‘Gold mine’ Estates go unclaimed
PEOPLE in Bristol could be ‘sitting on a gold mine’ – with more than 100 deceased estates which have not been claimed. When somebody dies with no written will, or any known family, their estate is passed to the Crown.
Relatives then have the right to make a claim for a share of the estate.
The time limit to make a claim is 30 years, so some of the unclaimed estates in Bristol date back a long time.
If an estate is still unclaimed after 30 years, it becomes permanent property of the Crown and the Treasury.
A person’s estate is usually made up of money, property, or personal effects with an average value of around £150,000.
There were 104 unclaimed estates belonging to people from Bristol as of October 15, and six have been added to the list kept by the Government so far this year.
These were:
» Stephen Marsh, born on March 30, 1963, who died on April 17, 2020, in Bristol.
» Diana Oberwarth, born on October 14, 1921, who died on December 26, 2019, in Bristol.
» Valerie Maureen Winifred Morgan, born on July 13, 1930, in Peterborough, who died on February 17, 2020, in Bristol.
» Bartlomiej Tomasz Gluch, born on May 1, 1988, in Poland, who died on September 17, 2018, in Bristol.
» Dewi Williams, born on February 23, 1937, in Wales, who died on November 3, 2019, in Bristol.
Terence Phillip Dale Peterson, born on October 31, 1940, in Kingston, Surrey, who died on July 22, 2019, in Bristol.
The list of unclaimed estates is held by the government’s Bona Vacantia Division and updated daily.
As of October 15, there were 7,853 unclaimed estates in England and Wales on the list.
A person’s estate is usually made up of money, property, or personal effects.
Forbes Solicitors – specialists in wills and estates – analysed the list, and estimated that, with an average value of £150,000 per estate, £1.2 billion could be waiting to be claimed.
Tom Howcroft, Partner at Forbes Solicitors, said: “Some people might not know that they are sitting on a gold mine.
“These 8,000 people will have relatives, somewhere, they just need to be found.”
If the person has left no will, their spouse or children have the first claim on their estate. In the event of no spouse or children, any person who is directly descended from a grandparent of the deceased has the right to make a claim for a share of the estate.