Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276

Here are the unclaimed estates in Bedfordshire

A list of unclaimed estates in Bedford has been made public by the Treasury, so if your surname is one of these, you might be in the money.

When a person dies without a valid will and no one from their family steps forward to claim their assets, the estate is considered to be unclaimed.

When this happens, the deceased person's assets are "ownerless property" and are under the possession of the Crown. However, if family members think they are entitled to a portion of the deceased's relative's property, they have 12 years from the time the Crown takes possession of the estate to come forward.

Here is a list from the Treasury of all the unclaimed estates that are waiting for someone to inherit them

The Treasury will accept claims for unclaimed estates from before 1997 up to 30 years from the date of death, subject to no interest being paid on the money held if the claim is filed after the 12-year window has passed.

Who is entitled to an unclaimed estate?

According to the government website, if someone dies without leaving a valid or effective will the following are entitled to the estate in the order shown below:

husband, wife or civil partner

children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and so on

mother or father

brothers or sisters who share both the same mother and father, or their children (nieces and nephews)

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

grandparents

uncles and aunts or their children (first cousins or their descendants)

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

Surnames of the unclaimed properties in Bedford:

Ashpole

Bent-Wilson

Bider

Bontscheff

Brazier

Brown

Cockell

Cohn

Davis

English

Evans

Farkasch

Feeney

Gilbert

Hale

Kobylanski

Kozlica

Lilley

Litwinczuk

Marshall

Mike

Pedorczenko

Pickett

Purins

Sadler

Strachan

Strods

Testa

Toborek

Wells

White

How to claim an unclaimed estate

Anyone who believes they might be entitled to a share of an unclaimed estate should contact The Treasury here.

31 unclaimed estates in Bedford that you could inherit if you have these surnames - how to claim