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Unowned property includes tangible, physical things that are capable of being reduced to being property owned by a person but are not owned by anyone. Bona vacantia (Latin for "ownerless goods") is a legal concept associated with the unowned property, which exists in various jurisdictions, with a consequently varying application, but with origins mostly in English law.
Where no beneficiaries on the above list exist, the person's estate generally escheats (i.e. is legally assigned) to the Crown (via the Bona vacantia division of the Treasury Solicitor) or to the Duchy of Cornwall or Duchy of Lancaster when the deceased was a resident of either. In limited cases a discretionary distribution might be made by one ...
The State of Spain then brought proceedings in England claiming that letters of administration should be issued to agents of the Spanish State as the sole and universal heir to her estate by Spanish law. This was opposed by the Treasury Solicitor, who claimed that the property in England should pass to the Crown as bona vacantia.
Probate researchers are hired by solicitors in the United Kingdom, or Estate Attorneys in the United States. In other countries they may be hired by notaries . It is also common for them to independently source estates classed as bona vacantia whereby research is undertaken at their own risk and expense with fees recovered via a commission ...
Where there is no surviving spouse but there are surviving children, the estate is divided equally among the children. Where there is no surviving spouse or children, the estate devolves according to the rules of consanguinity. Where no heir can be determined, the estate is declared bona vacantia and escheats to the Crown.
If there are no relations of the deceased, by blood or by adoption, and no surviving spouse, the fiscus or State is entitled, after the lapse of thirty years, to claim the estate as bona vacantia (unclaimed property) in terms of the common law. The authority for this is the case of Estate Baker v Estate Baker. In these circumstances the State ...
If the time of ownership can be fixed and determined, it cannot be a freehold. It is "An estate in land held in fee simple, fee tail or for term of life." [4] The default position subset is the perpetual freehold, which is "an estate given to a grantee for life, and then successively to the grantee's heirs for life." [4]
Vacant lands (bona vacantia) and heirless property (bona caduca) both escheated to the emperor. [2] The office was probably created around 318, at the same time as that of the comes sacrarum largitionum, although it is not explicitly mentioned until the period 342–45. The comes was one of the comites consistoriales. [1]