Money found in the loft

1984ReturnsForReal_2

honeyD wrote: »

. It might be from the previous previous owner for all you know!

& it might not be.


But keeping in mind the fact that the previous owner is dead & the money was hidden it has hardly been abandoned like the chair you mentioned.

greenface

I moved into this house 6 years ago and the "old lady"(ex owner) was in a care home at the time. Me the builders and the sparks were happily knocking down walls and ripping up floor boards I was outside when a neighbour came over to say hello and informed me that the "old lady" used to be married to a very famous painter who died years before. STOP THE WORK TAKE THE REST OF THE DAY OFF SEE YOU IN THE MORNING.spent the rest of the day looking for tresure thus never found any but have since purchased a print of his sitting with the Queen Mother.
still looking too

seven-day-weekend

My son found £40 in a bag at a bus stop when he was about 16. He waited for the bus to come back again twice (a circular route), just in case the person came back to look for it. No-one did.

Then he asked our advice on what to do. Having brought him up to be honest, we told him to inform the police. He did so, (but did not actually hand the money in). They took his name and address and after a certain time the money became his.

This is what I would also do in this case.

antilles

Keep the money. If you inform the estate all that will happen is that the solicitor will laugh at his good fortune (and your stupidity), and pocket a huge amount in fees and the relatives will get peanuts.

Besides, as a previous poster has said, you have absolutely no idea who it belongs to in the first place. Who's to say it belonged to the old lady living in the house before you?

Britwife

I think the OP accomplished what he set out to do.........pages ago!

davidgmmafan

The only thing I can bring which might be relevent is the example of money being paid into your bank account in error. If you withdraw it a seperate it into a myriad of other accounts then you are on very dodgy ground.

The similarity here is you know the money is not yours. Legally I would've thought you would be ok if you can prove that you made reasonable endeavours to find out who owned the money.

I don't really follow what the lawyer said earlier, it seems to suggest in the abnk example I can rely on some urban myth that it is mine, when in fact I would be guilty of theft.

In this particular set of circumstances it does seem incredibly unlikely, if this is capable of being theft, that it will be discovered.

I hear the moral objections but as others have said even if enquiries are made it seems unlikely the original owner could be found with certainty.

Interesting legal point though, I think most people would keep it, I know I would. Better get some good deeds to off-set the bad karma.

besonders1

I would do as another poster suggested find a small bit like 2-3K and then hand it into the police to test the response. I would never contact the previous owners as they will all say that it was theirs, they would lie out of their bums.
How do you know the old person may have not wanted their family to inherit the cash and might prefer the money to stay in the house?

worried_jim

Take it to your bank to pay in, when they ask how you've come by £8k in old notes tell the truth, "I've found them in a tin in a house I am doing up". Problem solved. Happy days.

hothothot_3

reminds me of the good old times I had a summer job whilst at uni.....there was a help wanted ad on gumtree for house clearances. However, what was really happening was my boss would look through the death column in the paper to see elderly people having recently passed away. He would trace the family and offer the clearance services at a ridiculously low rate £10 and that we had to survey the quality of the furniture to be removed. This way the family were eager to allow us in the house and get the job done. I was young and new and got told to go in the loft. I once came back down the loft finding nothing and saw the boss full of glee counting some notes in his hand, after he had checked a wardrobe. He gave me £10 and told me to go and tell the family that we could no longer afford to clear the house due to the low quality of the furniture. We left, I got paid £20 a time for this and never did any work unless the furniture was clearly high value, most jobs I just got paid £20 as a cancellation fee that the job wasnt going ahead!. It was pretty strange job and one day I turned up for work and the boss wasnt there, but I went back to uni to concentrate on my studies. Obviously some time later I realised/accepted what was going on, I still wonder sometimes today if I was actually naive or just in need of the cash to the extent I was in denial.

Gorgeous_George

I consider myself to be a respectable person.

I'd keep it with a clear conscience. The house has probably devalued by £8k anyway.

GG