BonaVacantia.gov.uk offers advice to estates who do not have a next of kin
Title
Welcome to Bona Vacantia
Description
The term "Bona Vacantia" literally means vacant goods and is the legal name for ownerless property, which by law passes to the crown.
The Treasury Solicitor is the Crown's Nominee for the purposes of the administration of the estates of persons who die intestate and without known kin and for the collection of the assets of dissolved companies and other miscellaneous bona vacantia in England and Wales.
Bona Vacantia arises, in origin, by virtue of the Royal Prerogative, i.e. at common law. To some extent this is still the position although the right to bona vacantia of the two major categories is now based on statute: the Administration of Estates Act 1925 and the Companies Act 1985 (both as amended). The work of Bona Vacantia dates from the Norman Conquest making it the earliest duty of what is now the Treasury Solicitor.
