Personal belongings of 50 people who lived and died in the West Midlands have lain unclaimed for over 20 years, data released this week shows.
Unclaimed estates are the belongings of a person who dies without leaving a will and with no next of kin. They can include property, money or personal belongings.
In total, there are 174 cases in Birmingham and the West Midlands on the list released by the UK Government’s Legal Department on Wednesday.
The oldest estate belonged to Leon Kempinski, born in Poland, who died on May 20, 1981. His belongings have been heirless for over 40 years.
The newest entry is from February this year.
Fifty properties were added to the list before the turn of the millennium and 124 after.
In half of the cases, additional information such as place of birth and marital status has been released.
Of the available data, approximately two-thirds were men (71) and the majority were bachelors.
Looking at places of birth, most people were from the UK (64), Ireland (27) and Jamaica (12). Of those born in the UK, 36 were from Birmingham or the West Midlands.
The top five places were rounded out by Poland (9) and Nigeria (3).
There were two people each from India, St Kitts, the West Indies and Yugoslavia, which ceased to exist in 1992.
Additionally, there is one entry each from Barbados, Belgium, China, Dominica, Estonia, Germany, Latvia, South Africa, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda and Ukraine.
In total, there are currently 6,727 unclaimed Estates in the UK.
The government’s Bona Vacantia division publishes all the data it holds on an individual if they die without leaving a will so they can be traced.
