Unclaimed Goods Act 1987

Subject to this Act, a recipient of unclaimed goods (other than personal documents) the value of which lies within scale 1 is vested with a good title to those goods if—

each relevant person has, on or after the day on which the goods became unclaimed goods under this Act, been given notice by the recipient in accordance with subsection (2) allowing the person at least 14 days after the day on which the notice was given (the holding period) to collect the goods; and

no relevant person has collected the goods from the recipient during the holding period.

A notice to be given for the purposes of subsection (1)(a) must—

identify the goods and specify that they are unclaimed; and

specify the holding period that applies to the unclaimed goods; and

notify the person that the goods will vest in the recipient if not collected by the end of the holding period; and

contain any other prescribed information.

The recipient's title is free of—

any mortgage, lien or charge in favour of a relevant person; and

any other mortgage, lien or charge affecting the goods at the time of the vesting of which the recipient was then unaware.

To avoid doubt, section 8 does not apply to the sale of goods if the recipient, after being vested with the title of the unclaimed goods, sells the goods.

For the purposes of subsection (1)(a)—

if the recipient does not know the contact details of a relevant person; and

all reasonable steps taken by the recipient (whether for the purposes of section 5 or this section) to obtain their contact details have failed, the recipient will be taken to have given notice as required by subsection (1)(a) on the day on which the goods became unclaimed goods under this Act.