Perane and Co Limited

kitty08

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this, but hopefully someone will be able to guide me to the correct place!
A little background first, myself and DH are in our 50's, and our parents' generation are now in their 80s and 90s, some still alive, but others unfortunately deceased. We have most recently dealt with the death of DFIL, so this kind of thing is on our minds at the moment.
Today, my DH received out of the blue, a letter from a company called "Perane and Co Ltd", who call themselves "inheritance recovery specialists". The letter reads as follows (I've taken out the names, for privacy)

Dear --
Re: the estate of --
Perane & Co are acting on behalf of -- (Estate Personal Representative) as administrators of the estate of -- deceased
We believe that you are a beneficiary of this estate.
Please could you contact the office on 01603 673260 Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm to discuss further and confirm your entitlement
Yours sincerely
Jan Laing
Estate administrator

The address is given as Unit 16, Philip Ford Way, Wymondham, Norfolk NR18 9AQ

Registered in England number 08339996

My first reaction when DH showed me the letter was to be very, very suspicious. I have done a little checking out, and they do seem to exist. The number checks out at Companies house, and the website appears professional. The name of the deceased person in the letter didn't ring any immediate bells with DH, but the family of his parents generation was large and complicated, especially on his father's side. The surname of the deceased person was the same as his paternal grandmother's maiden name, and she had several brothers and sisters, so it's not impossible, and the first name was right for that era. But, I'm still very suspicious.

DH is intent on ringing them on Monday, and keeps saying what good quality paper the letter is typed on. (not sure if that makes any difference, but I'm trying to be fair).

Please does anyone have any advice as to how he should proceed with this phone call? I have already said under NO circumstances should he reveal any of our financial details or bank account numbers etc. If, when he rings, this company say that there is indeed some money for him, then surely they can just send a cheque by registered mail (or whatever the correct name is for that these days!) Of course, "inheritance" could mean anything. I just hope it's not something unwieldy like a grand piano!

chesky

Don't forget they charge a fee.

unforeseen

If they have been employed by the executor to trace beneficiaries then the estate pays

Yorkshireman99

kitty08 wrote: »

I'm not sure if this is the right forum to post this, but hopefully someone will be able to guide me to the correct place!
A little background first, myself and DH are in our 50's, and our parents' generation are now in their 80s and 90s, some still alive, but others unfortunately deceased. We have most recently dealt with the death of DFIL, so this kind of thing is on our minds at the moment.
Today, my DH received out of the blue, a letter from a company called "Perane and Co Ltd", who call themselves "inheritance recovery specialists". The letter reads as follows (I've taken out the names, for privacy)

Dear --
Re: the estate of --
Perane & Co are acting on behalf of -- (Estate Personal Representative) as administrators of the estate of -- deceased
We believe that you are a beneficiary of this estate.
Please could you contact the office on 01603 673260 Monday to Friday between 9am and 5pm to discuss further and confirm your entitlement
Yours sincerely
Jan Laing
Estate administrator

The address is given as Unit 16, Philip Ford Way, Wymondham, Norfolk NR18 9AQ

Registered in England number 08339996

My first reaction when DH showed me the letter was to be very, very suspicious. I have done a little checking out, and they do seem to exist. The number checks out at Companies house, and the website appears professional. The name of the deceased person in the letter didn't ring any immediate bells with DH, but the family of his parents generation was large and complicated, especially on his father's side. The surname of the deceased person was the same as his paternal grandmother's maiden name, and she had several brothers and sisters, so it's not impossible, and the first name was right for that era. But, I'm still very suspicious.

DH is intent on ringing them on Monday, and keeps saying what good quality paper the letter is typed on. (not sure if that makes any difference, but I'm trying to be fair).

Please does anyone have any advice as to how he should proceed with this phone call? I have already said under NO circumstances should he reveal any of our financial details or bank account numbers etc. If, when he rings, this company say that there is indeed some money for him, then surely they can just send a cheque by registered mail (or whatever the correct name is for that these days!) Of course, "inheritance" could mean anything. I just hope it's not something unwieldy like a grand piano!

They are a firm of heir hunters. Their web site is here

http://www.perane.co.uk/

Sounds quite legitimate.

bouicca21

Heir hunters specialise in tracing those entitled to a share of an intestate's estate. They will want to check out whether you are indeed an heir, so will go through some of your family history. If they have identified you correctly they will want you to sign a contract giving them a percentage of the proceeds. The pot may be a big one - after all even a modest house is worth loads nowadays. Equally there may be many heirs, so the shares may be small. You haven't anything to lose by finding out more.

Of course you could do your own family history to try to identify which distant relative has recently passed on, but that kind of search is really difficult and time consuming to do. It's easier to trace down from a known ancestor than to trace up from a known individual to an unknown ancestor.

kitty08

Thank you, everyone, for your very helpful replies and advice. I'm going to confess I had never heard of the term "heir hunters" before, but years of protecting DFIl from wouldbe scammers has made me very suspicious by nature! DH is going to talk to his DAunt tomorrow, as she is a fount of knowledge about the family history, so may be able to shed some light on this person, and then ring Perane on Monday. I've done a little digging around online, (the first name / surname combination is fairly unusual) and found a person who could "fit" the person named (age / location etc all fit). Also, if I'm right (and this is a big "if") then there is a will - I found this on the YouGov find a will site, (name, dates and location all match) so it looks as though the executor (?) may have hired Perane to find the beneficiaries. Don't know the contents yet, as I don't want to spend the £10 if I'm wrong, but the option is there.
I'll update again if there is any more news
Thank you again for your help

Yorkshireman99

It sounds likely there is a will otherwise lots of heir hunters would have been on the trail. Solicitors often use HH to trace people.

chesky

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

It sounds likely there is a will otherwise lots of heir hunters would have been on the trail. Solicitors often use HH to trace people.

In this case, who pays the HH company bill? The solicitor or does it come from the estate - or does it make no difference.

Yorkshireman99

chesky wrote: »

In this case, who pays the HH company bill? The solicitor or does it come from the estate - or does it make no difference.

The fee paid by the solicitor will come out of the estate.

p00hsticks

kitty08 wrote: »

I'm going to confess I had never heard of the term "heir hunters" before,

There is a daytime BBC program called 'heir hunters' that provides an interesting insight into how these comanies operate - unfortunately there don;t appear to be any episodes available on iPlayer at present

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007nms5

CACCAF

Hi, YorkshireMan99. Did you use this company? My family did and we have had a lot of difficulty getting our money from Perane & Co.