Overview

NATIONAL ULTIMUS HAERES UNIT (NUHU)

Where a person who is domiciled in Scotland dies without leaving a Will (often referred to as dying  intestate) and has no known and traceable blood relatives, spouse or civil partner who would be entitled by law to succeed to his/her property, or cohabitant who would be entitled to make a claim under section 29 of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006, then the property in their  estate, both heritable and moveable, falls to the Crown as ultimus haeres (literally meaning Last Heir).

A Scotland-wide National Ultimus Haeres Unit, which is part of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, has been set up in the  Hamilton Procurator Fiscal’s Office to investigate such estates in Scotland.

NUHU will make preliminary inquiries as regards a deceased’s estate and where the estate is likely to be solvent but no relatives can be traced the Unit will pass information regarding the estate to the office of the Queen’s and Lord Treasurer’s Remembrancer (QLTR) who will administer any estate which has fallen to the Crown as ultimus haeres.

A list of potential ultimus haeres estates which have been reported to and are presently undergoing investigation by NUHU can be found by clicking on the link on the left.

If you have an enquiry and need to contact the Unit the address is:

The National Ultimus Haeres Unit
Procurator Fiscal Office
Cameronian House
3/5 Almada Street
Hamilton
ML3 0HG

Telephone Number:   0300 0204196  or  0141 420 8804   

or alternatively please e-mail:

_NationalUltimusHaeresUnit@copfs.gov.uk