Latest news with #bona vacantia
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
The heirs missing out on £1.6BILLION in unclaimed estates after Government wills list is taken down
Around £1.6billion of estates is going unclaimed after the Government pulled a website listing individuals who did not make a will, experts have said. The 'bona vacantia' list - Latin for 'ownerless goods' - was used by people to check if distant relatives had unclaimed property and other assets for which there was no immediately apparent heir. However, a BBC investigation revealed that it was being used by criminal gangs to commit fraud by posing as the sole heir to unclaimed fortunes - depriving living relatives of their rightful inheritance. It published the results in a podcast called The Grave Robbers - and a day after the series was released, the Treasury yanked the list from public view. It is unclear when it will be published again. UK law firm Weightmans suggested the net worth of Britain's unclaimed estates was around £1.6billion, based on the approximately 6,000 outstanding fortunes that were unclaimed at the time, and a then-average property price of £281,000. The public nature of the list kick-started a small industry of 'heir-hunting' - legitimate research of the list to marry up estates with their rightful heirs, who they will contact to alert them to the find and offer to administer the will in exchange for a fee. It sparked the BBC TV series 'Heir Hunters', which was presented by Nadia Sawalha, Lisa Faulkner and Michael Buerk, which followed the work of the firms as they tried to trace relatives who did not know they were in line for a windfall. But it also made them a lucrative target for organised crime gangs who were able to falsify wills, forging the signatures of the dead in order to steal their fortunes. There are concerns that the withdrawal of the list will mean families lose out on fortunes that they never knew they were entitled to - even as the Government says the withdrawal was necessary to safeguard the unclaimed fortunes detailed. Hector Birchwood, of Welsh heir-hunting firm Celtic Research, told the Telegraph: 'It's a knee-jerk reaction that doesn't actually address the problem - it only makes it worse.' The scam saw gangsters use the list to look up estates vulnerable to a hostile takeover. They would then apply for a 'grant of probate' - the legal right to administer a will - online. Critics say the system is too open to exploitation. The BBC probe found that a Hungarian gang was exploiting loopholes in the system to claim forgotten estates - and creating civil nightmares for family members who are alerted to the fraud. Families would only become aware of distant relatives' estates after being alerted by heir-hunters - and then would find that a person they had never heard of had staked a claim to an often large fortune. Among them was Christine Harverson, whose nieces Lisa and Nicole were alerted to their aunt's neer-£1m fortune by a heir-hunting service - only to find a Hungarian man called Tamas Szvercsok had claimed it, saying he was her 'dear friend'. But the sisters, and Ms Harverson's friends, were suspicious as the late woman had never mentioned a Hungarian friend. Other details didn't match up - including an address that didn't exist until 2021, when the will was dated 2016. A MailOnline investigation then found that the west London home of former Liberal Democrat councillor had passed into the possession of a Romanian man, Aurel Mezei, who posed online with large knives. Eileen Holland's home was later raided by police who found it had been turned into a cannabis farm. The will bore signatures of witnesses who did not know of either Mezei or Holland. Mezei then sold the house for £375,000. Jeff Barnes, 64, is one of her few surviving relatives: she was his great-aunt. 'I think this needs investigating a lot further,' he told MailOnline. 'It seems obvious to me that this is a scam, and that this so-called businessman got the house illegally. 'It's disgusting that he's been able to get away with it. He's wormed his way in, and I worry that slippery characters like this - who may or may not even still be in the country - often succeed in evading detection.' However, those who have found lost relations thanks to the bona vacantia list say it needs to be returned to service as soon as possible to help others like them. Jason Cao, whose sister Huong Lan Cao died a recluse, told the Telegraph that he would never have known she had passed away were it not for heir-hunters like Hector Birchwood. 'To be able to tell my mum - so she could have closure - that's information I would have paid for. If it hadn't been for Hector, my mum would still be asking, 'Where's your sister?' And I wouldn't have an answer.' The Government says that while it appreciates the issues caused by the withdrawal of the list, the fraud investigation needed to be allowed to proceed unobstructed. In some cases, the BBC found, fraudsters were using wills to stake their claims on properties that the deceased person did not even own - with the Probate Service failing to check that the will was correct. It is thought they do this to try to stake a claim for other buildings when their actual owners also pass away. Sir Bob Neill, former chair of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee, believes the push to digitise Probate Service applications - moving away from regional offices - has driven a rise in fraudulent claims. The current system was rolled out in 2017 - overwriting the old system, which required applicants to visit their local probate office in order to swear an oath that they had a legitimate claim to the estate. 'When you had regional offices you had human awareness, contact and scrutiny that was better suited to pick up cases where things have gone wrong,' he said. 'A purely sort of automated system isn't really good at doing that.' Estates that are unclaimed for 30 years become the property of the Crown. The Crown Estate made £67million from unclaimed estates in 2024/25, down from £77million the year before. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'We recognise the difficulties the website's removal causes for those affected but this is an important measure while a fraud investigation is underway. 'Probate fraud is incredibly serious, and it is vital that we work with the relevant agencies to support ongoing investigations into alleged fraudulent activity to ensure criminals feel the full force of the law.' The Government Legal Department told MailOnline today that it could not provide an estimate as to when the list may go live again.
Telegraph
3 days ago
- Telegraph
Lost heirs could miss out on inheritance after BBC intervention
Thousands of estates worth an estimated £1.6bn are going unclaimed after the Government removed from public view a list of people who died without wills, heir hunters have warned. For decades, the Treasury has published the bona vacantia list – Latin for 'ownerless goods' – allowing heirs to trace property and assets left by distant relatives. Last April, law firm Weightmans estimated the total value of the list to be £1.67bn, based on an average UK property price of £281,913. But the list, which contained 5,770 unclaimed estates, was taken offline on July 10 following a BBC investigation. BBC podcast The Grave Robbers, that aired the previous day, revealed a Hungarian crime syndicate submitted fake wills to obtain homes that were later sold to suspected accomplices and even used as cannabis farms. The Ministry of Justice has not confirmed when the list will be published online again. Heir hunters – private investigators who trace next of kin in return for a share of the estate – have now told The Telegraphthe move could prevent lawful heirs receiving their inheritance. 'It's a knee-jerk reaction that doesn't actually address the problem – it only makes it worse,' said Hector Birchwood, head of international research at Celtic Research, a Welsh heir-hunting firm. Having the list online allowed investigators to flag suspicious claims to the authorities, he added. More importantly, Mr Birchwood said, removing the list will deprive the public of their lawful inheritance. The heir-hunting niche gained prominence through the BBC series Heir Hunters, which aired until 2018 and frequently featured Mr Birchwood's firm. After 30 years, unclaimed estates are absorbed by the Treasury, except those from Cornwall and the historic county of Lancashire, which pass to the Royal family. 'Obviously it's a problem if estates are going unclaimed, but if you're the Government, you just absorb them into the Crown Estate and the Treasury's coffers,' said Mr Birchwood. Carol Daly, 59, from Dublin, discovered in May 2023 that she, her siblings and other relatives were entitled to around £5,000 each from Ellen Tingle, her grandmother's English cousin who died intestate nine years earlier at the age of 91. She told The Telegraph: 'It's people's entitlement they're taking away, because if that list wasn't available, the money would just go to the Government. I don't agree with it being taken offline.' For families with an estranged relative, the bona vacantia list may be the only way they ever learn a loved one has died. That was the case for Jason Cao, 51, whose older sister, Huong Lan Cao, had grown up in an English orphanage 6,000 miles from home, after being brought to the UK aged 12 on a programme for Vietnamese children to study abroad. Even after Mr Cao, his brother and mother moved to join her in England, his sister led a reclusive life, becoming increasingly solitary after her long-term partner died in 1999. 'Although she chose to be alone, she was very much loved by our family,' he said. 'She knew where we lived, she had a key to our house, and she would visit us. But then there was a period when she disappeared for a couple of years. She would just turn up out of the blue. 'She didn't use a phone or computer. She didn't want us to know where she lived, so we had no way to contact her.' But in 2022, she began visiting often. 'We spent an amazing summer with her,' he said. 'We had family come over from America too. It was the most time we'd spent with her since she moved to England. 'It turns out that was her last summer alive.' The family hadn't heard from her for a year when, in May 2023, he received a letter from Mr Birchwood telling him his sister had died. 'I can still remember the feeling. I opened the letter, not knowing who it was from, and the shock … I can see that moment now in my head – when I learnt that my sister had died, and that she had died quite a while ago, alone, in her room.' Her remains were found in her flat on Feb 15, 2023, but she may have died up to six months earlier, Mr Cao was told. She was 64. It was only after her death that he was able to visit her flat. 'We live in Notting Hill and it turned out she lived just 10 minutes away. I've walked past the building so many times, and never knew,' he said. A private person, Mr Cao said he only agreed to speak to The Telegraph to highlight the importance of the bona vacantia (BV) list. 'Without the BV list, we'd still not know that my sister had died. To be able to tell my mum – so she could have closure – that's information I would have paid for. In fact, it was the reverse. We inherited money. 'But if it hadn't been for Hector, my mum would still be asking, 'Where's your sister?' And I wouldn't have an answer.' In 2024–25, the Bona Vacantia Division of the Government Legal Department reported £67m in net income from unclaimed estates, down from £77m the year before. A Telegraph analysis revealed that, at the time it was taken offline, the bona vacantia list contained 128 estates from individuals who died in 1995 or earlier, meaning they are likely to pass imminently to the Treasury. The list included names, birth and death dates and places, and marital status – but not the value of the estate. A breakdown showed 1,934 unclaimed estates in London, followed by 275 in the West Midlands and 221 in West Yorkshire. The most common surnames of the deceased were Smith (99 estates), Jones (55) and Brown (45). In England and Wales, heirs up to and including half-first cousins may submit a claim to an estate on the bona vacantia list to the Government Legal Department, supplying evidence of their relationship to the deceased. A Ministry of Justice spokesman told The Telegraph: 'We recognise the difficulties the website's removal causes for those affected but this is an important measure while a fraud investigation is underway. ' Probate fraud is incredibly serious, and it is vital that we work with the relevant agencies to support ongoing investigations into alleged fraudulent activity to ensure criminals feel the full force of the law.'
