Overview

• The UK Government’s Bona Vacantia division maintains a daily online register of ownerless estates that pass to the Treasury when someone dies intestate with no known relatives.
• Local outlets in Worcestershire, Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham released their monthly compilations this week to alert possible heirs.
• Tyne and Wear’s list includes over 79 estates, County Durham’s has 48 and Northumberland’s features 28 cases awaiting claims.
• Unclaimed estates encompass property, personal possessions and money with an average value of around £150,000 per case.
• Relatives can claim an estate by proving their kinship under a strict order of precedence and submitting applications within 12 years, or up to 30 years for deaths before 1997.