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?

[borageforager]

My grandfather was traced & inherited £20k from a distant relative in Scotland, they had common great grandparents IIRC, grandparents had no idea of this man’s existence.

[TatianaBis]

@oakleaffy

Wills are only about £300 and there are solicitors who do them cheaply for charity.
Even if one has no children, leave it to a chosen charity. In the scheme of the most modest of estates, £300 is nothing...to ensure it goes to deserving recipients.

DH and I altered our wills this year and it cost £1500. That’s because there are trusts involved etc.

At no point have I said people should not have wills, I’m just explaining why they don’t bother.

[copperoliver]

Maybe call heir hunters to check. X

[BestIsWest]

Morriszapp you really should do an AMA! How did you get into this? I find it fascinating.

[BestIsWest]

OTOH DH and I did our wills this year and it cost us nothing - did it via a charity scheme where we leave a donation to the charities.

[dementedma]

My friend's brother got one of these and it was genuine. He picked up an inhetitance ftom a very very distant relative

[Avondklok]

My understanding from my heir hunter was they had no clue of value of the estate until they gathered sufficient permission from family members to make a claim. £500 is the minimum to make the list.

[MorrisZapp]

@dementedma

My friend's brother got one of these and it was genuine. He picked up an inhetitance ftom a very very distant relative

Was it her step brother or half brother? If full blood then there's no intestate succession that wouldn't include them both.

[MorrisZapp]

@Avondklok

My understanding from my heir hunter was they had no clue of value of the estate until they gathered sufficient permission from family members to make a claim. £500 is the minimum to make the list.

This is true, but one main thing we can establish is whether they owned property. We always keep it super vague or else people say 'but YOU SAID it was a hundred grand' etc. I tell people they're getting a bacon roll and a postage stamp, then they're happy if they do get more.

[lyralalala]

@oakleaffy

Scam. An executor of a will would surely instruct solicitors to try to find genuine relatives.
99.999% scam, If you want to be put on a mugs list, go ahead.. these scammers sell emails of gullible people, sadly.

The Bona Vacantia list is an official government site. It's on there, therefore it exists

It's a bit of a shit scam to give the OP's DH all the details he needs to go and claim it himself.

[sneakysnoopysniper]

If you do sign up with an heir hunters firm it can still take upto to a year before disbursement. Its quite a complex procedure.

They have to search for all potential heirs using various sources, family trees, personal knowledge, advertise in the papers, and so on. If they missed some heirs and disbursed the funds then they (the disinherited heirs) could potentially sue. They might have a claim not only against the solicitors but also against any heirs who HAD been paid out. The heir hunters company also have to take out a special insurance policy to cover for this eventuality

[RaspberryCoulis]

They have to search for all potential heirs using various sources, family trees, personal knowledge, advertise in the papers, and so on. If they missed some heirs and disbursed the funds then they (the disinherited heirs) could potentially sue. They might have a claim not only against the solicitors but also against any heirs who HAD been paid out. The heir hunters company also have to take out a special insurance policy to cover for this eventuality

This is why Heir Hunters are a "thing" rather than people just doing it themselves. It is complicated and anyone who has ever done their own family tree knows how easy it is to get the wrong Thomas Jones or not be able to find a key document for whatever reason. If you get it wrong and upload incorrect information on your own website or tree then it's no biggie, but the courts are a different matter.

It's like anything legal - wills, conveyancing, divorce - yes you can DIY and represent yourself but most people choose to have the experts do it for them.

@Cantdecidewhich do come back and let us know how your DH gets on! Are there many other branches of the family? Or was it just his mother, and one sister?

[GrimDamnFanjo]

@Cantdecidewhich have you googled the genealogist?

[Cantdecidewhich]

Sorry for disappearing, well we emailed him as we thought he deserved to be involved.
He said he doesn't believe it will be a life changing sum but better that Dp gets it than the government, he doesn't think any property was liquidated.
He has sent a sketch of the family tree and told us to email it to the BV website saying he is claiming on behalf of his deceased mother.
Will keep you posted!

[cabbageking]

Have you checked for probate?
probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#calendar