We provide a service for the owners of unclaimed money. This is money left untouched for 5 years with holders such as banks or with a person such as a solicitor. The holder of the money has tried to find the owners but has not been successful. At this point they have to pass any amounts of more than $100 to us.
The holder listed is the name of the organisation that sent us the money. Most of the time this will be the organisation you interacted with. Sometimes you may have known the organisation by a different name, for example:
- A legal firm that has had a change in the makeup of its partnership, you may have known them as ABC Lawyers and now they are ACG Lawyers.
- A business that has merged with another, you may have dealt with a company that went through a merger and the new company name will be listed.
- A business or franchise will show under the name Inland Revenue holds for them which may not be the trade name you are familiar with.
Once the money has been passed to us, it is published in our searchable database. Owners can search this database at any time.
Money stays in the database for no longer than 25 years. If no one claims the money in this time, it is removed from the database and no further claims can be made.
Sometimes amounts of unclaimed money cannot be published by us. An example is where an amount is submitted without a name to identify the owner. In some cases though we may still hold enough other information to identify the owner. If you cannot find your unclaimed money in the database, please send us a web message with proof of ownership (such as closed bank account details).
Unclaimed money is not income tax refunds or any other unpaid tax refunds.
Scammers will sometimes contact you and advise you that you have unclaimed money waiting to be claimed. If you think you have been the target of an unclaimed money scam, we have advice about what to do.