West Virginia Code 36-8-25 – Records of abandoned property
Records of abandoned property kept by the administrator are available for inspection and copying only by an owner of such property as to the particular property he or she owns, or by his or her personal representative, next of kin, attorney at law, or such person entitled to inherit from the owner conducting a legal audit thereof. These records are exempt from the provisions of the West Virginia Freedom of Information Act, Chapter 29B of this code: Provided, That nothing in this section prevents the administrator from disclosing the monetary value of an unclaimed property or the general nature or type of said property to any person that the administrator reasonably believes to be the apparent owner of said property or a person entitled to claim the property on the apparent owner’s behalf.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 36-8-25
- Administrator: means the State Treasurer. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
- Apparent owner: means a person whose name appears on the records of a holder as the person entitled to property held, issued, or owing by the holder. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
- Freedom of Information Act: A federal law that mandates that all the records created and kept by federal agencies in the executive branch of government must be open for public inspection and copying. The only exceptions are those records that fall into one of nine exempted categories listed in the statute. Source: OCC
- Owner: means a person who has a legal or equitable interest in property subject to this article or the person's legal representative. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
- Person: means an individual, business association, financial organization, estate, trust, government, governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1
- Property: means tangible personal property described in section three of this article or a fixed and certain interest in intangible personal property that is held, issued, or owed in the course of a holder's business, or by a government, governmental subdivision, agency or instrumentality, and all income or increments therefrom. See West Virginia Code 36-8-1