Hi, An uncle of mine who died last year, and who i never met as he was in lifelong care has appeared on the bonavacantia list. Now myself and my sisters are getting mail from 'hier hunters' wanting to sign us up for 10% commission. This has made me quite curious to find out more, but heres the thing- these heirhunters wont reveal any details until i've signed up. Is there any way to find more details of an estate without signing up to one of these heirhunters. Very grateful for any advice.
IIRC you can check the Bona Vacantia list yourself... and it should be relatively easy if you know the uncle's name... Check the list, if you recognise a name, put a claim in, jump through the hoops of proving the guy is in fact your uncle and/or waiting to see if anyone else makes a claim to the estate.
I've just been looking at the hoops.....i can see why they want 10%. Is there any way i could find out the value of an estate before a claim is made? Just to see if its worth the hassle?
You can ask the Probate Registry for a copy of the Grant of Probate, which will have the value of the deceased's assets on it. https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
Might be cynically minded, but the estate must be of decent size for those 'heir hunter'y types to bother... they're not going to put the effort in for 10% of **** all.
My gran and her siblings were contacted by some after some aunt they vaguely knew died in France. Apparently she had a flat and iirc they're looking at about €10k each.
As he was an uncle you are nearly last in line for money, which raises the question if you should really be the one making decisions on involving professional help? Because if someone higher up on the priority list finds out you promised part of the estate to some service... that might end up very unpleasant for everyone involved.
If there was someone closer in the family tree or if there was a will, it probably wouldn't be on the Bona Vacantia list in the first place.
I knew nothing about it until the heir hunters contacted me, i should of been a bit more clear in first post. Also, both parents are past, he had 2 brothers who passed but they had children (us) , he still has a full sister still alive.
I mean.. Based on that information I'd contact the still living sister. It strikes me as unlikely that she hasn't heard of his passing one way or another, but stranger things have happened I suppose.
