Lost heirs could miss out on inheritance after BBC intervention

Telegraph

26-07-2025

Thousands of estates worth an estimated £1.6bn are going unclaimed after the Government removed from public view a list of people who died without wills, heir hunters have warned.
For decades, the Treasury has published the bona vacantia list – Latin for 'ownerless goods' – allowing heirs to trace property and assets left by distant relatives.
Last April, law firm Weightmans estimated the total value of the list to be £1.67bn, based on an average UK property price of £281,913.
But the list, which contained 5,770 unclaimed estates, was taken offline on July 10 following a BBC investigation.
BBC podcast The Grave Robbers, that aired the previous day, revealed a Hungarian crime syndicate submitted fake wills to obtain homes that were later sold to suspected accomplices and even used as cannabis farms.
The Ministry of Justice has not confirmed when the list will be published online again.
Heir hunters – private investigators who trace next of kin in return for a share of the estate – have now told The Telegraphthe move could prevent lawful heirs receiving their inheritance.
'It's a knee-jerk reaction that doesn't actually address the problem – it only makes it worse,' said Hector Birchwood, head of international research at Celtic Research, a Welsh heir-hunting firm. Having the list online allowed investigators to flag suspicious claims to the authorities, he added.
More importantly, Mr Birchwood said, removing the list will deprive the public of their lawful inheritance.
The heir-hunting niche gained prominence through the BBC series Heir Hunters, which aired until 2018 and frequently featured Mr Birchwood's firm.
After 30 years, unclaimed estates are absorbed by the Treasury, except those from Cornwall and the historic county of Lancashire, which pass to the Royal family.
'Obviously it's a problem if estates are going unclaimed, but if you're the Government, you just absorb them into the Crown Estate and the Treasury's coffers,' said Mr Birchwood.
Carol Daly, 59, from Dublin, discovered in May 2023 that she, her siblings and other relatives were entitled to around £5,000 each from Ellen Tingle, her grandmother's English cousin who died intestate nine years earlier at the age of 91.
She told The Telegraph: 'It's people's entitlement they're taking away, because if that list wasn't available, the money would just go to the Government. I don't agree with it being taken offline.'
For families with an estranged relative, the bona vacantia list may be the only way they ever learn a loved one has died. That was the case for Jason Cao, 51, whose older sister, Huong Lan Cao, had grown up in an English orphanage 6,000 miles from home, after being brought to the UK aged 12 on a programme for Vietnamese children to study abroad.
Even after Mr Cao, his brother and mother moved to join her in England, his sister led a reclusive life, becoming increasingly solitary after her long-term partner died in 1999.
'Although she chose to be alone, she was very much loved by our family,' he said. 'She knew where we lived, she had a key to our house, and she would visit us. But then there was a period when she disappeared for a couple of years. She would just turn up out of the blue.
'She didn't use a phone or computer. She didn't want us to know where she lived, so we had no way to contact her.'
But in 2022, she began visiting often. 'We spent an amazing summer with her,' he said. 'We had family come over from America too. It was the most time we'd spent with her since she moved to England.
'It turns out that was her last summer alive.'
The family hadn't heard from her for a year when, in May 2023, he received a letter from Mr Birchwood telling him his sister had died.
'I can still remember the feeling. I opened the letter, not knowing who it was from, and the shock … I can see that moment now in my head – when I learnt that my sister had died, and that she had died quite a while ago, alone, in her room.'
Her remains were found in her flat on Feb 15, 2023, but she may have died up to six months earlier, Mr Cao was told. She was 64.
It was only after her death that he was able to visit her flat.
'We live in Notting Hill and it turned out she lived just 10 minutes away. I've walked past the building so many times, and never knew,' he said.
A private person, Mr Cao said he only agreed to speak to The Telegraph to highlight the importance of the bona vacantia (BV) list.
'Without the BV list, we'd still not know that my sister had died. To be able to tell my mum – so she could have closure – that's information I would have paid for. In fact, it was the reverse. We inherited money.
'But if it hadn't been for Hector, my mum would still be asking, 'Where's your sister?' And I wouldn't have an answer.'
In 2024–25, the Bona Vacantia Division of the Government Legal Department reported £67m in net income from unclaimed estates, down from £77m the year before.
A Telegraph analysis revealed that, at the time it was taken offline, the bona vacantia list contained 128 estates from individuals who died in 1995 or earlier, meaning they are likely to pass imminently to the Treasury.
The list included names, birth and death dates and places, and marital status – but not the value of the estate. A breakdown showed 1,934 unclaimed estates in London, followed by 275 in the West Midlands and 221 in West Yorkshire. The most common surnames of the deceased were Smith (99 estates), Jones (55) and Brown (45).
In England and Wales, heirs up to and including half-first cousins may submit a claim to an estate on the bona vacantia list to the Government Legal Department, supplying evidence of their relationship to the deceased.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman told The Telegraph: 'We recognise the difficulties the website's removal causes for those affected but this is an important measure while a fraud investigation is underway.
' Probate fraud is incredibly serious, and it is vital that we work with the relevant agencies to support ongoing investigations into alleged fraudulent activity to ensure criminals feel the full force of the law.'