Shares certificates left in my flat by the previous owner.

DataWraith

I moved into my flat about 5 years ago now, the previous owner , an old lady was put into a home by her family in Sweden ( not sure if she's still alive or not but apparently she had a mental collapse for lack of a better term and from the stories sounds like she had Alzheimers).
Anyway when they finished taking everything of value in the flat , well the executor of her will did anyway, the wife and I found a load of shares certificates and other personal documents including a Bank of England War bond, I took the war bond into work ( I work for the BofE) and they said that I would have to get hold of her family, I have tried numerous times over the years to contact them but no luck, and now the executor has died ( well a year or so after we moved in).
How can I trace the owners to give them these documents or what are the legal ramifications to them if they have been in our possesion for these past few years?
It seems that no one we have been in contact with has the families details and there are a LOT of shares certificates.
Any help would be appreciated. TA

tanith

I don't understand why you didn't hand them over to the executor if you knew who it was?

DataWraith

We moved in and the whole flat was a mess to begin with,lots of old furniture and clothes and such, when we finally got settled we asked him to forward them on but he said 'due to ill health he cannot forward them on". Anyway we left it a few months to a year while we got the place decorated and tried again only to be told he'd died and the executors widow didn't have their details and didn't want to get involved.
So we put them in the garage and forgot, its only recently that we have refound them when I was clearing the garage out.

tanith

There must be a way to contact them maybe via the Probate office as there was a will , someone will come along who knows how I'm sure.. or maybe via the company the shares are issued by..

Arthurian

Do the documents you have mention the Registrar of the shares, with his address? I think, but am willing to be corrected, that it is possible that the executor might have contacted the registrars to say the actual share certificates are missing, and obtained copies. So perhaps you should check with the registrar?

Fenella

If you bought your flat your Solicitor should be able to contact the Solicitor who acted for the old lady and he should be able to deal with this for you.
If you are renting your flat then the agents you dealt with should have some record of the owners.
If the shares and War Bond are still valid they should go to the old lady's heirs.

chris_m

JohnHall wrote: »

I know you've heard of it everyday

We have indeed and we don't want to know. If a spammer's "product" was any good they wouldn't need to spam sites like this every day.

missile

There is no point in replying to spam. Most are generated by bots.

Mikeyorks

DataWraith wrote: »

How can I trace the owners to give them these documents

You contact the Vendor's solicitor and dump the entity on them ...... something that should have been done years ago!

We bought this place under similar circumstances. And received a Premium Bond prize a couple of years later in the name of the old lady. I simply sent it on to the Solicitor with a cover clarifying (she had died by then) that clearly there were existing Bonds and the prize identified them via the Holder's number. Actually had a note of thanks and explaining the Executor was unaware - and would now pursue.