Councils face potential litigation over “lax procedures” on heir hunting: claim

Councils could be exposing themselves to litigation risks by cutting corners when they appoint genealogy researchers or so-called ‘heir hunters’, it has been claimed.

Anglia Research, a probate genealogy and legal research company, said problems arose when only one researcher had access to information about a death.

It looked at the practices of some 300 English councils when a resident dies intestate and with no known relatives and the council, or a hospital trust, must arrange and pay for a funeral.

Anglia said such cases should be referred to the Government Legal Department, which would advertise the death and seek out any relatives.

Failing that, at least three accredited genealogists should be appointed and provided with identical information simultaneously.

It said that appointing more than one genealogical researcher could reduce the risk of litigation over flawed or incomplete research if relations do eventually appear.

Were there a good reason to appoint a single genealogist, the name and date of death of the deceased should additionally be announced on the council’s website, it argued.

Anglia’s managing director Peter Turvey said: “Many local authorities are leaving themselves open to potential litigation with their lax procedures concerning tenders and selection, with a lack of transparency, due diligence and competition.

“We have also uncovered a number of cases where the so-called heir hunters – many of whom have no formal training or accreditation – have misappropriated funds from an intestate estate or failed to find all the beneficiaries after being appointed by a local authority on an exclusive basis.”

Anglia has drafted a code of practice to seek to deal with this problem.

In case studies identified by Anglia it pointed to Leeds City Council administrative officer Deborah Cook, who used her privileged access to information on local deaths to trace heirs and charge them commissions on the estates involved.

In 2012, Ms Cook was prosecuted for misconduct in a public office, fraud and theft and imprisoned for 16 months.

In two cases in Manchester, an heir hunter with no genealogical training or accreditation omitted to find 18 cousins of a deceased person, and in the other an heir hunter found the separated husband of a deceased person and knowing no other researchers had been invited to tender obtained a 25% fee from him.

Mark Smulian