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Original poster

Have you ever been contacted by an heir hunter?

60 replies

Alldelicious · 25/08/2022 11:04

You have to agree to them having a cut of any inheritance and then they set about proving you are heir to some far distant relative you've never heard of.

A friend has been contacted by two different companies regarding the same "relative". Presumably these companies know there is money to chase?

No one has ever heard of the relative and one sibling has done considerable family tree research without coming across them, but I suppose that's the point, they'll be on a distant branch (if connected at all).

Would you get involved or assume it's a scam? Obviously it's going to mean sharing a lot of personal data.

OP posts:
LoveToWearADress · 25/08/2022 11:18

It's not always a scam at all. I work closely with a reputable firm and I'm always surprised at the amount of intestate people, usually it's those who've been estranged from their families. The local authorities have a duty of care to remaining family members to ensure that the money is distributed to heirs before it goes to HMRC and in many cases to the local authority, or the heir hunter firm, who may have had to pay for the welfare funeral, house clearance etc.

AMA. Hope that helps.

purplecorkheart · 25/08/2022 11:20

My father got one many years ago. It sounded like a total scam to be honest. He tore up the letter

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 25/08/2022 11:34

I think if they are asking for a fee up front then it's a scam, but I can't see how it's a scam if they take a cut from the inheritance and get nothing if they can't prove the relationship.

LoveToWearADress · 25/08/2022 11:37

This is another thing I'm surprised at! The courts and the local authorities hold huge amounts of unclaimed assets. Without doing your research into it, why would you want to tear up a letter?

Before I started working with these firms (I'm not directly involved in their work, I'm in a service profession that provides tech based support), I also had some unclaimed assets in the US. I was completely sceptical, looked into it, took legal advice and then claimed the money.

Obviously this is completely different than the random email that you receive saying there's money for you in a Swiss bank if you'd only send over £5000 of your own ... that's always been a scam.

LoveToWearADress · 25/08/2022 11:39

BlackAmericanoNoSugar · 25/08/2022 11:34

I think if they are asking for a fee up front then it's a scam, but I can't see how it's a scam if they take a cut from the inheritance and get nothing if they can't prove the relationship.

Yes. This is a tried and tested business.

However OP - don't forget that you can negotiate on the cut and if you don't like the firm who's contacted you, you can shop around for another.

There's 4/5 larger firms out there, 2 of them don't have great customer service and can be pushy. The others are much more reliable and good to work with.

MrsAvocet · 25/08/2022 11:49

We got one once. It sounded very plausible actually as my DH's family are not British and it allegedly came from someone in the right part of their country, included names that have been used in their family, correct professions for some people who were named and so on.
However, there were a few flaws. For a start, DH's parents are alive, so if it was genuine, then surely they would have been the heirs, not DH. Then there's the fact that they still have plenty of friends in the area so it wasn't too hard to find out that nobody had ever heard of the "deceased" or the alleged solicitors office. But the coup de grace was probably the fact that DH's late grandmother had a very serious interest in genealogy and had created a highly detailed family tree going back centuries, which showed no trace of this fictitious branch of the family.
Someone had obviously gone to quite a lot of trouble with this scam, but they made a very poor choice of victims! 😂

Nagado · 25/08/2022 12:12

I have. One of the companies who regularly appear on the Heir Hunters programme on BBC. In my case, they had been instructed by solicitors to track down all the heirs to a distant relative I’d never met, who had died without a will, so just wanted to confirm I existed and to ask if they’d missed any relatives off their list, before they reported back to the solicitors. So not quite as mysterious as they told us who had passed away straight away (their fee was set by the solicitors) but still pretty exciting.

PinkArt · 25/08/2022 12:16

My sibling and I got one! Totally legit but we were very sceptical initially so used a throwaway email address to reply to them, while doing more research on the company. We didn't know who the family member was, even when we eventually got a name, but we have quite a small family so it made sense that they may have had to go quite extended to find a living relative. It took over a year and ended up being not a huge amount of money - just over a thousand pounds. It was a lovely bonus but it's hard not to get carried away and assume there must be a lot of money at stake for it to be worth the heir hunters time. I definitely convinced myself we'd be getting 10s or 100s of thousands at points during that year 😂

A580Hojas · 25/08/2022 12:16

I bloody love that programme Heir Hunters. So interesting.

catinboots123 · 25/08/2022 12:18

My parents neighbour got 40k

ivykaty44 · 25/08/2022 12:21

I used to work in an County Archive & one of the archivist was contacted by an heir hunter 🥸 he decided the heir hunter was not going to get a slice of his inherits therefore he set about tracing the list - it’s a public list - and researching which person on that list was related to him distantly.

with knowledge and tricks of a few people, it was a successful hunt and he was able to claim his inheritance.

I doubt it’s a scam but you could get your friend to play one company of the other on % and get a better deal 😂

LizziesTwin · 25/08/2022 12:30

My aunt was and inherited hundreds of thousands.

Alarae · 25/08/2022 12:38

My friend's DH did recently, ended up with around 30k I believe.

SockQueen · 25/08/2022 12:49

Not quite the same, but my mum got a letter out of the blue from her ex-husband's (married 50 years ago, divorced >40 years ago, before I was born) niece - who had gone through quite a lot of trouble just to track her down. Her exH had died intestate, so the niece was the next living relative and due to inherit, until they tried to sell the house and discovered he'd never taken my mum off the deeds, so she now technically owns the whole house (joint tenants)!

It's been way more hassle than it's worth though - mum doesn't want any of the money, but sorting out the tax implications etc and clearing the house has been a huge headache, plus has dragged back years of emotional turmoil.

MsRinky · 25/08/2022 12:57

My Dad was contacted about an American fortune from a great-great uncle or something. It was actually quite a fortune but not by the time it had been split between the bazillion branches of the extensive family tree - about £500 I think!

Lurleene · 25/08/2022 13:12

I received a letter nearly 2 years ago and my initial thought was that it was a scam. DH did a bit of googling and we saw it was a well known company so I made contact. They had been employed by solicitors to track down relatives of a man who had died intestate. I didn't know him but he was my Dad's cousin.

It took several months to sort out in which time I seesawed between thinking I'd get enough for a weekend away to buying a holiday home, it was fun to fantasise! When it finally came through last year it was a very nice and welcome lump sum but not life changing. It was split 8 ways but some of us got more than others due to how they filter it through the family tree.

The nicest thing was being put in touch with other relatives I never met. My Dad died when I was quite young and I only knew one living relative on his side. I also now have lots of old family photos that I had never seen before. My DS is the spit of my Dad at that age.

I feel very fortunate but have found it difficult to spend any of the money. Maybe I feel a bit guilty? We went on a trip earlier this year to visit my relative's grave and laid flowers to say thank you.

AllLopsided · 25/08/2022 16:48

My mum was - it was a cousin and she'd lost touch with a lot of family after her mum died. I can't remember how she was originally contacted but she and her sister were both beneficiaries, and the inheritance was split with some other family as well. It took a long time to sort out but she got a 3-figure sum in the end - partly because the delay meant the house sold for a lot more than first predicted. She and her sister got their own solicitor who took a smaller percentage than the heir hunters who originally contacted her. There was certainly nothing to pay upfront!

DisplayPurposesOnly · 25/08/2022 17:52

My aunts (sisters) were contacted by one a couple of years ago, when one of their cousins had died.

We looked into doing it ourselves as it's not that difficult really, but it was only a small amount of money so easier to let the professionals crack on.

The unclaimed estates list is published on GOV.UK daily so you could pop on any time to see if you recognise any relatives 😁

www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/unclaimed-estates-list

Mistymountain · 25/08/2022 18:54

My mother was contacted by one about 15 years ago. It turned out to be legitimate and she received was £4000 pounds or so. The relative involved was her mother's cousin. I think the heir hunter's cut was 25% before distribution, - I thought that was ok though, she wouldn't have known anything about it without their work.

PaolaNeri · 25/08/2022 19:04

Yes, last year we were contacted by a reputable heir hunter regarding a long lost cousin. We decided to fund a Solicitor ourselves as there were only 3 beneficiaries. Estate is now ready to finalise and no huge chunk to pay a third party for something we could do ourselves. It has been a heck of a year, I could have written a book on what we found and dealt with.

RedRiverShore2 · 25/08/2022 19:22

A bit different but I had to use one, the solicitor dealing with the estate organised it, to find my DF when DM died as his name was still on the house deeds and the house needed to be sold so he could have his half of the money, and we could move on with the sale and distribution of monies, they found him very quickly.

MrsMoastyToasty · 25/08/2022 19:28

DM was contacted by one. They were looking for relatives of Anthony Toasty (not real name) but DF was Antonio Toasty (not real name either!).

canyon2000 · 25/08/2022 20:31

My mum got a letter saying she was due a share of an inheritance. I googled the company then spoke to them and it was all above board. She ended up getting just over £1000 and shared it with me as she was going to bin the letter but I persuaded her not too!

ThreeLeggedCat · 25/08/2022 21:02

My FIL has been contacted by one of these companies recently. They asked if he had any siblings - he said yes as he is one of 7 (or 8, I can’t remember!). The heir hunting company have gone away to do further research. My FIL’s Family is absolutely huge so they reckon they’ll get about enough for a cup of coffee out of it 😆.

QuintessentialHedgehog · 25/08/2022 22:00

I haven't, but a member of my family was and ended up with around £40K. But I some people probably do assume it's always a scam, because apparently there was more money that went to charity when the heir hunters couldn't get a reply from another far-off branch of the family despite trying.