Emily Chan
Could you be an heir to a massive fortune that you were unaware of? Maybe a distant uncle or cousin left you an inheritance.
Well, there’s a way you can find out if that’s really the case. Did you know there’s a list of all the unclaimed money and estates in the UK? And it’s available for anyone to browse through.
So if you think you might have some money or property owed to you that you haven’t gotten, then keep reading to find out how to check for yourself.
Around twenty million people in the UK have unclaimed money floating around in investments, bank accounts, or pensions that they might have forgotten about. And this has added up to a total of fifty billion pounds.
Unclaimed property can include cash, checks, security deposits, money orders, the contents of safe deposit boxes, personal possessions, or buildings.
When estates or properties go unclaimed for thirty years, they are considered “ownerless property” and automatically go to the Crown. This happens when a person dies without leaving a will behind, and no family members claim the inheritance.
TikToker Bobbie’s (@familyhistorybybobbie) video discussing how you can check for unclaimed estates has gained over a million views.
So what you need to do first is to google the phrase “bona vacantia list.” Click on the second link that pops up. Then, toward the bottom of the page, there will be a link to the list of unclaimed estates.
Click on that, and a list of all the people in the UK with unclaimed estates will appear on your screen. Scroll through the list and see if you can spot your surname.
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