£4000 found when ripping out kitchen

[ElizabethDarcy88]

Today after having old kitchen ripped out our fitter found hidden a box and inside was £4000 in cash. ...we have informed solicitor who managed the sale. (It was a probate house sale) what do you think will happen?

Possibly the dumbest thing I have ever read.

You found 4K inside YOUR OWN KITCHEN and didn't keep it?

Completely astounded.

Now this is what you do if you find £4K IN YOUR OWN HOUSE.

But it’s un-spendable in its present form, and exchanging it for current tender will raise money-laundering flags.

@WitchWithoutChips

Pp states it's acceptable in banks until September.

I wouldn’t have told anyone. But I’m dishonest- I’d have spent it on the kitchen

PP is mistaken. They are thinking of the blue-purple paper notes with Adam Smith on the bank. OP has either the older note with Elgar (ceased to be legal tender in 2010) or possibly even the older still version with Faraday on the back, which ceased to be LT in 2001.

This is the £20 that can be spent until September.

Ah this is heart wrenching .... I have a family member also grew up in desperate circumstances and hides cash ...

Me too - I would say "finders keepers" - might give the builder a bonus though

^^ this is what I think too

Because OP said that the house has only had one previous owner, who bought it new in the 60s.

For all the people who would keep it, what would you do with 4k in out of date £20 notes?

I hope op gets to keep the cash and can split with the kitchen fitter or family at least decide on a 50/50 split

re. Poster’s DH who found 5k in a council clearance…op is correct, person who arranged clearance would have just pocketed the 5k…I can almost guarantee it. The council would not be able to bank it to use to improve their properties or anything it could have been added to deceased’s rent account I suppose and any recharges and rent arrears could have come out of it but I think you’d find it’s the lower level workers that would be the honest ones and pay it into their rent a/c anonymously and the ones organising contracts that tend to be the ones to take shortcuts and pocket things. Generally we pay these companies to clear it, they have to be properly licensed but if they can salvage stuff for their own use/gain that’s seen as a perk of the job for them so I don’t think this posters DH was dishonest he knew there was no NOK

I once found £180 in an empty housing assoc property…the chap had gone into a care home and asked me to collect a small list of items…I handed the 180 to his social worker (hopefully the chap got his money) and on another occasion found almost £500 in a money box used to collect 20p’s from coffee money I did some quiet investigating and pulled a resident over to the side …it turned out to be someone suffering from mental health issues & I feared financial abuse…I gave it back to her, she insisted I keep it but I didn’t I agreed to lock it in the safe for a week to give her chance to open a bank account just for herself and then returned it to her

oh and another time (last year) I found £800 in an envelope (blank) blowing down our road as I came in from work…I thought this one might be promising, got in chilled out mentioned it to other half and he said oh I’ll call the workmen we had round here for a quote earlier to see if they’d lost anything…turns out it was theirs so we handed it back

I lost literally the only £20 note I had in Tesco when I was a skint student my Dad had given it to me so I could get some food…no one handed it in and I literally went hungry I didn’t have the heart to tell my dad it must have fallen from my pocket and just thanked him that I had food. I was totally gutted

hopefully I’m due some good karma 🧐

Can't believe most people are so dishonest!! If it's not your money then it doesn't belong to you.

The number of people who think they could just mosey down Threadneedle Street with a placcy bag containing four grand in twenty year old notes and exchange them for modern currency, no questions asked.

I wonder how many people who'd keep the cash have experience of caring for an elderly family member. I find it really sad that people are suggesting OP should have kept it. The house has only had one previous owner. There's no mystery about who owned this. Would you steal from someone you knew and loved or only from a stranger?

No clue but I would have figured something out. No way I’m not keeping £4.5K. The bank can ask questions all they like. I would have went in there with my story ready to tell anyways

oh and another time (last year) I found £800 in an envelope (blank) blowing down our road as I came in from work…

God, it’s me again. I see what you’re doing for others. Please let this happen to me, I swear I won’t ignore the blessing you’ve sent me!

The story of the £4600 is awful as they know who the owner is and they are still alive.
The OP however knows that £4000 belonged to the previous owner who died and can't use it. I would have kept that and given plenty to kitchen fitter too. Shame for it to be swallowed up in solicitors fees.

I would have went gone in there with my story ready to tell anyways

Following

You’re wrong. The Bank of England WILL ALWAYS exchange notes, no matter how old they are.

The B of E will pay the amount into a UK bank account after you complete a form. I don't think you turn up with 4k in used notes and they do a direct no-questions-asked swap for polymer ones...

I don't think it makes that much difference. Whoever sold the house almost certainly owned the cash (by inheritance). Solicitors hourly rate / probate cut should leave it about 90% intact. You don't know if the owners would pay tax - depends on their circumstances and rest of legacy.

It would just go on fees / taxes / into someone else's pocket seems to me like what people say to make themselves feel better about stealing. Imagine saying that to the owner's face - oh I thought you'd prefer me to keep it in the circumstances ... Just ridiculous.

"Swallowed up in solicitor's fees" is bollocks made up to justify doing the wrong thing. The admin costs of handing over a bundle of cash and adding an extra line onto a probate return would be trivial: I'd be surprised if it was a hundred quid.

If the house is worth a million pounds because it's large or somewhere expensive then inheritance tax might be payable at 40%, but it's still a significant sum of money left over which is well worth returning to its rightful owners. If the house is worth "only" three quarters of a million then IHT probably wouldn't be payable.