heir hunters

Nuxgirl

My cousin was sent a letter from an heir hunter company stating that his mother, my mother and their cousin could be entitled to an inheritance from a half uncle who died recently-he was a childless bachelor. The company mentioned the three potential heirs and has obtained my mothers address here in Canada and advised they will be sending her a letter as well.

This has now led to some questions on our part and I am wondering if someone may be able to answer them.


1. The letter mentioned my mother, her sister and another cousin. My mother says there are 6 other cousins on this side (the paternal side) that should be contacted - my mother has no idea if they are still living. If they are deceased, do their issues stand to inherit?

2. Three of the family members in this class have been identified, what is the procedure if they sign with the heir hunter and the other six or their issues - if eligible - do not? Are they able to make a claim on their own?

3. What has happened to the deceased's personal property? He passed away late 2013. If he owned a home would his personal belongings be stored somewhere?

4. Is it possible to find out the value of the estate through a Grant of Letters of Administration or any other way?

5. I read that a claim can be made up to 12 years after the death, or up to 30 years in some cases. If not all eligible heirs are located, what happens to their portion of the estate?

Any information would be of help!

Crabapple

I can't answer all of this, but there are some people a lot more knowledgable on the heir hunting companies so hopefully they will see this.

1. Normally yes, it will pass down from a deceased to their children. The share due to the deceased divides equally between their children. It would probably be best for your mother to provide what information she does have to the company so they can look for those people.

3. It's unlikely they will have stored things. If there were no immediate family then the property will have been cleared. Solicitors might have kept photos or the like but most things will have been either disposed off if no value or sold if they did.

4. If you know enough information you can apply for a copy of a Grant. However, sometimes companies do the family searches in order to find people not only who are entitled to the funds but also entitled to take out a Grant, so there may not have been one issued as yet.

5. If there is a relative known about but not traced their entitlement has to be held onto while all reasonable enquiries are made to find them. There are insurances that can be taken out but they normally require a lot of proof that every effort has been made to trace. Unless enquiries reveal it's almost 100% that the person has died with no issue those funds are going to be held and administered at whatever point in the future the person can be found.

dzug1

If the deceased owned a house then it's more than likely his possessions are still in it.

Nuxgirl

Thank you dzug and crabapple. It is an interesting (and sad) situation to find ourselves in - being so far away always makes you feel a little removed from everything. Thanks again!

g6jns_2

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

I doubt you will be able to avoid paying. The harsh reality is that heir hunting companies have to spend large amount of money tracking down heirs and that has to be paid for. It is a competitive business and the fee is reasonable.

secretheirhunter_2

Try talking to them ! You may be able to negotiate a better deal

Denise_Hawley

AND lawyers' fees? I hope you didn't sign with them. You don't even need a solicitor. All information is on the Treasury Office website under Probate. The process is simple to become the administrator of the estate, though you become responsible for tracing other entitled relatives. That's also not all that hard, usually.

G6JNS

Denise_Hawley wrote: »

AND lawyers' fees? I hope you didn't sign with them. You don't even need a solicitor. All information is on the Treasury Office website under Probate. The process is simple to become the administrator of the estate, though you become responsible for tracing other entitled relatives. That's also not all that hard, usually.

Tracing the relatives is the difficult bit. If it was so easy the heir hunting companies would not be in business. Even they, with far more resources and personel than an individual don't claim it is easy. Any application has to supported by documentary proof such a birth, marriage and death certificates. It would not be unusual to require fifty or more of these so the cost is significant.

jobbingmusician

madbadrob wrote: »

Just out of interest do you know how much of the money you donate actually goes to the charity to fund research or help people who are in need? I think you would be surprised to learn that 10p per pound actually goes to do the work you are hoping to help. The rest goes to pay 5 figure sums to the directors etc

Rob

This is pretty libellous, isn't it?

a) All charities have to publish accounts which show quite clearly their costs and how much goes to service provision. Although the Charity Commission is pretty toothless, they would and do investigate any charity which spent less than 10% of its income on service provision.

b) The Directors of a charity are the trustees, who are volunteers except in strictly defined and rare cases.

meer53

This post is 10 months old.