Beneficiary to intestate estate?

barbiedoll

Morning all

My brother and I have recently been contacted by no less than 3 "Heir Hunter" firms, informing us that we may be beneficiaries to our father's cousin's estate. Our father died several years ago, his cousin died a couple of months ago, and there are apparently 6 of us who stand to benefit from the deceased's estate.

We have no intention of using the firms if we can do the work ourselves. We can get copies of certificates to support our claim but we'd like to know what will happen to the contents of the deceased's home, he owned it and it forms the bulk of the estate. We'd be interested to see if he had any family photos etc, we were estranged from our father's family following our parent's divorce.

What happens to his property? We know where it is but we don't know who, if anyone, has access to it. There was a small mortgage on the property so we assume the bank will take over the administration of the estate and the selling of the property?

We're at a bit of a loss with what to do after submitting a claim? We live quite near to the property, we have no idea who the other beneficiaries are and we'd like to meet them if they are amenable to the idea! (I have a feeling that two of them may be the children of one of my dad's cousins, they were adopted but their adoptive mother sadly died quite young so they were brought up by their adoptive dad. I can remember meeting them when we were all small children)

Do we need to engage the services of the professionals? Or can we find out this stuff ourselves? We've been quoted fees of between 4-6%, (+ VAT) on an estate worth somewhere between £2-300,000.

Any help would be appreciated. It's been a nice surprise but now I'm starting to worry!

poppystar

The fees quoted seem quite reasonable. These companies have done all the work already that you would need to replicate and they know what they are doing, how to submit the claim etc. Yes, you would lose some of the potential inheritance but the process would probably be quicker and much less stressful than trying to do it yourselves especially as you are not the only heirs in this case.

You would be purchasing a speedier resolution and less worry. Of course if you have lots of time available and like to investigate things, learn new processes then go ahead and enjoy the journey.

barbiedoll

To be honest, that's what I was thinking. Much as I love a challenge, in the real world I work full-time, I have a family and elderly relatives to care for and I don't really have loads of free time. My brother is quite good at this sort of stuff but he also works hard so I'm not sure if he'll be willing to chase it all up.

We didn't expect any of this, it's come completely out of the blue. But you read so much stuff about rip-off firms and people being "cheated" out of their money, we're not sure which way to turn.

But then again, 96% of anything is a bonus, I guess!

getmore4less

Do you think you can create the full family tree to identify all living beneficiaries?

You need to be fairly confident if you want to administer that you can trace everyone and will have the time to analyse up to 7 years of finances.

The bank won't get involved unless they have to and if there are known beneficiaries they will initially expect them to admin the estate either themselves or by instructing solicitors

See if it hit the Bona Vacantia list if not then someone has picked it up/told the heir hunters their are known relatives.

Visit the house and see if any neighbors know who has the keys, the place should have at most been secured and nothing disposed of yet.

If they passed in an institution they may know where the keys went.

If intestate then there is a order or priority(beneficiaries) for those that can take on the administration.


The heir hunters need enough of the beneficiaries to sign up to make it worth their while and there are the admin charges potentially on top..

poppystar

Certainly do a bit of research on the companies and also find out what services are included in the fees they are charging.

Does it include more than just the actual claim? Will they actually administer the estate and/or guide you through the process of dealing with the house etc.? If not, what would their additional charges be for any of these services? Best not to go for a smaller percentage at first but larger charges for any additional work especially if you are likely to want a complete service because you are, not surprisingly, unsure how it all works.

Have you watched the BBC Heirhunters programmes in the past? Have any of the companies that have approached you been featured in these programmes?

Hopefully someone will come along who has actually dealt with this scenario and can give more firsthand experience.

..and congratulations on the windfall!

MMF007

First of all check the terms and conditions on their websites, many firms hook people with reasonable fees then when they come to sign the forms the fees are more.
Check whether they belong to any sort of dispute resolution scheme (no idea if there is one for this sort of business).
Check on internet to see if others have had good or bad experiences with the firms.
Remember that actually these firms still require you to do some work, produce evidence, fill in any blanks in their initial research, etc.

Check exactly what (again, should be in their terms) they will do for the money.

On the whole, especially with 6 heirs, some of whom you have barely met, I should be inclined to let an experienced, REPUTABLE firm handle it BUT I suspect you will need solicitors and probate will be required due to the estate including property, so there will be issues to agree with the other heirs about how to handle it all. If the 6 beneficiaries can't agree to a particular firm, or any firm handling it, you will have to reconsider but if all are willing just don't sign anything without taking a couple of days to consider the terms!

Most important to check whether the firms are genuine and experienced. It is easy to find death notices, estates that are bona vacantia (ie, there is no will or no family) so there are chancers operating in this business, as every one! For more details see the .gov info here
https://www.gov.uk/unclaimed-estates-bona-vacantia
HTH

McKneff

It would probably cost more in time and costs for you and yours to do the research than the heir hunters would charge you.

Im all for an easy life thought.

barbiedoll

Thanks for all replies....We've checked the Bona Vacantia site, he is on there. I followed the links to see how to claim ourselves.

We probably could provide info of births, deaths and marriages, my mum is still around and she remembers names and so on. My brother is a member of an ancestry website so we may be able to find out more stuff there.

We don't particularly want to be lumbered with administering the estate, selling the property and so on, if we don't have to. But the fees seem quite small for handling that stuff, and we're concerned that we're going to end up paying out more than we get back, we don't even know the size of the mortgage, which could have been an interest-only, or equity-release type of product. He was quite old to still have a mortgage, we can envisage spending loads of money only to get nothing much back.

*poppystar*, yes, one of the companies has been used in the TV programme. Apparently, they came to my house with a cameraman, in case I wanted to be on the telly! (I don't!!)

Lots to think about anyway!

Keep_pedalling

The fees for winding up the estate will not come out their commission, that would be taking out of the estate before distribution to the benificiaries.

Yorkshireman99

barbiedoll wrote: »

Morning all

My brother and I have recently been contacted by no less than 3 "Heir Hunter" firms, informing us that we may be beneficiaries to our father's cousin's estate. Our father died several years ago, his cousin died a couple of months ago, and there are apparently 6 of us who stand to benefit from the deceased's estate.

We have no intention of using the firms if we can do the work ourselves. We can get copies of certificates to support our claim but we'd like to know what will happen to the contents of the deceased's home, he owned it and it forms the bulk of the estate. We'd be interested to see if he had any family photos etc, we were estranged from our father's family following our parent's divorce.

What happens to his property? We know where it is but we don't know who, if anyone, has access to it. There was a small mortgage on the property so we assume the bank will take over the administration of the estate and the selling of the property?

We're at a bit of a loss with what to do after submitting a claim? We live quite near to the property, we have no idea who the other beneficiaries are and we'd like to meet them if they are amenable to the idea! (I have a feeling that two of them may be the children of one of my dad's cousins, they were adopted but their adoptive mother sadly died quite young so they were brought up by their adoptive dad. I can remember meeting them when we were all small children)

Do we need to engage the services of the professionals? Or can we find out this stuff ourselves? We've been quoted fees of between 4-6%, (+ VAT) on an estate worth somewhere between £2-300,000.

Any help would be appreciated. It's been a nice surprise but now I'm starting to worry!

You will find it very difficult, time consuming, and costly to DIY it. The percentage sounds very reasonable. Make sure you choose the firm with a good track record.

TonyMMM

Are you sure that 4-6% is the full fee for the heir hunting companies to administer the estate and includes their cut of the estate value .... that is way below what most charge. 25-30% +vat would be the norm.

Intestacy law defines who inherits very specifically, - any children adopted out of the family cannot inherit , so it won't be them.