heir hunters

docden22

we were approached about 8 months ago by heir hunters saying that our father had died and they would sort out estate at a cost of about 20% plus tax, plus lawyers fees, which on the spur of the moment we agreed to thinking there was very little if any cash there, it turns out there's £60,000 left which means about £20,000 to them, can we do anything to stop this, it does say on letter that they would like to get 20% in brackets . Any advice would be very welcome

madbadrob

HOw do you work out they will get £20k?

20% of the estate is 12,000 that is all they will get. VAT of 12,000 is 2400 so thats 14,400 the heir hunters will take in total. Solicitors fees are nothing to do with the heir hunter. That should be no more than 2000 pounds and I know that because I have just settled one which was not straight forward.

With regards to is there anything you can do to stop this well that would depend on a lot of factors but I am sorry I do feel that for me to make any further comment on this subject would not be professional of me.

What I will say is when you thought there was no money or very little you were happy with this arrangement but now you realise there is a small fortune you are not. Greed at its best in my eyes

Rob

swingaloo

That's what happens with these companies. You must have signed an agreement to let them do the work so I would be very surprised if you had any get out now.

System

You didn't know your father had died?

Heir hunters make their money usually because the relative who has died is so random that it's hard for you to identify who it is. However if it's your father I don't understand why you would have agreed to use these people as this is one of the easiest inheritances to sort out yourself (even with no will).

There should be very little work for you to do to get this money.

Basically your laziness has cost you.

meritaten

to my mind if they hadn't contacted you the money would have gone to the treasury. you obviously had no idea there was an estate to be inherited. They did a lot of work to find you so of course there is a fee. also, they do the work a solicitor would do so charging a fee is reasonable. if you signed a contract with them - then I wouldn't in all conscience advise you how to get out of it.

Mojisola

docden22 wrote: »

we were approached about 8 months ago by heir hunters saying that our father had died and they would sort out estate at a cost of about 20% plus tax, plus lawyers fees, which on the spur of the moment we agreed to thinking there was very little if any cash there, it turns out there's £60,000 left which means about £20,000 to them, can we do anything to stop this, it does say on letter that they would like to get 20% in brackets . Any advice would be very welcome

So you didn't know your father had died.

When you were told this, you didn't think he had much to leave.

Before you were contacted by the company, you weren't expecting any money and now you're getting about £40k. Enjoy it.

System

meritaten wrote: »

to my mind if they hadn't contacted you the money would have gone to the treasury. you obviously had no idea there was an estate to be inherited. They did a lot of work to find you so of course there is a fee. also, they do the work a solicitor would do so charging a fee is reasonable. if you signed a contract with them - then I wouldn't in all conscience advise you how to get out of it.

Finding a mans children is not hard work. The hard work is when they have no children and they have to build a complete family tree to identify who are the next of kin. This is time consuming and can take a long time.

Finding a mans children is at most a days work.

They've done very well out of this inheritance.

Mojisola

goater78 wrote: »

Finding a mans children is not hard work. The hard work is when they have no children and they have to build a complete family tree to identify who are the next of kin. This is time consuming and can take a long time.

Finding a mans children is at most a days work.

They've done very well out of this inheritance.

And they'll lose on others. That's what the business is like.

On the other hand, if the father wasn't named on their birth certificates, it might have taken a lot longer to find them.

System

Mojisola wrote: »

And they'll lose on others. That's what the business is like.

On the other hand, if the father wasn't named on their birth certificates, it might have taken a lot longer to find them.

I doubt it. Parents to child must be one of the easiest family relations to identify. Even if they are estranged.

Mojisola

goater78 wrote: »

I doubt it. Parents to child must be one of the easiest family relations to identify. Even if they are estranged.

If you've got a birth certificate without a father's name on it how it is easy to identify him?

madbadrob

Mojisola wrote: »

If you've got a birth certificate without a father's name on it how it is easy to identify him?

If fathers name not on the birth cert then the children of that man will not inherit unless they can prove that he was the father in some other way such as regular maintenance payments etc. I have this very issue right now and this father had nothing to do with the children and when he died left them nothing in his will and didnt even recognise them so we know they wont get a penny of the estate their half siblings will get.

Rob