Once Margaret Abbots received an unexpected letter, which spoke of a large inheritance. The woman thought that they were scammers and almost threw him away. After reading more closely, she found a mention of the older half-sister Mary Major, whom Margaret had never met.
Unexpected wealth
The letter explained that Mary died two years ago, without a will. Since she did not have a husband and children, Margaret, 80, was the closest relative and legal heir to her property.
In a daze, she called the number indicated in the letter and found that she had inherited more than 300, 000 pounds (about 23.65 million rubles).
Margaret, a mother of four living in London, says: “I could not believe it. I have never had a similar amount of money. I’ve never written a number like that. ”
That happens
The letter was sent by a professional heir search company. She tracked people who, without knowing it, were the legal heirs of relatives.
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According to official figures, last year nearly 2, 000 people died without leaving a will. This number is 16% higher than in 2017. In such cases, any money, real estate and vehicles passed to the next of kin. According to the so-called interstate rules, first the inheritance goes to spouses and civil partners, then to children, parents, brothers, sisters and so on.
Local authorities are doing everything possible to find the next of kin. If they cannot do this, then the inheritance is considered an orphaned product and goes to the state. Over the past year alone, 12.2 million pounds have been raised, 8 of which have been returned to families after presenting claims. Details of any unclaimed possessions worth more than £ 500 are published by the Treasury.
Currently, there are about 8, 600 properties on the Web, but you will not be able to see the value of each of them.
Finding heirs is not easy
In some cases, living relatives can be difficult to find. Family members may lose contact or not even know what they have. In this case, local hospitals and government agencies hire firms to track down the heirs. Private companies specializing in this regularly review the list of orphaned goods to find real estate and give them to their rightful owner.
The first thing they usually do is find out how much possessions the deceased has. If his inheritance is valuable enough, then the company begins to search for relatives. They hire police officers to collect information. His task is to interview the neighbors in order to learn more about the person and his family tree. Family history sites provide birth, marriage, and death certificates. Some heirs are in one day, while others are years later.
