Found by an heir hunter

Reed_Richards

I have been contacted by an "heir hunter" company who tell me I may be a beneficiary in the estate of someone who may be a distant relative. They want me to sign an agreement which would give them a percentage commission of any inheritance I might receive.  I have no idea of the value of the estate but if the deceased is the relative I think he might be then I would only be entitled to a small percentage of the total estate.  In order to make a decision I need to know the consequences of not signing the agreement.  Or the consequences of some other potential beneficiary not signing the agreement, for that matter.  Any ideas? 

Newbie_John

What % we're talking?

RAS

Have you checked the bono vacantia list?

And do you know who your great grandparents were? Not difficult if you and they are based in England, use www.gro.gov.uk 

madbadrob

Now this is a subject I am probably the most qualified to talk about on this subject as it is my daily job  

Ok the simple answer to your questsion is by not signing the agreement they cannot make a claim to the treasury for that money to be returned for distribution.  However if as you say there are many possible entitled heirs then if one of them agrees to the terms offered by the company then this can still go ahead.  By not sighning you are not writing off your interest in the estate and if the HH company do make a claim they are required by law to distribute the estate as per the rules of intestacy to ALL entitled people.  

So the question here is Are you willing to risk someone else will agree to the HH company acting on their behalf to get your share or do you think it would be of interest for you to say ok ill sign with you.

If you know who the relative is you could of course make a claim for the estate yourself but you will have to provide all the required proof such as all the birth marriage detah certs divorce papers if a divorce as happened and the research to locate all entitled heirs.  This can be cheap if there is only a couple of marriages for example between you but if your say the grandson of the first entitled person this can be quite costly.   For example divorce searches are £65 each.  Certs are 12.50 each then there is the tijme to find all the relevant people including their current locations.  

I would never advise against doing it yourself if you feel capable but you must be aware of the costs.

If you was to agree to the HH firm obtaining the etstae on your behalf these costs would be borne by them.  They are able to recover the costs from the estate before distribution or they may cover the costs in the commission they charge.    What that commission rate should be is between  them and you.  

How do you know the estate will be low value?  From a  case I did where the 14 heirs said oh it will only be a few quid it turned out through prudent investing pensions not claimed etc the estate value was 6 figures.  

Ultimately HH companies are here to make money.  We may not know the value of an estate but we can have a good guess.  I have one on  file now with  54 entitled heirs the estate I suspect is not worth more than 5k from investigations so I wont be sending letters out as id never recover the costs needed to obtain the estate on thier behalf from commission and if I was to take out of pocket expenses there would be no money left to distribute and thats assuming all of them signed to say I could act on their behalf.

So ultimately the decision is yours.  You lose nothing by agreeing to have them do the work for you save the commission rate at the end.  This is money you didnt know about so you wouldnt miss if everyone chooses not to have the HH company act on their behalf but if you dont sign and someone else does you would get your full share (minus your percentage of out of pocket expenses) 

If I can offer any more advice please feel free to contact me however I will not discuss any commissions and nor would I offer to do the work on your behalf out of courtesy to the company that have contacted you 

Rob

Reed_Richards

Thank you, @madbadrob, that is hugely helpful.  As the HH company has also contacted my sister then it's very useful to know that only one of us needs to sign.

RAS

Check your cousins?

Reed_Richards

Cousin checking in hand.

madbadrob

RAS said:

Check your cousins?

Unless the person is a sibling of the deceased this is a good suggestion however doent answer the OP's question.

madbadrob

Reed_Richards said:

Thank you, @madbadrob, that is hugely helpful.  As the HH company has also contacted my sister then it's very useful to know that only one of us needs to sign.

Your very welcome however is it fair if your sister signs and you dont as she will receive less than you if the case is progressed by the HH company?

As before if I can offer any more help dont hesitate to contact me

Rob

Sea_Shell

madbadrob said:

Reed_Richards said:

Thank you, @madbadrob, that is hugely helpful.  As the HH company has also contacted my sister then it's very useful to know that only one of us needs to sign.

Your very welcome however is it fair if your sister signs and you dont as she will receive less than you if the case is progressed by the HH company?

As before if I can offer any more help dont hesitate to contact me

Rob

If siblings are on good terms, could you agree between you that just one of you signs but then you split the commission deduction between you?

So if the signee gets say £100 less, the other agrees to give them £50... unofficially 😉

madbadrob

Sea_Shell said:

madbadrob said:

Reed_Richards said:

Thank you, @madbadrob, that is hugely helpful.  As the HH company has also contacted my sister then it's very useful to know that only one of us needs to sign.

Your very welcome however is it fair if your sister signs and you dont as she will receive less than you if the case is progressed by the HH company?

As before if I can offer any more help dont hesitate to contact me

Rob

If siblings are on good terms, could you agree between you that just one of you signs but then you split the commission deduction between you?

So if the signee gets say £100 less, the other agrees to give them £50... unofficially 😉

Sea_Shell said:

madbadrob said:

Reed_Richards said:

Thank you, @madbadrob, that is hugely helpful.  As the HH company has also contacted my sister then it's very useful to know that only one of us needs to sign.

Your very welcome however is it fair if your sister signs and you dont as she will receive less than you if the case is progressed by the HH company?

As before if I can offer any more help dont hesitate to contact me

Rob

If siblings are on good terms, could you agree between you that just one of you signs but then you split the commission deduction between you?

So if the signee gets say £100 less, the other agrees to give them £50... unofficially 😉

Of course they could but id argue if that is indeed fair on the HH company that as done a lot of work in tracing the family?  At the end of the day this is money they didnt know about prior to the contact by the HH company so its all a bonus.  (yes of course as this is my business I am going to say that)

We all know though how when money comes through the door the devil is not too far behind them 

Rob