Have you ever unexpectedly inherited anything?

[lepe]

I haven't, minus a set of books from an old neighbour who I used to drop in for a cup of tea with.

A good friend of mine has just inherited a property portfolio from his grandfather. He had no idea he owned any other houses other than his own home. So it came as a big shock. The grandfather gave them to his first born grandson (son's son) rather than any other grandchildren. Friend knew his grandparents were comfortably off, but had no idea they owned £1mil+ in workers cottages.

My DH and his sister were traced by heir hunters a few years ago. We didn't recognise the name of the person they were inheriting from but with a bit of determination and an ancestry site we found it was a cousin of their late father's whose dad was the oldest of 7 kids and their grandma had been the youngest so he'd actually grown up and left home before she was born. She'd been married twice so had changed names. They only got £1000 each and we're still trying to find who the other beneficiaries are as his dad was an only child and never mentioned having any cousins.

Sort of
Was given an unpublished poem by Roald Dahl

And in todays episode of 'Things that never happened' 🙄

Brilliant riding school plot

👍

@Namechangeforthis88 - not quite a riding school but Sophie Kinsellas the undomestic goddess is so similar to your post, you’ve made me want to read it again!

I got home from work one day to find a letter from a solicitor's firm. A friend of my mother's had planned to leave her some money, but my mother died first, so for some reason she chose to leave it to me instead, although I had no idea who she was and I'm fairly convinced I never actually met her.

My grandmother's house was full of all sorts of extraordinary stuff, much of it collected by my grandfather, who died before I was born. Obviously it's not a surprise to inherit from your grandparents, but I didn't expect to end up with a stuffed duck-billed platypus and a contract with the Devil signed in his own blood.

It's not that uncommon. Neither I nor my partner will inherit, a large amount of friends of mine won't either. And even if your parents own their home that's no guarantee of inheritance as it could end up needing to be sold for care costs in their old age

I was left a few thousand pounds from a neighbour. A lovely lady who never liked to ask for help but she found out she had cancer at the start of lockdown. She never married and had no children. I got her shopping for her, took her to appointments, checked in on her with chats on the doorstep. I was so upset when she died. She’d had so many plans and was very active, watching her suffer was so upsetting. I genuinely didn’t expect any money at all. She was more a friend than neighbour. She loved her garden so I had a lovely roofed pergola put in my garden with the money and we had a toast to her.

I did happen.

A bit of a reverse of the question but... A late grandparent who was like a parent for a lot of my life (and to the rest of the grandchildren tbf) left a large sum for us grandkids to be split and for years before made sure we knew what her wishes were even though we'd try to shut her down as the thought was incomprehensible. Aunt and remaining grandparent (who was wealthy in own right) didn't agree with her wishes so wanted to change it, realised they'd need us all to agree and eventually just destroyed the will when they died and as it wasn't registered with solicitor there were no consequences.

Aunt and my parent fell out and the aunt and their kids didn't like my parent telling the other family what they'd done and it completely destroyed a lot of relationships. I try to stay out of it but have gone no contact with them now as the things they say about my parent is very hurtful and the cousins refuse to stop bad mouthing them online about anything they can. I tried to be a peacekeeper and keep relationships I'd cherished all my life but honestly, it really, really hurts to know they took the last thing my beautiful grandparent could do for the people she adored the most in the world. I miss them so much.

I inherited an elderly cat who belonged to exDP's distant relative who lived miles away. Nobody else wanted him, and the neighbour (who had been feeding him while the relative was in hospital) was going to have him put down. So I took him in. He took a while to settle and to get along with my other cats, but they eventually accepted him, and he lived out the rest of his days with me.

My parents inherited 3 houses a while back. My Dad went to the local bank for advice. The bank advised him to put the vast majority into Marconi shares. Marconi went bust a few weeks later.

Had he put the money in the shares? That’s bizarre advice anyway - you should never put all your eggs in one basket.

@CrabbiesGingerBeer yes, all in shares. They lost £100ks. One of the properties would let for at least £3k per month at today's rates.

I have my Great Aunts tea caddy - it’s a thing of beauty, a Morecroft design. I think of her fondly every time I make a (frequent) cuppa!

Ouch. I know it’s too late now but it sounds to me like they had grounds to complain. No advisor should ever suggest putting all your assets in one stock.

Maybe he wants you to have it.

£100 from one Nan in the 90s. I think I got her car which was a Datsun Cherry in need of work but hadn't passed my test so it sort of disappeared.A silver souvenir cup from Spain from otherwise very wealthy grandad and the choice of my other grandmother's left over makeup again in the 90s. I loved them all very much but I don't think grandchildren were really in the wills. I don't think it bothered us much. I'd like my parents to stay alive as opposed to the alternative so with a couple of little sentimental things I don't care what I get or not.

Currently selling dfs house to pay for his care home fees. So not inherited yet, but have had to clear a large house. I've tried to keep as much as possible, but heartbreaking having to get rid of so much as we just haven't the room. And what I have chosen, 'd'p generally doesn't want up in our house as its 'old fashioned' ie lovely antiques. Stashing it until I have a place of my own.

Fat ankles

I had an aunt who became a nun when she was about 14. She was a good Irish Catholic girl, born in the early 1900's. When she was about 85 she inherited thousands from a very distant relative in America. Lawyers had spent ages tracking her down as she was the only living and very distant relative.
She gave the entire inheritance to the nuns home as she was not allowed to possess any worldly goods.