Virginia Unclaimed Property

As part of the State’s Department of Treasury annual ‘clearance sale’, the Virginia Unclaimed Property Division recently auctioned-off over a thousand items as part of it’s annual ‘clearance sale’. These are a field days for bargain hunters and seekers of antiques and priceless memorabilia. According to a report by VA’s WBDJ7, items range from diamonds to a picture of American racing legend Dale Earnhardt.

 

Each year, the Division of Unclaimed Property In Virginia collects lost financial assets and abandoned items from financial institutions (banks, insurance companies, the IRS, etc.) and from deposit boxes and police evidence rooms, respectively. According to their official website, “The Unclaimed Property Division is responsible for the custody of lost, outstanding and dormant accounts reported to them by businesses that have lost contact with the rightful owner when the last known address of the owner was in Virginia. The Division attempts to locate the rightful owners or their heirs to help them claim their property.” They try to locate the owners of the unclaimed assets by publishing names of owners of VA unclaimed property in State newspapers and auction-off tangible items that still go unclaimed after a year.

 

Fairfax County already has a million dollars belonging to people they’re unable to locate. The total amount of Virginia unclaimed money and property right now amounts to roughly $300 million belonging to thousands of residents and even some citizens from out of state. According to the Division of Unclaimed Property in Virginia spokeswoman Brooke Bredel, 1 in every 7 people in the State has Virginia unclaimed money in their name. A search for unclaimed property in Virginia and other states can turn-up extra cash for scores of Americans in financial trouble right now.
“They have a lot better odds of having unclaimed property … than they would of winning the lottery,” Bredel says in a news reporton VA unclaimed money.

 

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