What connects an ex-miner and lifelong republican, who once manned the protest lines at Orgreave, with King Charles III? The surprising answer, as the Guardian reported, is that the ex-miner’s estate now forms part of a fund which generates private income for the monarch.
The reason is the legal principle of bona vacantia. This is loosely translated as “ownerless goods” and refers to a process through which the estates of people who die without heirs in England and Wales are claimed by the crown.
The principle of bona vacantia operates when a person dies in England and Wales without leaving a valid will disposing of all of their assets and there is no heir to their estate under the intestacy rules. These rules, set out in the Administration of Estates Act 1925, set out the classes of people who can inherit the property of an intestate (or partially intestate) person.
