into great detail about his relatives and places they lived etc. and says that he had a great aunt who died in 1993 with no will and he is entitled to claim her estate in his Mother's name (deceased) and he asks if DP to pursue it with his assistance or appoint a solicitor or do it himself.

It's hard to know who 'he' is here - is the letter-writer saying that your husband has a great aunt etc? If so what is the letter-writer's involvement in this?

[RaspberryCoulis]

What do you mean, how it happens?

Someone dies, leaving an estate and no will. No known relatives - no kids, or kids have died. So the estate is liquidated (house sold, assets disposed of, debts settled) and the money sits there in a pot. It's then listed on the Bona Vacantia list for England and Wales

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/bona-vacantia

Or the QLTR in Scotland.

www.qltr.gov.uk/content/estates-which-administration-has-been-completed-and-which-remain-available-claim

That money sits there, unclaimed, for a set period until it goes to the government. Private companies and individuals can then look at that list and try to track down people who might be entitled to inherit under English or Scots law - cousins, nieces, nephews, half siblings. People who never knew the deceased but may have a legal claim.

All the "heir hunter" companies need is a copy of the deceased's death certificate - £15 from the GRO. That gives them the parents' names. Use sites like Ancestry to track their marriage, then their births, their siblings, their parents. This is all PUBLIC information obtained from birth, marriage and death certificates. Track down the lines, find living relatives using the electoral registers and social media. It's not shady, not dodgy.

Of course, once they find an heir they will say "we think you're entitled, sign with us and we'll put forward your claim for a percentage of the money you get". You are free to accept their help or not. Many people do, because these firms are the experts in providing evidence to the Courts in exactly the format they want, and know how to navigate the system. People who weren't expecting any money at all will be prepared to accept slightly less money to have someone else deal with the legal hassle of it all.

[Greengrasshills]

Has nobody ever seen the TV programme Heir Hunters ? In the UK ( don't know about France ) the goverment regularly produces a list of unclaimed estates, the bona vacantia list as previously mentioned. Anyone can then get the names off the list and try and research and track down living relatives who may be entitled to the estate. There are professional companies who do this, but anyone can do it.

[Cantdecidewhich]

Sorry I didn't make it clear, the letter has come from France but the writer appears to be English, his great aunt died in Sussex.

He states quite adamantly throughout the letter that he wants no payment if Dp goes ahead with him but he also says some people choose to offer him a reward which he is always grateful for but that is up to the individual.

[Mooballs]

We had a similar letter from finders. It was legitimate and related to dh's grandmother's cousin who died without a will. We eventually inherited about 1k! Just felt sad that we'd never met her really.

[TressiliansStone]

AcornAutumn I have lots of spin-offs from researching my own or friends' families.

You end up looking at so many records and writings that you get a lot of serendipitous discoveries.

So I'll be reading old newspapers for birth/marriage/death announcements, and there'll be something intriguing in the next column. Or someone in my family will be working with someone fascinating, or married to someone whose third cousin does something interesting.

Just yesterday I cold-emailed an academic whose book bemoaned the lack of biographical detail available on one of her subjects. Well, it so happens her subject worked for my gt-gt-gt-grandfather, so I can fix that for her (to some extent)!


Sometimes people bite my hand off; sometimes I never hear back.

[Mychitchatdays]

This happened to my husband. It took years for it to be all sorted, but we had enough money to buy a house. So definitely worth investigating.

[RaspberryCoulis]

@Cantdecidewhich

Sorry I didn't make it clear, the letter has come from France but the writer appears to be English, his great aunt died in Sussex.

He states quite adamantly throughout the letter that he wants no payment if Dp goes ahead with him but he also says some people choose to offer him a reward which he is always grateful for but that is up to the individual.

Ah right, well in that case it does make things easier.

Assuming the deceased is your DH;s mother's sister who died without a will, then yes, your DH's mother would have been entitled to a share as a sibling. If your DH's mother has also died, then that claim passes to your DH and any other siblings he has. If, for example, your mother would have inherited half of the estate, then that is split between her children. If your DH has one sibling, each would get half of their mother's half, so 25%.

This french guy sounds like an enthusiastic amateur who loves the puzzle of tracking descendants using their genealogical skills. Most of the big heir hunting companies cross reference the Bona Vacantia with the Land Registry - if there's a property involved, they're interested. If the deceased rented or didn't have a property, then they assume low value, so low fee from any potential client.

Some people do it for the kicks of getting money back to the rightful heirs and keeping it out of the government's pocket.

[Avondklok]

We were contacted last year by heir hunters about the estate of my grandmothers cousin that none of us had heard of. Eventually I received £88, but my gm's surviving brother got a few thousand. It's definitely worth investigating.

[Kaliorphic]

I think people do search this in the hope you may give them something if it bears fruition. Which is probably fair enough. I'd get some legal advice.

[justanotherneighinparadise]

Nice! Go investigate and if there’s money at the end you can decide whether to throw some of it towards the guy who wrote to you.

[TonMoulin]

What you are describing is actually not unusual in France. They have genealogists employed to find distant relatives but Obviously they can’t solve all the cases.

I would treat it as genuine and contact the relevant French government ageancies and take it from there.

Good luck!

[TonMoulin]

Btw there are groups in France where people passionate about genealogy just spend time researching like this, for the pleasure of doing the research.
I imagine getting something will go towards their costs (eg if they need to go in person to look at registers). But that is not what drives thee.

I hope whoever contacted you is one of them!

[Growapair]

Pm for the outcome

[BlueBrian]

My sister and I were contacted a few years ago like this, we both got about £1,000 from an unknown deceased relative in the USA, didn't cost us anything to get the money.

[AcornAutumn]

I posted a reply and it hasn’t appeared

Tres and Raspberry how do you find a current address for people, do you actually go to search the full electoral register?

OP I hope there’s some money in it but I’d be wanting to know how the person got the address.

[Sonofapizzaman]

This is fascinating! I was aware it happened but have never really thought about it till now.

How sad for the people with absolutely no one close though.

[mandarinpink]

I know someone who was contacted too. She ended up with over £250,000 and her brother got the same. She wasn't going to pursue it originally but her daughter persuaded her otherwise. She didn't believe it till the money arrived.

[NeverTwerkNaked]

It isn't necessarily a scam
We regularly pay tracing agents when dealing with people who died with no know relatives

[Jemmy360]

My mum got a letter like this last year. I said to ignore as probably a scam but it turned out to be real. My mum and her 5 living siblings eventually got £135 each, but the better result was a really detailed family tree for the obscure branch the legacy came from.

[TressiliansStone]

From OP: He says he tracked him down form the UK electoral register

It's not hard – just look on 192.com. Actually Google will often throw up 192.com results even if you don't start there.

[RaspberryCoulis]

@AcornAutumn

I posted a reply and it hasn’t appeared

Tres and Raspberry how do you find a current address for people, do you actually go to search the full electoral register?

OP I hope there’s some money in it but I’d be wanting to know how the person got the address.

www.gov.uk/electoral-register/view-electoral-register

Lots of libraries have access. If you have found a marriage certificate for someone in for example Cornwall, and then you find birth certificates for two children born in Cornwall, and you've googled and found reference to someone of that name working in Cornwall, then find someone of the right name living in Cornwall, then it's a fair bet you have the right guy. Of course sometimes they will get it wrong - especially if you're dealing with a very common surname.