People across Scotland could be entitled to inherit more than 100 estates that have gone unclaimed across the region. When somebody dies with no written will or known family, their estate is passed to the Crown where it is held, waiting to be claimed.
The UK Government create an annual list of such estates that have gone undeclared, which include grand homes, untouched pensions and dormant bank accounts.
The estates are kept for 30 years, after which they become the property of the Crown and Treasury.
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But in the meantime, any relatives who couldn’t be tracked down at the time of death can still make a claim on the estate, and bag themselves an inheritance.
Cash, land, assets and homes across the country are all waiting to be claimed - and it could start by simply noticing you have the same surname as the previous owner of an estate.
The government publishes a list of these unclaimed estates on a regular basis and there are currently 93 unclaimed estates which belonged to people with a connection to Scotland.
The annual list is updated by Queen’s and Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer and published online here.
A total of six estates were added since the start of the year - including two in Edinburgh:
- Mack, Alan Cameron: 05/10/1934, Old Kilpatrick West Dunbartonshire - 28/01/2019, Banbury Oxfordshire
- Clarke, James Cleghorn: 11/08/1942, Ayrshire - 23/04/2019, Gloucester Gloucestershire
- Anderson, William Archibald: 08/11/1951, Edinburgh Scotland - 11/05/2021, Denmark Hill Lambeth
- McHugh, Mary Houston Ferguson: 20/03/1912, Tillicoultry Scotland - 28/02/2004, Grimsby Lincolnshire
- Dean, Myra: 26/06/1927, Edinburgh - 22/12/2018, Driffield East Riding of Yorkshire
- Fuchs, Alfred: 17/01/1949, Scotland - 27/02/2020, Westminster London W2
If you think that you may have a claim on an estate you should visit the government’s website - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/make-a-claim-to-a-deceased-persons-estate .
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