There are currently 700 unclaimed estates in Birmingham. Estates are left unclaimed when people die without leaving a will or known next of kin.
Could you be in for an inheritance you don’t know about?
New additions to the unclaimed estates list in Birmingham include Betty Bennett, who died in Birmingham in January, and Carol Diane Crawford Griffin, who died in September.
Finders’ MD and founder, Danny Curran, told Birmingham Mail that rightful heirs have just 12 years to make their claim once it’s reported as unclaimed to the Crown. He said: “These 700 estates are waiting to be claimed from the government, who are sitting on the fortunes of over ten thousand people across the UK.”
The list can be checked by members of the public.
The latest Birmingham estates to be added to the list are as follows:
Taylor
Griffin
Darby
Coleman
Holliday
Gardener
Mansell
Mills
Johnson
Jones
Bennett
Farley
The list has increased as government cuts meant that no search for a will is carried out before an unclaimed estate is added to the list. However, Danny Curran says that a lot of wasted time can be saved by this one simple search: “Valid wills do exist for approximately one in every five cases currently being advertised by the Government as intestacies. Many relatives are being needlessly traced only to find their expectations are dashed.”
Following this inexpensive search, where a valid will is found, the estate doesn’t need to be advertised on the list and the deceased person’s wishes can be met.
You can check up-to-date unclaimed estate lists here.