There is only one method available to confidently prevent your estate from becoming the subject of a contentious and potentially costly and protracted probate dispute: instruct an experienced Wills solicitor to help you write a Will, ensure it is properly witnessed, store it securely and then update it correctly as and when necessary.

However, according to statistics, there are around 31 million adults in the UK who risk dying intestate (without a Will) – meaning that when they die their estate will pass on to their lawful heirs on the basis of the rules of intestacy rather than their actual wishes. This, inevitably, involves greater scope for the distress and acrimony inherent in a probate dispute.

Furthermore, if a person fails to write a valid Will and has no identifiable or traceable heirs, they also risk leaving their estate unclaimed – effectively leaving all the wealth, assets and treasured possessions they have accumulated during the course of their life in a kind of legal limbo – this includes real estate; typically the most valuable component of a deceased person’s estate.

How much wealth is unclaimed?

According to a recent survey carried out by a North East property developer, there are currently 7,991 unclaimed estates in England and Wales, including £1.744bn worth of unclaimed property at an average value of £218,300 per estate.

These are staggering figures and serve to highlight how something as simple and trivial-seeming as a person’s reticence to engage with issues of mortality and legacy can have profound consequences.

Although the £1.744bn figure sounds imposing and perhaps not relevant to individuals of modest wealth, it’s worth remembering that this issue is not merely about the monetary value of an estate, but more about ensuring that your legacy passes on as you wish. Your estate matters, regardless of whether there are four, five or ten-plus figures involved in the total value.

As such, the question of whether you write a Will should be less about engaging with questions of your mortality and the worth of your legacy, but more about whether you wish to choose beneficiaries for yourself or if you are happy for your estate to be divided up along the impersonal and rigid rules of intestacy.

What happens if you have no immediate relatives that you know of?

As in many situations of intestacy, it may not be possible to identify an heir, and it is these cases that account for the majority of the £1.744bn figure. When there is no immediately apparent heir, the estate is passed on to the Treasury and to professional, so-called “heir hunters” who are charged with finding potential legal beneficiaries. In the vast majority of cases these heirs will be people who had little to no contact with the deceased and, in many cases, no prior knowledge of their existence. It certainly seems an odd and less than ideal way to pass on your estate.

There are also broader political and philosophical questions to consider. For example, many people spend years struggling to get on the property ladder, with available and affordable housing stock squeezed to breaking point, yet these unclaimed homes often sit for years or even decades unoccupied, mired in bureaucratic considerations, and in gradually disintegrating states of repair until heirs can be found.

And it is not always possible to find an heir, but it is only after three decades of waiting that the government is able to claim the property, with the proceeds from its sale then being injected into the treasury.

Oratto, for all aspects of Wills and probate

Whether you wish to write a Will so that you can secure your legacy on your own terms or you wish to discuss a probate dispute, call our National Helpline today on 0845 388 376 or use our contact form to request a call-back. We can help you bring clarity and confidence to this sometimes difficult area of the law.