Club Building Society Account

[Johnblor]

I was the Social Secretary of a club which went out of existance just over 5 years ago.
It has suddenly come to our notice there is a building society account open with a balance of £85.00. I am a signatory but I thought the account had been closed.
The club had a membership of about 70 at the time and I am still in contact with 11 people and 1 of those is a signatory but I think we need to move reasonably fast as he is 89 and 2 signatures are required.
I have spoken to these 11 people and we do not consider it as cost effective to try to contact all the past members. We know at least 9 of them are deceased the treasurer being 1 of them. Another 5 are in nursing homes with dementia or similar. At least 10 have left the area and nobody we know has a forwarding address.
All the 11 people think this money should be donated to a charity and we have all said if anybody comes back wanting their share of the funds we would give it to them out of our own money.
It is not really worth paying for legal advice but would we be committing any offence if we did this?.

John.

[MartinBev58]

Hi John

I do not know the answer to your question but I understand dormant account funds do go to a charity after so many years which the banks run and I think there is some provision for people to get their money back if they turn up.
I think it is about 15 years. This may be your safest option.
I really do not see anybody coming back for their money after this time or the police coming around to arrest all of you.

Martin

[dzug2]

You would not be committing any offence by doing this.

The worst that could happen is that one of the surviving members beyond the 11 you have contacted could turn up demanding his £1.20 odd.

[cassa333]

I think you would do well to donate the money to a charity.

Find one that is improtant to the 11 members you have contact with. I would go with a local dementia one if I were you.

[Johnblor]

Hi Cassa333

Oddly enough we are thinking of a dementia charity.
3 of the members who have now passed away got dementia.
2 of them worked hard for Cancer Research UK and the other one helped the British Heart Foundation.
I went to their funerals and those charities benefited from their funeral collections.
I spoke to their sons / daughters and they said those were the charities the parent wanted their funeral collections to go to and they felt they had to respect their wish.
Unfortunately I think the dementia charities lose out as it is often too late to ask the person who got dementia if they want their funeral fund transfering to a dementia charity.
The minister also said he had seen many funeral funds go to charities not consistent with what the person passed away with.
That said I also went to 2 funerals of a husband and wife about 3 years apart. They both had heart problems and their funeral funds went to Cancer Research UK as that was their favourite charity.
The wife who passed away later could have changed the collection to a heart charity if she wished. She also carried on with her work with Cancer Research UK after her husband passed away.

John

[tonywiltshire]

If you donate this amount from a dormant fund to charity I can think of no legislation, which would cause you any concern, as no one is profiting from the donation except the charity. Do not consider legal advice the cost would probably be more than the amount to be given to charity.