The UK Government has confirmed that the Bona Vacantia (unclaimed estates) list has been reinstated, following a review into concerns that the list was being misused for fraudulent purposes.
The announcement brings clarity after a period of uncertainty for beneficiaries, probate practitioners and families attempting to trace estates where someone has died without a will and no immediate relatives have come forward. It also follows wider discussion within the legal profession about the risks posed by forged wills and how estates can be protected.
In this article, I will explain what the reinstatement means in practice, how fraud concerns arose in the first place, and what steps beneficiaries should take if they have concerns about an unclaimed estate or a will that does not appear genuine.
What is the Bona Vacantia (unclaimed estates) list?
When a person dies intestate (without leaving a valid will), and no entitled relatives can be identified under the intestacy rules, their estate may eventually pass to the Crown. These estates are known as bona vacantia, meaning “vacant goods”.
Before that happens, details of the estate are published on the unclaimed estates list, enabling:
- Family members to discover estates they may be entitled to
- Solicitors and probate specialists to assist with tracing beneficiaries
- Estates to be properly administered rather than passing unnecessarily to the Crown
Depending on where the deceased lived, bona vacantia estates fall to HM Treasury, the Duchy of Lancaster or the Duchy of Cornwall.
Why was the list removed from public access?
Concerns emerged after reports that fraudsters were exploiting the publicly available list to identify estates where no beneficiaries had yet come forward. In some cases, individuals were alleged to have fabricated wills appointing themselves as executors and sole beneficiaries, despite having no connection to the deceased.
This prompted the temporary removal of the list while the Government carried out a review.
As my colleague Munzer Wehbe has previously explained in his article on the withdrawal of the unclaimed estates list, this development caused understandable concern. While preventing fraud is essential, restricting access also risked preventing legitimate beneficiaries from discovering estates they were lawfully entitled to inherit.
The Government review and reinstatement of the list
The Government has now completed its review and confirmed that no evidence of systemic fraud was found to justify the continued removal of the list.
As a result, the Bona Vacantia Division has reinstated the unclaimed estates list, recognising its long-standing and legitimate role in the probate system. The list is once again publicly accessible, restoring an important tool for transparency and beneficiary tracing.
For many families, this will be the only realistic way of discovering that a relative has died intestate and that an estate exists.
Does reinstatement mean fraud is no longer a concern?
Not entirely. While the review did not find evidence that the list itself was responsible for widespread fraud, forged and suspicious wills remain a genuine issue, particularly in cases where:
- The deceased lived alone or was socially isolated
- No solicitor-drafted will exists
- A will appears suddenly after death
- The will benefits someone with no obvious connection to the deceased
Greater awareness of these risks is important, but it must be balanced with continued public access to information that allows estates to be administered correctly.
Forged wills – the legal position
Section 9 of the Wills Act 1837 states that in order for a will to be valid, it must be “signed by the testator, or by some other person in their presence and by their direction”. This is sometimes referred to as part of “due execution”.
In other words, a will is not valid if the testator (the person making the will) did not sign it themselves or, if they were unable to sign the will themselves, by someone else who the testator had asked to sign on their behalf.
If a will is signed purportedly by the Deceased, but their signature clearly does not match other examples of their signature, or a previous example has clearly been copied, this can raise suspicions of potential forgery.
The burden of proving that a will is duly executed is with the executor, the person who wants the will to be upheld as valid. The Court can discharge that burden if the will is rational, but it may be suspicious if the executor upholding the will is also a beneficiary. The Court will want to hear evidence from the executor and the witnesses to the will.
What should you do if suspect a will is a forgery?
If you expect to benefit from somebody’s estate, either through a previous will or under the intestacy rules, and you become aware of a potentially forged will, there is a good chance that the forger has already tried applying for a Grant of Probate.
You can check if a Grant of Probate has been issued and download a copy of the by checking the Government’s “Find a Will” website.
If a Grant of Probate has not been issued, you can enter a caveat to stop a Grant from being issued. I discuss how to do this further in my blog about Testamentary Capacity. You could write to the Probate Registry to make them aware of your concerns. If the Probate Registry share your concerns, they may reject the forger’s application for a Grant of Probate or request more information from them. This can provide you with more time to continue your investigations.
If a Grant of Probate has been issued, you should seek legal advice as soon as possible. Although it is possible to challenge a will after a Grant has been issued, it can make it difficult to recover the estate from the wrongful beneficiaries.
Forgery is, understandably, a serious allegation and can be difficult to successfully prove. If you allege a will is forged in Court proceedings but do not succeed, the Court can impose serious costs sanctions against you if you did not have sufficiently strong evidence to support your case. It is therefore important that you gather as much evidence as you can and seek legal advice from solicitors who specialise in challenging the validity of wills.
Most forged wills are homemade, without the oversight of a qualified solicitor or will writer. This means there can be limited information available about how the will was prepared.
You could try to find multiple examples of the Deceased’s signature to compare against the signature on the potentially forged will. Your solicitors may instruct a handwriting analysis expert to produce a report on whether the signature on the will is genuine.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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