Does anyone know which Council department (Social
Services, Environmental Health, Coroners Office), would be responsible for dealing with the estate of anyone in the borough who dies intestate and without next of kin?

I have found various references online to the Coroner's Office and the Welfare Funeral Officer (or Bereavement Services Officer) being responsible for finding next of kin, and arranging the funeral, respectively, and recovering the costs of the funeral from the deceased's estate.

But, assuming no next of kin are found, who at the Council would be responsible for applying to the Probate Court for letters of Administration to deal with the deceased's estate? ie. arrange for the contents of the house to be cleared, valuables auctioned, house sold, and the money placed in an interest bearing account until the next of
kin are traced.

- NaomiM

Hi Naomi

All Bereavement Services (including burials, cremations etc) usually fall under the remit of the 'Health and Community Services' team in a local authority (or similar name - social services in other words).

I think if someone died intestate and without next of kin, an appropriate senior person in such a team (such as the Director or Head of Adult Services) would be appointed to act on the authority's behalf and given responsibility for the administration of the deceased's estate WITH someone from the local authority's legal team. (a bit like a child may be made the ward of a LA for comparison)

As an NB, if the deceased had died in a housing association property, the HA will remove and store goods and chattels until such time as the estate is proven. Coroner would only be involved if death was suspicious or unexplained - I believe Coronor's Court has primary jurisdiction over all other actions and courts in such an instance. I think in all instances, the associated costs to the LA would be bourne by the deceased's estate, whether or not kin were traced (in the latter case, the balance of the estate would pass to the crown).

I used to be a contracts manager for my local authority - we dealt with all sorts of very odd things! Hope this helps, but you could contact your own Bereavement Services team to check accuracy - it may also vary from place to place? Katy

As far as I can remember from my father dying, if the dead person hasn't been seen by a doctor in the last 7 days before the death then there has to be a post-mortem before the death certificate can be issued. The coroner's office has to deal with all that, even tho' there isn't a formal inquest, and of course the funeral can't happen till it has been and the certificate has been issued.

Emma

Your right, Naomi, it is so much more fun researching other peoples stuff!

If no next-of-kin are found then the assets go to the Crown and "Probate Genealogists" who trace beneficiaries seem to have an interesting job.

Don't know who takes initial responsibility though. I do know that probate gets published somewhere and that charities seem to employ someone to keep an eye on wills. When we where granted probate on my father's estate the NSPCC where like s**t off a shovel in getting in touch! (With the suitable condolences of course.)


<Added>

We think:

You die.
You have your PM (according to Emma's post).
Nothing suspicious your body is released for burial.
The council give you a fairly bog-standard send off.
The court (who'd do probate?) appoint or have pet solicitors who try and trace next of kin - advertise in paper etc. Maybe more?
Then if nothing is found then the money goes to the Crown aka the Treasury.

It's a bit anecdotal though!

<Added>

Yes I've seen the Welfare Funeral Officer can enter the deceased property and remove chattels to cover the costs of the funeral.

It's quite a rare bird, if you google Welfare Funeral Officer, it's 5th on the list!

<Added>

I meant this post is 5th on the list!

Thanks guys

You're right, Murphy, not every Council seems to have a Welfare Funeral Officer, and there's little info on which department they belong to - hopefully it'll turn out to be part of the 'Health and Community Services' team, mentioned by Katy.
Thanks, this is all grist to the mill.

- NaomiM

<Added>

It's really frustrating because there was a BBC documentary a few years back which shadowed two ladies doing the job - going to the funeral, searching through belongings looking for next of kin, getting the specialist cleaning crew in to remove the (often decomposed) body, etc....
Wandsworth Council?? Anyway, damned if I can find it in the BBC archives.

There is a programme on (BBC I think) daytime TV at the moment (NOT that I usually watch daytime TV, I might add, but caught the end of it a few days ago!) called "Heir Hunters", in which they trace beneficiaries of wills. There's also a page on the BBC website, apparently, linked to it. I haven't looked, but it might be worth a glance.

Joanna

Thanks for the info. I'll check it out.

- NaomiM

You can view the program on our web site
If you need some help finding people then we will happly have a look at it.

Neil Fraser
Fraser & Fraser
(the main company followed in the program)

Ah, thank you. I found your website when I was initially researching this query, and greatly enjoyed reading about the cases.

I'll post the link here so others can see.

http://www.fraserandfraser.com/cases.html


- NaomiM

Naomi M

It would be good to talk to you about some to your comments on this please contact us directly. I dont think I am alowed to post email addresses or phone numbers on here but they are on the web site

Neil

Hi Neil,

Got your email. A bit tied up with boring old paperwork right now (unfortunately nothing to do with the book) but I will get back to you asap.

- NaomiM