ABSTRACT
Escheat applies only to real property. If a landowner dies without a valid will or known heir, the property escheats to the state. There is, obviously, a practical reason to treat all these cases real and personal property left by an owner who dies without a will or legal heir as well as personal property that is unclaimed as instances of escheat. In the common-law canons of descent, listing the order in which heirs succeeded to land, the Crown did not appear. Feudal incidents, including escheat from defect of heirs, applied only to land, not to chattels. In the case of escheat of land, the state has title; with respect to bona vacantia, it takes the title. By contrast, unclaimed personal property passes only into the state's 'perpetual custody'. The right acquired by the state is anomalous, sometimes described as 'custodial escheat'.
