There are 83 estates in Croydon which are sitting in the care of the Government because nobody has claimed them.

It’s a little-known secret that the details of thousands of unclaimed estates are available online – and you could make a claim to one of them if you’ve got the right surname.

The details are on a spreadsheet that can be accessed by anyone.

The Government is currently taking care of the estates because the deceased passed away without making a will or with no next of kin.

There are currently 83 unclaimed estates in Croydon, bearing 78 different surnames, and an 84th listed separately as Crystal Palace.

Several of the estates have been listed by the Government for decades, and will revert to the Crown permanently if they remain unidentified.

According to Finders International – a specialist probate genealogist team – family members and heirs have just 12 years to claim an estate once it has been reported unclaimed to the Crown.

Any individual can check the Central Probate Registry to see if any next of kin are on the unclaimed list.

If you think that you might be the rightful heir to one of the estates listed you can find out how to make a claim for that estate here.

The list has seen a sharp increase in numbers over the past few years because Government cuts mean there is no search for a will before an unclaimed estate is added to the list.

The Croydon names on the list are:

Aldred

Ashford

Ayers

Bailey

Bangs

Booth

Boswell

Bryan

Bulwer

Bushell

Calver

Clancy

Clark

Cooper

Craggs

Cresswell

Dalgarno

Davies

Denis

Dennis

Dooley

Evelyn

Farley

Foster

Glover

Grimes

Hall

Hardcastle

Harvey

Hayes

Henderson

Herman

Hoidis

Hsu

Huggins

Johnson

Joshi

Karn

Kennedy

Lane

Leonard

Lewis

Logan

Maliszewski

Marks

Martin

McDougall

McWeeney

Mead

Morgan

Moroney

Murray

Nelson

Palmer

Patterson

Payne

Pillay

Pollard

Quinn

Riordan

Robertson

Sabbage

Sargeson

Scott

Sharp

Shields

Slutzky

Smitten

Soares

Solomon

Stevens

Sullivan

Thomas

Towers

Vason

Vaughan

Watson

Wright

This article has been first published in croydonadvertiser.co.uk