If someone in England or Wales dies without leaving a Will and with no obvious next of kin, what happens to their money and property? In these cases, their estate may be declared bona vacantia, meaning “ownerless goods” and it can ultimately pass to the Crown if no rightful heir is found.
To give potential relatives a chance to claim such an estate, the Government Legal Department maintains the Bona Vacantia list, a public register of unclaimed estates. However, in July 2025 the government took the unprecedented step of temporarily removing the unclaimed estates list from its website.
What Is the Bona Vacantia List?
The Bona Vacantia list is the UK government’s official register of unclaimed estates in England and Wales. In practical terms, when a person dies intestate (without a valid Will) and no family comes forward or is easily traceable, their property, money, and possessions become bona vacantia. By law, such ownerless estates are transferred to the Crown (ultimately managed by the Government Legal Department’s Bona Vacantia division) but not before being advertised on the Bona Vacantia list.
Publishing an unclaimed estate on this list creates a public record that the estate exists and allows potential heirs to come forward with a claim. The list is accessible to anyone, and it’s commonly monitored by specialist genealogy firms often called “heir hunters,” who research family trees to find living relatives of the deceased. If a legitimate relative is found, they can claim the estate by proving their family connection.
Each entry typically shows the deceased’s name, date of death, place of death, and other details like the birth date or estimated value of the estate. If you believe you might be related to someone on the list, you can submit a claim to the Bona Vacantia division with evidence of your kinship. There is usually a generous window of time to do this – the government will hold unclaimed estates for up to 30 years from the date of death to allow claims. After 30 years with no successful claim, the estate becomes the Crown’s property outright. In short, the list functions as a safety net within the legal system preventing assets from simply disappearing to the state without giving families a chance to inherit, and it provides a clear protocol for handling intestate estates.
Temporary Removal of the Unclaimed Estates List (July 2025)
In early July 2025, something highly unusual happened: the Bona Vacantia division pulled the entire unclaimed estates list offline. On 7 July 2025, a notice was posted on the official government website stating, “We have temporarily removed the unclaimed estates list from our website. Further details will follow as soon as possible.”. This sudden removal of a public register that had been continuously available for decades (dating back to the 1970s) was unprecedented. It left genealogists, solicitors, and curious members of the public unable to see which estates are currently unclaimed. At first glance, the message on the site cited an “administrative issue” as the reason for taking the page down, but it quickly became clear that there was more to the story.
The timing of the removal was not a coincidence. It came immediately after a BBC investigation and podcast series exposed serious fraudulent activity targeting unclaimed estates. The BBC reported evidence that criminal gangs were using the Bona Vacantia list as a roadmap to commit probate fraud. In the UK, if a valid Will surfaces (even after someone’s death) naming an heir, it generally takes priority, so these criminals would swiftly produce a “Last Will and Testament” for the deceased, forge signatures, and submit it to the probate registry. If the fake Will was convincing and no one contested it, they could be granted probate and effectively steal the assets.
Alarmingly, this scam was made easier by modern changes in the system. The BBC found that since an online probate application process was introduced in 2017, controls were not robust enough to catch suspicious applications. For example, fraudsters could claim an estate was under the inheritance tax threshold without providing evidence, thereby avoiding scrutiny. Several estates on the list were allegedly stolen in this manner, with criminals pocketing millions of pounds worth of property and money that should have gone to legitimate heirs or to the Crown. It was a stark case of “identity theft” of the deceased and highlighted a loophole in the probate system.
As of mid-July 2025, the list remains offline and there is no clear timeline for when it would be republished, pending reforms or enhanced security checks. A government spokesperson has indicated that further details and presumably new measures would follow once they assessed the situation. For those in the legitimate heir research business and for would-be claimants, this development came as a surprise and, initially, an inconvenience but it underscores the need to protect the integrity of the probate process.
Why Is This Removal Significant?
Authorities essentially acknowledged that public transparency was being exploited by bad actors, and that immediate action was necessary to protect estates from theft. The removal has sparked a broader conversation about the probate system’s safeguards. If fraudsters were able to forge Wills and slip through the net, what does that say about current checks on probate applications and inheritance tax reporting? Ideas floated include requiring in-person ID checks or sworn affidavits for those claiming to be beneficiaries and improving data-sharing between agencies.
Legitimate heir-hunting firms and probate researchers are affected, as they rely on the daily updates to do their work. Some in the legal field, however, point out that this is a rather niche area and most routine probate cases aren’t impacted directly. The average family handling a relative’s estate with a Will won’t notice any difference. Lastly, this situation is significant as a reminder of the importance of proper estate planning. The very existence of a large unclaimed estates list and the fact it became a target for fraud highlights that many people die without sorting out their affairs. The cases that triggered this change shows the extreme scenario of strangers seizing someone’s legacy, but even in less dramatic cases, failing to make a valid Will can result in your belongings not going where you would have wanted. For instance, unmarried partners or close friends won’t inherit anything under the default intestacy laws, which can lead to hardship. These outcomes are avoidable with some planning. The turmoil around the Bona Vacantia list’s removal is, in a way, a prompt for everyone to consider making a Will and keeping their estate plans up to date to protect loved ones and ensure your wishes are followed.
Plan Ahead and Get Advice
At DTM Legal, our Wills, Trusts & Estates team is here to help you plan for the future with confidence. We can assist you in drafting a robust Will, setting up trusts if appropriate, and generally ensuring that your wishes are documented in a legally sound way. We also offer our clients the option of registration of the name and address of the person making the Will along with the date of the Will and where it is stored on the National Will Register. This means that if someone is trying to locate a last Will, its location can be traced. The contents of the Will remain confidential.
View our probate and administration page for more information on our services or contact Heather Lally by calling 01244 354822 or via email at heather.lally@dtmlegal.com.
