Mr C died at his home address in February 2017 and the cause of death was unknown. Unfortunately, Mr C had been suffering from mental health problems for a number of years and he had lost all contact with his family.
The coroner was involved with the case and could not identify any family of Mr C, or a valid will.
Working with our partners, we were able to establish that Mr C was an only child and a bachelor without any issue or descendants and that his parents had predeceased him. We were able to make contact with the descendants of Mr C’s aunts and uncles, who were the only persons entitled to share in the estate.
Following the death of Mr C his property was occupied by squatters, meaning we could not gain access to any of his financial papers. The property was in a very poor condition and it was causing concern for the safety of the neighbouring properties. As a last resort, the local authority were considering enforcement action.
Upon locating the title documents for the property we discovered that it was still held in the name of the Mr C’s late mother, who died in 1985. The property was subject to a restriction in favour of HMRC relating to an historical estate duty liability in respect Mr C’s late grandmother. We were able to successfully negotiate the removal of the restriction with HMRC and obtain their agreement that the limitation period had passed for any possible recovery of the unpaid estate duty.
Using the limited information held about the deceased, we were able to utilise our expertise in tracing unknown assets and, as a result of this, we identified assets in the UK and abroad worth in excess of £2million.
After identifying all the assets and liabilities of the estate, we settled the inheritance tax due to HMRC and obtained letters of administration. This allowed us to obtain an order for possession of the property so that we could remove the unlawful occupiers and arrange a sale.
This case was an excellent result for the beneficiaries of the estate and also for the local authority, who were glad to see the property subsequently renovated to its former glory and put back in to use.
