THERE are dozens of unclaimed estates just waiting to be snapped up in Cheshire.

An estate is classed as unclaimed when a person with no will or known relatives dies - anything they leave behind, including property, possessions or money, passes to the Crown until it can be claimed.

These estates might be worth pennies or they could be worth millions- you won’t know exactly until you enquire.

Research by StripeHomes (property developers) suggests that there is an estimated £1.744bn worth of unclaimed property lying vacant across England and Wales.

In the North West alone, there is an estimated £44,113,062 worth of unclaimed estates.

Here’s everything you need to know about unclaimed estates in Cheshire- including how you can check if you can claim for one:

Unclaimed estates in Cheshire

You might be entitled to a Cheshire estate and not even know it, as even distant relatives are eligible to claim them.

Here are all of the unclaimed estates from people who were born or died in Cheshire:


Type your surname into the search bar- do you get any matches?

Who is entitled to an estate?

You might be entitled to one of these estates and not even know it, as even distant relatives are eligible to claim them.

However, you need to act fast as the names are removed from the list after 30 years.

Managing Director of StripeHomes, James Forrester, said that this could be one unexpected way to get your foot on the property ladder- especially if the deceased has an unclaimed house.

He said: It makes for quite depressing reading when you consider the struggle many are facing to secure a property of their own while such a substantial value of bricks and mortar is currently left tangled in red tape, only for the Government to take control of it after 30 years. 

“While procedures need to be followed to ensure anyone with a legitimate claim has the right to do so, 30 years seems a very long time to leave an estate lingering in limbo when it could be contributing positively to the current housing crisis.”

People are entitled to the estate in the order shown below:
 

  1. husband, wife or civil partner
  2. children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and so on
  3. mother or father
  4. brothers or sisters who share both the same mother and father, or their children (nieces and nephews)
  5. half brothers or sisters or their children (nieces and nephews of the half blood or their children). ‘Half ’ means they share only one parent with the deceased
  6. grandparents
  7. uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins or their descendants)
  8. half uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins of the half blood or their children). ‘Half’ means they only share one grandparent with the deceased, not both.
     

If your relationship to the deceased is traced through someone who survived the deceased but has since died, you will need to confirm who is entitled to deal with that person’s estate.

If you think you are eligible to make a claim to a deceased person’s estate, you can do so at the following Government link.

Have you ever been eligible to claim an estate? Tell us your story in the comments.