Treasurer Stacy Garrity Announces Return of More Than $17,000 in Unclaimed Property to Fayette County
Uniontown, PA - Pennsylvania Treasurer Stacy Garrity and Fayette County Commissioner Vincent A. Vicites announced today that more than $17,000 in unclaimed property has been returned to Fayette County.
“Part of being a fiscal watchdog means looking out for Pennsylvania taxpayers and returning unclaimed property that rightfully belongs to them. Most of the unclaimed property at Treasury belongs to individuals and businesses, but we’re also working to return funds to counties and municipalities. This return to Fayette County is a great example. As long as I serve as Pennsylvania’s Treasurer, I will work with our team to return property to its rightful owners, no matter how long it has been unclaimed – and regardless of whether it’s valued at a few cents or thousands of dollars.”
Pennsylvania State Treasurer, Stacy Garrity
Commissioner Vicites said he’s “excited” about the returns, as any amount of revenue Fayette County receives helps deliver services to citizens.
“Any kind of revenue we could acquire is something we should always seek for the good of the taxpayers. When we found out about the unclaimed property funds, we aggressively sought to get those turned over to the county. They will go into the general fund budget in the line items to the departments the unclaimed property relates to, so that they may be put to good use.”
Fayette County Commissioner, Vincent A. Vicites
The $17,319.00 returned to Fayette County included 77 individual properties ranging in value from $0.10 to $8,111.28. The oldest property dates back to 1994, while the most recent is from 2019. Properties returned include funds from accounts payable, claims payments, and other forms of unclaimed property.
Unclaimed property can include dormant bank accounts, uncashed checks, insurance policies, contents of forgotten safe deposit boxes and more. State law requires businesses to report unclaimed property to Treasury after three years of dormancy. Treasury keeps tangible unclaimed property for about three years before it is auctioned. Auction proceeds are kept in perpetuity for owners to claim. Military decorations and memorabilia are never auctioned.
Treasury is working to return more than $4 billion in unclaimed property to its rightful owners. About one in ten Pennsylvanians is owed unclaimed property, and the average claim is worth about $1,500.
Treasurer Garrity has returned more than $400,000 to 20 local governments since taking office.
To learn more about unclaimed property or to search Treasury’s database, visit patreasury.gov/unclaimed-property.
Media Contacts:
Hannah Miller, Communications Coordinator (Treasury), 717-480-1308 or hmiller@patreasury.gov
Kaylie Moore, Fayette County Community Relations Coordinator, 724-430-1200, ext. 1611 or kmoore@fayettepa.org
