Chris Holland meets two local "heir hunters" whose call can lead to a pleasant surprise for unknown relatives of people who died intestate

AN article in the Telegraph & Argus eight years ago was the basis of a Bradford business which has become a leading probate research operation - or heir hunter.

Traceability Probate Research came about as a result of a 2008 piece on Peter Gill who had launched a will writing service following redundancy after a 21 year career in marketing .

Following redundancy, Mr Gill worked in debt recovery and also helped friends to draft responses to formal letters. An ambition to study law also led to an interest in will-writing and probate investigation.

As a result, he saw a gap in the market and launched Responso Scribimus with the support of Bradford Council's Kickstart programme and help from a local business mentor.

T&A reader Andrew Brook, who was a one-man genealogy business trading as A R Legal Services, contacted Peter and this resulted in them working together, informally at first.

Andrew had been working on his own since 1998. The business had emerged from his hobby of genealogy tracing his own family background after many years of working as a railway clerk.

Andrew said: "I approached Peter after reading the T&A article as his will writing operation was in a related field. It seemed like a good idea to get together and add another string to my bow."

Peter's business of will writing and drafting complaint and arbitration letters was not growing as quickly as he had hoped, so the result was he moved into heir hunting with Andrew.

It's a field with plenty of scope. Around 70 per cent of people die without making a will, so tracing potential beneficiaries is big business, especially as it is rare for someone to die without at leaving least one relative still alive.

Relatives have 12 years to come forward and claim their inheritance and will be paid interest on the money.

Estates which are not claimed ultimately go to into government coffers .In 2013/14 the Government received more than £14 million in unclaimed inheritances.

The ultimate deadline is 30 years, but it is at the discretion of the Government Legal Department and no interest will be paid for the final 18 years.

The Treasury publishes a list called the Bona Vacantia – which means 'vacant goods' - and dates from 1997 when computer records began. For searches dating further paper records must be used.

While many heir hunters work directly from the Bona Vacantia and charge commission of between ten and 30 per cent of the pot owed to beneficiaries, plus VAT, Traceability Probate Research works only for solicitors for a flat fee.

"It's a rum business to be in, some would say, and my friends call me Dr Death. But we are providing a valuable service which ensures people get their rightful inheritance.

"The Heir Hunters TV series focuses on the big operators in London and paints a glamorous picture of the business.

"Those firms have plenty of resources and can put half a dozen people on a case to solve them quickly, Inevitably, the programme doesn't give the full picture in the time available but at least it has helped make people aware of the sort of thing we do, which is helpful," said Peter.

Andrew says major issue for TPR is convincing people they are in line for an inheritance.

"Very often the person who has died is not known to the beneficiary so it comes as a complete surprise when we contact them. With so much fraud about it's not surprising that people are a bit wary at first," he said.

Traceability Probate Research, based in Merchants House, Little Germany, is currently working on its biggest case to date.

Peter and Andrew were commissioned by a firm of solicitors in Rotherham to trace the relatives of a 95-year-old woman who died intestate leaving more than £500,000.

Peter said: "She was a spinster living in a nursing home when she died so we went down that route to find people who knew her and get leads on her family.

"She had seven siblings and to date we have found 85 relatives, including some in Australia, and we are still counting. An inheritance filters down to every surviving relative so we need to be thorough and ensure we track everyone down. While the older generation tend not to have strayed so far, those born in the 1970s and 80s are a more mobile generation and more likely to have moved away.

"The case involved explaining to relatives what their connection was with the deceased lady, most of whom never knew her.

"The TV shows make it look easy, but there are many pitfalls and dead ends but in many ways that only makes the job more interesting."

The business of researching family connections has thrown up some extraordinary stories.

Peter recalled: "We were working on a leasehold enfranchisement case regarding a house in Hampstead, London, whose owners had disappeared. They had leased out the house and the law enables tenants in these circumstances to apply for a control order to buy the property at the market price.

"A Treasury tribunal awards compensation to the missing owners of ten cent of the value and it was our job to trace them so they could receive that money. It transpired that a Syrian man had murdered his Greek partner over an argument about a cat.

"We located the dead man's two nieces in Greece who benefitted but the Syrian chap who had come out of prison was not interested in the money. We had done our job. It's not our role to actually hand over the money."

TPR was asked to work on a will dating from 1852 - its oldest case to date - but found the last relatives of the deceased had died many years ago in a workhouse, so the Treasury pocketed the money.

On a happier note it enabled a Bradford woman whose mother had died 20 years previously to inherit around £130,000.

"The daughter could not be traced at the time of her mother's death so the money was unclaimed. When we did find her and she heard how much she would get she was very laid back about it.

"People's reactions are very different. Some get emotional about the deceased person even if they never knew they existed and even if the money does not amount to very much," Peter said.

Most of the work undertaken by TPR is within a 60 mile radius of Bradford and the partners use freelance agents to visit people overseas or distant parts of the UK, initially to verify birth and marriage certificates to confirm that the people are entitles to inherit.

These agents, formerly known as "runners" are often former employees of large heir hunting firms. But Andrew said they were a declining breed as the internet had made information more easily traceable

Peter and Andrew are often asked for copies of family trees they have created during their research as people become interested in tracking their own family histories.

"It's a pleasant offshoot of our work when people start taking an interest in their family history as a result of what we have done," said Peter.

He said Traceability Probate Research, which was formally incorporated in 2013, was going from strength-to-strength.

"Over the past 18 months turnover has increased by about 40 per cent and is rising. Workload ebbs and flows but overall we are successfully winning business. We issue regular mailshots and through networking and word of mouth are building agood reputation," said Peter.

TPR regularly works for two Bradford law firms, a couple in Wakefield, one in Doncaster and the Rotherham-based solicitors which has a total of five offices in South Yorkshire.

The pair aims to move into a city centre office with a shop front but will not be rushing.

Peter said: "We want the move to be strategic and to have three to five years rent in the bank to cover any ups and downs in workload. We believe we are the largest firm of our kind north of the River Trent and our ambition is to become even bigger with more staff and resources."

Andrew and Peter intend to give case manager Paul Graystock a share in the firm as it develops.

Andrew said: "It's an intriguing industry. It can be a bit like being a private detective.

"You need tenacity and to know where to look in order to solve cases.

"Reuniting people with money due to them - especially when they least expect it - is also very rewarding and we believe there is a long-term future and scope to develop the business further."