Neil,
I would normally ask this via Personal Message, but as you have so few posts, you can't yet use the PM service, so I will ask the question here.
Do you know if heir hunter companies usually carry indemnity insurance themselves, or is it down to those who get the money to take this out ?
I'm asking because for the past year I have been involved in legal action to recover money from a close relative's estate - the money was paid out to distant cousins, because the heir hunter company involved (I'm pretty sure it wasn't Fraser and Fraser) failed to find either mine or my sister's birth, even though our births were registered in the same London borough that our parents were married in. My parents didn't get married until nearly 2 years after my sister was born (my mother was still married to someone else), and apparently the company didn't do any searches until after the date of our father's marriage to my mother
They would have no excuse for not finding me, because I was born 2 years after they were married, and my birth was registered in the same office that they were married in (we're talking early 1940's here).
The distant cousins took out a missing heirs indemnity, but they slightly under-insured themselves, and now the insurance company seem to want to haggle over the interest payable, so it's quite likely it will end up in the County Court.
My question is - the heir hunter company involved (and we have yet to find out who it was) did a lousy job finding us, and it's quite likely that we will sue them. Do heir hunter companies in general have insurance to cover themselves against such actions when big mistake has been made by them ?
Nick.
