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Last week, the official list of people who have died without leaving a Will, known as the Bona Vacantia, was removed from the GOV.UK website. It has since come to light that this action was taken following a BBC investigation into criminal gangs using the list to claim millions of pounds worth of inheritance unlawfully. The perpetrators were able to exploit the legal system by hastily writing fraudulent Wills to receive a Grant of Probate, allowing them to pose as the sole beneficiaries of an unknown amount of money and property.
What is the Bona Vacantia list?
Bona Vacantia is a Latin term meaning "vacant goods" and refers specifically to assets, estates, or property that have no legal owner, typically because someone has died intestate (without leaving a Will) and with no known heirs. When this happens within England and Wales, the assets do not simply vanish, but are instead declared Bona Vacantia and pass onto the Crown. They are entered into a government-issued list detailing information on the deceased person and the estate they left behind. In England and Wales, such estates are managed by the Bona Vacantia Division of the Government Legal Department (GLD) on behalf of the Crown, which is the ultimate heir according to the rules of intestacy. However, both the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster administer their Bona Vacantia estates separately on behalf of the Duke of Cornwall (Prince William), and the Duke of Lancaster (the King).
The existence of the list provides a public register of unclaimed estates, allowing potential heirs to step forward and claim their entitlement. It also serves as a legal mechanism to handle abandoned or unclaimed property and ensures that assets are not simply lost or stolen when they no longer have a legal owner.
Why has the list been taken offline?
On 7 July, the unclaimed estates page on the GOV.UK website, previously listing around 6,000 unclaimed estates, was temporarily withdrawn. It has since been updated with a message reading "We have temporarily removed the unclaimed estates list from our website." Two days later, an article was published by the BBC stating that the list had been taken offline due to an investigation finding evidence of a criminal gang using it to commit millions of pounds worth of fraud. The investigation (which is still ongoing) has highlighted just how easy it is for fraudsters to use the Bona Vacantia list to identify assets held in unclaimed estates and exploit weaknesses in the legal system, allowing them to write these assets into fake Wills. From there, the criminals proceed to apply for a Grant of Probate using the online service to gain the legal right to administer and access the assets held within the estates.
According to a BBC investigation, several cases of this criminal activity have taken place within the south of England, and are thought to be connected through a complex network of company directorships listed under names of Hungarian origin. This has led investigators to believe that it is the same gang of criminals responsible for all the cases that have already been identified. It remains unclear just how many fraudulent entitlement claims have so far gone undetected, and how many pounds worth of stolen assets have been taken.
The Bona Vacantia list has been removed from the GOV.UK website to make it harder for the perpetrators to identify other unclaimed estates to target, and to protect the information of the estates that have already been involved. The decision to remove the list will undoubtedly impact "heir hunting" firms, who up until now have used the list to locate people who are legally entitled to inherit from a deceased relative’s estate, but are unaware of their legal claim.
What impact will this have?
Title Research's primary focus has always been to support Private Client Practitioners in completing probate genealogy work. Therefore, unlike heir hunters who rely on the Bona Vacantia list, the work we do should not be affected by its removal. However, the findings of this investigation are still troubling, as it highlights just how little protection is available to legitimate beneficiaries. We have long believed that the Bona Vacantia should only be accessible to approved professional genealogists who hold a track record of successfully applying succession laws, rather than being open to anyone with little or no experience in probate genealogy.
Implementing this change would make criminal activity such as this much more unlikely to occur, and would safeguard the administration of estates further. It is this sentiment that originally led to the removal of estate values being published, and as fraud becomes more sophisticated, so should the safeguards that are put in place to minimise such opportunism. Sadly, since the probate genealogy industry is not independently regulated, fraudsters can still steal valuable assets from rightful heirs, as recent events have shown. Removing the list from the public domain is the wise choice in the short term, but careful consideration is required to solve the long-term problem; otherwise, genuine claimants to seemingly Bona Vacantia estates will have no way of learning of their potential entitlement.
How Title Research can support you
At Title Research, we specialise in supporting Solicitors with complex estate administration. Whether it’s verifying entitlement, locating missing beneficiaries, or dealing with overseas assets, our team is here to make the process more efficient and risk-free.
Title Research provides fast, fixed-fee access to genealogical research, making us the safe choice for the resolution of complex estate administration cases. If you want to find out more, get in touch with our Client Services Team by calling 0345 87 27 600 or emailing info@titleresearch.com.
Topics: news, Genealogical research, Intestacy, Estate administration, Inheritance, Bona Vacantia, Wills
