Unclaimed estates, or ownerless property, are passed into ownership of the Crown when a person dies.
This happens when they pass without leaving a will and there are no apparent family members to claim the inheritance.
In general, estates held on the list can be claimed within a 12-year deadline, from the date the estate was taken into possession of the Crown.
If you’re wondering if you might have a claim to an estate, then having a certain surname could help.
The wills and probate solicitors at Beecham Peacock have sifted through the data to find the most common UK surnames associated with them.
Top 10 most common surnames behind unclaimed estates in the UK
As of January 2, 2025, there were 5,912 unclaimed estates registered as bona vacantia (Latin for ‘vacant goods’).
Kelly Jones, head of employment law at Beecham Peacock, has sorted this data by the most common surnames.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the surname ‘Smith’ is the most common one associated with unclaimed estates, being behind 101 cases at the time of writing.
Some outsiders in the top 10 included ‘Kelly’ at 22 cases and Davies at 27 cases.
Who is entitled to an unclaimed estate?
If someone dies without leaving a valid or effective will, the following relations 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
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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 you are, for example, a first cousin of the deceased, you would only be entitled to share in the estate if there are no relatives above you in the order of entitlement, for example, a niece or nephew.
