Government Legal Department
The Division publishes a list of unclaimed estates which have been recently referred, but not yet administered, and historic cases which have been administered but not yet been claimed within the time limits for doing so.
The list
Some people have experienced an intermittent problem downloading the Unclaimed estates list. We are investigating the cause of the issue.
The list is published in a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file format. This acts like a spreadsheet and although it can be opened in any text editor it is is best viewed in a spreadsheet application, such as Microsoft Excel, Google Docs or OpenOffice Calc.
If you are looking for a particular estate you can search by using Ctrl-F in your browser, text editor or spreadsheet application.
The list is updated every working day and newly advertised estates appear at the top of the list. After one day of publication, new estates drop into the rest of the list in alphabetical order.
Any estates where the Bona Vacantia division (BVD) no longer has an interest, for example, when a claim to an estate has been admitted, will be removed daily. Estates where the 30 year time limit from the date of death has expired are also removed.
BVD provides as much genealogical information as it holds on its files, subject to its obligations under the Data Protection Act and any other legal requirements. If a field is blank then BVD either do not hold the information or it may only be held in paper files stored off-site.
If you have a claim
Further information can be found in the guide on how to Make a claim to a deceased persons estate
Disclaimer
Please note: The list cannot be guaranteed to be complete and correct and no warranties are given or implied to that effect. Copies of the list held on other sources or provided by third parties other than the Treasury Solicitor cannot be guaranteed to be accurate or up-to-date. The Treasury Solicitor does not accept any responsibility for any loss whatsoever which might result from reliance thereon.