Hi Emma,
We had a couple of properties similar to your property 2 in our sales over the last few years. In our cases, the old owners or relatives were unlikely to surface.
We put a special condition in the contract to make it clear that the purchaser was only buying the land/fixed improvements, and not any other possessions that may be located there. We also had the auctioneer make a similar statement on auction day. No other action was taken, essentially leaving it the old & new owner to sort out if an issue arose.
Cheers
Ian
