There are 83 estates in Croydon which are sitting in the care of the Government because nobody has claimed them.
It’s a little-known secret that the details of thousands of unclaimed estates are available online – and you could make a claim to one of them if you’ve got the right surname.
The details are on a spreadsheet that can be accessed by anyone.
The Government is currently taking care of the estates because the deceased passed away without making a will or with no next of kin.
There are currently 83 unclaimed estates in Croydon, bearing 78 different surnames, and an 84th listed separately as Crystal Palace.
Several of the estates have been listed by the Government for decades, and will revert to the Crown permanently if they remain unidentified.
According to Finders International – a specialist probate genealogist team – family members and heirs have just 12 years to claim an estate once it has been reported unclaimed to the Crown.
Any individual can check the Central Probate Registry to see if any next of kin are on the unclaimed list.
If you think that you might be the rightful heir to one of the estates listed you can find out how to make a claim for that estate here.
The list has seen a sharp increase in numbers over the past few years because Government cuts mean there is no search for a will before an unclaimed estate is added to the list.
The Croydon names on the list are:
Aldred
Ashford
Ayers
Bailey
Bangs
Booth
Boswell
Bryan
Bulwer
Bushell
Calver
Clancy
Clark
Cooper
Craggs
Cresswell
Dalgarno
Davies
Denis
Dennis
Dooley
Evelyn
Farley
Foster
Glover
Grimes
Hall
Hardcastle
Harvey
Hayes
Henderson
Herman
Hoidis
Hsu
Huggins
Johnson
Joshi
Karn
Kennedy
Lane
Leonard
Lewis
Logan
Maliszewski
Marks
Martin
McDougall
McWeeney
Mead
Morgan
Moroney
Murray
Nelson
Palmer
Patterson
Payne
Pillay
Pollard
Quinn
Riordan
Robertson
Sabbage
Sargeson
Scott
Sharp
Shields
Slutzky
Smitten
Soares
Solomon
Stevens
Sullivan
Thomas
Towers
Vason
Vaughan
Watson
Wright
This article has been first published in croydonadvertiser.co.uk