Nov 21: Province of BC Returns Unclaimed Money

Vancouver, November 21, 2000 - More than $200,000 from 500 Vancity Savings Credit Union accounts is being held by the Ministry of Finance's unclaimed property office until the owner or an heir is found and the money can be returned.

Credit unions must turn over inactive deposits of more than $100 to the B.C. government when no transaction has occurred for 10 years. The Vancity accounts range from $100 to $15,000. Vancity notified owners of their accounts by mail before handing over the deposits to the province.

The province holds more than $39 million under the Unclaimed Property Act, of which $1.2 million sits in 2,400 inactive B.C. credit union accounts. British Columbians can do a name search of the database at http://www.gov.bc.ca/fin/ online.

Unclaimed property held by government includes:

• Intestate estates (death without a will and next of kin cannot be located), or money held in trust for an infant who can not be located for 10 years after reaching 19 years of age.
• Payments into court that have not been disbursed.
• Undistributed assets of a liquidated company, credit union or trust company.
• Inactive deposit accounts held by credit unions in B.C.
• Debt collections (Debt Collection Act).
• Real estate deposits (Real Estate Act).
• Wages (Employment Standards Act).
• Surplus tax sales (Municipal Act).

Unclaimed property is held until the heirs are located. There are no time limitations or fees for searching the database or making a claim. However, claimants may incur expenses to prove their entitlement. Owners of the unclaimed accounts can call Enquiry BC at 1-800-663-7867 or (604) 660-2421 and ask to be transferred to the unclaimed property office at (250) 356-0007. E-mail inquiries may be sent toUnclaimedMoney@gems2.gov.bc.ca

To prevent fraudulent claims, all potential property owners must provide proof of account ownership to claim their money.