Heir Search for the Regulation of Property Ownership

Search for the Co-Owner of a Property in Sarajevo

Our client from Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina, let us call him Mr Horvat, had inherited a property of considerable value in the capital and wanted to sell it. His problem: a Ms Anisa Babić had been listed in the land register as a co-owner since the 1950s – without her consent, Mr Horvat could not sell the property. As he had no contact details for Ms Babić and only knew that she had at some point moved to Germany, somewhere in the Baden region, he commissioned our detective agency for Karlsruhe* to conduct a person search – quite a demanding task, as the information available was very limited (neither a date of birth nor a former address nor even a place of residence was known).

No Person in Germany Matching the Known Parameters

The lead researcher of Kurtz Investigations determined several people named “Babić” in connection with various locations in Baden-Württemberg who might have been in contact with the woman in question. However, none of these persons could provide any information, not even those sharing the same surname. All further investigations by our detective for Karlsruhe using the available data indicated that the sought person had never existed in Germany. Nevertheless, he was able to locate a woman who matched almost all the criteria, except for a deviation in the spelling of her surname – recorded in German registers as “Babiz”. Was this merely a clerical error by the German authorities? This woman had been born in the late 1920s in Tuzla, then part of Yugoslavia, appeared in German registers from the 1960s onwards (including with the status “married”) and died in 2001 at an unknown place. While it was not clear where the death had been registered, a probate file existed at the Probate Court/District Court of Karlsruhe.

 

Thus, the person search conducted by our private detective for Karlsruhe was successful. However, as the woman in question could no longer be consulted, it was now up to us to identify the heir or rightful beneficiary in the next investigative step.

Result of the Probate Research: Son as Sole Heir

With the previously obtained file reference of the probate record, a power of attorney from the client including a written justification for the request, and the Bosnian land register extract for the property, an investigator from our private detective agency for Karlsruhe went to the District Court to inspect the file and thereby determine the heir’s identity. After a reasonable waiting time, our detective was called in by a court officer and presented his request. The officer then produced a microfilm containing the will of the deceased Ms Babić. It named her son, born in Germany in 1961, as sole heir – making him the point of contact for our client, Mr Horvat.

 

The probate file also contained an address for the heir in Würzburg. Upon inquiry, however, the court officer informed our detective for Karlsruhe that this address was outdated according to the residents’ register; based on the last re-registration from 2003, the son himself now lived in the fan-shaped city, in a flat he had inherited from his late mother.

Determining the Contact Details of the Heir

A brief telephone directory search even produced a landline number for the heir, but when the investigator called, he was met with the message “no connection under this number”. Consequently, our Karlsruhe detective decided on the spur of the moment to drive to the registered address of the person sought, only a few kilometres away. However, he did not meet him there, as none of the doorbells in the block of flats bore his name. By questioning neighbours, the investigator learned that the heir had moved to the countryside several years ago. The flat apparently still belonged to him but was now rented out to a family who were likely to know the heir’s contact details.

 

Accordingly, the private investigator rang the doorbell of Ms Babić’s former flat, but no one answered. After a reasonable waiting period without the return of the residents or new findings from further questioning, our private detective for Karlsruhe decided, in the interest of cost efficiency, to end the operation for the time being and later attempt to contact the family from the office using a telephone number found online. After several attempts, he succeeded in reaching them, but the tenants were understandably cautious and unwilling to pass on the heir’s data. Instead, they promised to contact him, inform him of our concern, and forward our callback number (+49 711 7153 0028). In coordination with Mr Horvat, the operations management of our detective agency for Karlsruhe decided to wait a week to see whether the heir would get in touch before commissioning a paid address search; after all, the man would likely be very interested in making contact himself, as it is not every day that one learns of an unknown inheritance of property. Accordingly, the expected call came the very next morning, and we were finally able to establish contact between the two heirs of the property in Sarajevo.

Nationwide Land Register Data Research by Kurtz Detective Agency

By the way: given a legitimate interest, Kurtz Detective Agency provides land register information on properties throughout Germany (ownership details, contact data for owners and, where applicable, administrators, plot data, mortgages and land charges, and much more): +49 711 7153 0028.

All names and places have, of course, been altered beyond recognition to protect the client and the subjects of investigation.

 

Kurtz Detective Agency Stuttgart | Germany

Königstraße 80

D-70173 Stuttgart

Tel.: +49 711 7153 0028

E-Mail: kontakt@kurtz-detektei-stuttgart.de

Web: https://www.kurtz-detektei-stuttgart.de/en

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