What happens when people die with no will or heirs?

Harrison Drury’s Edward Stanley sheds light on the ancient law of Bona Vacantia and what it means for people who think they may have claim on someone’s estate.

Most people will be unaware that a law created back in 1230 could still affect them.

A lot has changed in the past 786 years but the law of ‘Bona Vacantia’ still remains good law today. Bona Vacantia literally translates as ‘vacant goods’ and comes into play when someone dies without a will and without any obvious relatives to claim their estate.

The law of Bona Vacantia was properly established by King Henry III when he set up the office of the Royal Escheator. Bona Vacantia is a law that allows the monarch to take control of property that remains unclaimed after a person’s death.

In the times of King Henry III this was a very lucrative way of improving the fortunes of the crown (and it remains a fairly lucrative law to this day). In a quirk of English law the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall rejected this proposal over their regions stating that their land was held above that of the king.

It took until the year 1337 to resolve such matters and it was agreed that the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall would retain the rights of Bona Vacantia over their land.

The rise of the heir hunters

The law states that where someone dies without a will and with no one obvious to inherit their estate, their property may pass to HM Treasury, or if you are based in the areas of Lancashire and Cornwall, to the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall (being the Queen and Prince Charles respectively).

It is estimated that there are currently around 14,000 estates being dealt with by the Treasury Solicitor, who deals with matters on behalf of the Bona Vacantia department (BVD) with estate values ranging from a few thousand to several million. In the year 2015 alone the BVD collected in over £18 million from these estates and paid out a little over £6 million on claims.

Even though it is nearly 800 years old, there has been a significant uptake in interest in the law of Bona Vacantia in the past few years with the prominence of television programmes about “heir hunting”.

There has also been a rise in companies who scour the list of unclaimed estates and attempt to locate beneficiaries to inform them of their good fortune, but take a percentage cut of the fortune at the same time.

The fact remains that anybody has access to the list of unclaimed estates on the government website and anybody can undertake research to see if they are potentially an heir to a fortune.

So where does the money go?

But what of the unclaimed money that does pass to HM Treasury? Or to the Duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall? The usual time limit for a relative to make a claim is 12 years, but this can be extended to 30 years at the discretion of the BVD.

At the end of this time period, if the estate passes to the Treasury, then the money is collected by the chancellor and used towards reducing the national debt. If you happen to live in Lancashire or Cornwall then the money is given to charity – in Lancashire the money passes to the Duchy of Lancaster Jubilee Trust Fund and in Cornwall it passes to the Duke of Cornwall Benevolent Fund.

So, if it has not always been your desire for your estate to go towards paying off the national debt, then perhaps it’s time you started to think about writing a will.

For more information on any wills and inheritance matter, please contact our Private Client team on 01772 258321. Harrison Drury have specialist lawyers based across all of our offices.