When a British executor is asked to deal with a bank account, shares or other assets in France, the first obstacle is often not the inheritance itself. It is the evidence. A sealed UK Grant of Probate may establish who can administer an estate under the law of England and Wales, yet a French notaire — a French civil-law notary with public functions — may still ask for an apostille, a sworn French translation and documents proving who the heirs are. After Brexit, the file can also contain a will governed by one law, assets governed by another and a family living in several countries.

This distinction matters. An apostille authenticates the origin of a public document; it does not decide who inherits. A Grant of Probate shows the authority of a personal representative; it is not automatically a French acte de notoriété, the notarial deed used to establish prima facie proof of heir status. The practical objective is therefore to build a chain of proof that the French notary can use: death, applicable law, beneficiaries, authority to act, document authenticity and tax deadlines. This guide explains that chain, the documents normally requested from a British executor and the steps to take when a French notary rejects or leaves the file pending.

I. What the French notary must establish before releasing or transferring the estate

A. Why a UK Grant of Probate is evidence of authority, not a French acte de notoriété

The starting point is the opening of the French succession, meaning the legal estate created by the death. Article 720 of the French Civil Code states: « Les successions s’ouvrent par la mort, au dernier domicile du défunt. » In English, the succession opens on death at the deceased’s last domicile. The place of death and the deceased’s nationality are not, by themselves, a complete answer to the applicable law. The notary must identify the last habitual residence, any valid choice of law, the matrimonial property regime, the location of assets and the existence of a will.

French law also distinguishes between the people who inherit and the person who administers the estate. Article 724 provides: « Les héritiers désignés par la loi sont saisis de plein droit des biens, droits et actions du défunt. » The statutory heirs are vested by operation of law in the deceased’s property, rights and legal actions. A UK executor may have authority to collect assets, pay debts and distribute the estate, but that office does not necessarily make the executor an heir. An executor can be a beneficiary, but may also be a professional, a friend or another person with no beneficial entitlement.

That is why a French notary will usually ask two separate questions. First, who is entitled to inherit under the law governing the succession? Secondly, who is authorised to represent the estate, sign documents, receive information and give instructions? The UK Grant of Probate principally answers the second question. It may be highly persuasive on the representative’s authority, but the French notary still has to establish the identity and entitlement of the beneficiaries in a form usable in France.

The French instrument for that purpose is the acte de notoriété. Article 730-1 of the Civil Code says: « La preuve de la qualité d’héritier peut résulter d’un acte de notoriété dressé par un notaire, à la demande d’un ou plusieurs ayants droit. » The same provision requires the deed to refer to the death certificate and to identify the supporting documents produced, including civil-status records and documents concerning testamentary gifts. The official text is available in the French Civil Code, Article 730-1.

In practice, the notary may use a British Grant of Probate, the will and a legal opinion on English or Scots succession law as part of the evidence supporting the French deed. The executor should not assume that sending only the grant will be enough. A useful initial bundle normally contains:

• the official death certificate, with the issuing country and place of death clearly identified;
• the original or officially certified copy of the will, including any codicil and the page showing signatures and witnesses;
• the Grant of Probate or, where appropriate, Letters of Administration, Confirmation or another document issued by the competent UK jurisdiction;
• birth, marriage, civil partnership, divorce and death records needed to show the family relationship between the deceased and each possible heir;
• passports or identity documents, addresses and tax-residence information for the executor and beneficiaries;
• evidence of any renunciation, disclaimer, prior gift, trust, survivorship clause or matrimonial agreement; and
• a schedule of the French assets, including bank accounts, securities, vehicles and any French land or buildings.

The executor should label each document by function. A death certificate proves the death and can support the opening of the succession. A will shows the deceased’s stated intentions, subject to its validity and the applicable law. A Grant of Probate shows that the UK authority has appointed or confirmed a personal representative. A birth or marriage certificate helps prove the family chain. None of those documents, taken in isolation, necessarily proves every legal consequence that the French notary must record.

There is also an important protection for an executor who is still deciding whether the estate should be accepted. Article 730-2 states: « L’affirmation contenue dans l’acte de notoriété n’emporte pas, par elle-même, acceptation de la succession. » The production of an act of notoriety is not, by itself, an acceptance of the inheritance. This is relevant where the estate may contain unknown liabilities, tax debts or litigation. The executor and the beneficiaries should still obtain advice before signing a document that goes beyond identifying the estate or preserving its value.

The evidential effect of the French deed is also specific. Article 730-3 provides: « L’acte de notoriété ainsi établi fait foi jusqu’à preuve contraire. Celui qui s’en prévaut est présumé avoir des droits héréditaires dans la proportion qui s’y trouve indiquée. » Article 730-4 adds that the heirs named in the deed, or their common representative, are regarded by third-party holders of estate assets as having free disposal of those assets in the stated proportions. These are not decorative formalities. A French bank or custodian may rely on the deed when deciding whether to release funds, but it will want the underlying file to be coherent and authentic.

The relevant links are the Civil Code, Article 730-2, the Civil Code, Article 730-3, and the Civil Code, Article 730-4. An executor should use those provisions to understand what the French notary is trying to create, not to argue that the UK grant automatically replaces the French instrument.

B. What Brexit changes about the applicable law and the effect of a British will

Brexit is relevant, but it is easy to describe its effect inaccurately. The United Kingdom was already outside the scope of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on international successions. The regulation was not made applicable to the UK and its exclusion did not begin on the day of Brexit. Brexit can nevertheless change the practical evidence and the relationship between the UK administration and French institutions: a British court document is now a document from a non-EU state, and the UK is not covered by the European Succession Certificate regime in the same way as participating EU states.

The French notary must therefore identify the applicable succession law under the relevant conflict-of-laws rules rather than assume that French law governs everything or that the law of the deceased’s passport governs everything. A person who lived in France may have made a valid choice of the law of their nationality. A person who moved between England, Scotland and France may have a disputed last habitual residence. A marriage contract, a lifetime gift, a trust or a French property-holding structure may change the analysis. The executor should provide the complete chronology of residence, not just the address appearing on the last tax return.

French law also treats French immovable property as a serious connecting factor. Article 3 of the Civil Code provides that French law governs immovables in France, but that short rule is not a substitute for the full analysis of an international succession. It must be read with the applicable European and international instruments and with the rules governing the succession as a whole. The official wording is available in the Civil Code, Article 3.

The position of children and reserved heirs also needs a careful, fact-specific answer. Article 913 of the Civil Code sets out the French reserved portion for children and now contains a limited compensatory mechanism where the deceased or at least one child was an EU national or habitually resident in an EU Member State at the time of death and the foreign law offers no protective mechanism. A British family cannot assume that a British nationality alone activates that mechanism after Brexit. Conversely, the fact that a will is governed by foreign law does not mean that every French court will ignore French public policy.

In Cour de cassation, First Civil Chamber, 27 September 2017, no. 16-17.198, the Court stated: « une loi étrangère désignée par la règle de conflit qui ignore la réserve héréditaire n’est pas en soi contraire à l’ordre public international français et ne peut être écartée que si son application concrète, au cas d’espèce, conduit à une situation incompatible avec les principes du droit français considérés comme essentiels ». The practical lesson is that the executor must not promise a beneficiary a result merely because the estate contains a French asset or a British will. The court looks at the applicable law and the concrete effect on the family.

A broader guide on the interaction between a UK will, French reserved heirs and the notarial process is available at Does a UK Will Work in France After Brexit?. The present article addresses a narrower question: how a UK executor turns the foreign documents into a usable French estate file and what to do when the notary says the documents are not sufficient.

Finally, an executor should separate the question of legal entitlement from the question of tax administration. The French inheritance tax return is the déclaration de succession, meaning the return filed with the French tax administration. Article 641 of the French General Tax Code provides a six-month period from death when the deceased died in metropolitan France and one year in other cases, subject to special rules. The current official text is available on Légifrance, General Tax Code, Article 641. The French tax administration also explains the deadlines and the documents normally involved on impots.gouv.fr. A document dispute with a notary does not automatically suspend a tax deadline.

II. How to make a UK document usable in France and respond to a refusal

A. Apostille, sworn translation and the correct document sequence

An apostille is an authentication certificate under the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961. It confirms the authenticity of the signature, the capacity in which the signatory acted and, where relevant, the identity of the seal or stamp. It does not confirm that the document is true in substance, that the named executor is an heir or that the foreign legal reasoning is correct.

The Court of Cassation expressed that limit in First Civil Chamber, 13 May 2020, no. 19-11.374: « l’apostille dûment remplie atteste la véracité de la signature, la qualité en laquelle le signataire de l’acte a agi ». That case concerned a foreign civil-status document, but the principle is directly useful to an executor. The apostille authenticates the origin of the document; it does not turn a Grant of Probate into a French deed of inheritance.

The Court has also made clear that the absence of an apostille can prevent a foreign public document from producing its intended effect where no treaty exception applies. In First Civil Chamber, 13 June 2019, no. 18-50.055, it held: « les actes publics qui ont été établis sur le territoire d’un Etat contractant et qui doivent être produits sur le territoire d’un autre Etat contractant, doivent être revêtus de l’apostille ». The French and British authorities should still be asked which rule applies to each particular document, because exemptions and document-specific requirements exist.

For a British executor, the safest sequence is usually the following:

1. Ask the French notary for a written list of the documents required, identifying whether the request concerns authenticity, translation, proof of heir status, proof of authority or the content of foreign law.
2. Obtain the correct official copy from the authority that issued the document. A plain scan, an uncertified photocopy or an informal letter from a solicitor may not be treated like a sealed court document.
3. Check the UK Legalisation Office guidance before sending the document. GOV.UK explains that a document may be legalised by an apostille when the relevant signatures, stamps or seals can be checked, and that the recipient should be asked whether a paper apostille or an e-Apostille is acceptable. The official process is described at GOV.UK: Get your document legalised.
4. Have the complete authenticated document translated into French by a traducteur assermenté, meaning a translator authorised or listed for work accepted by French judicial or administrative authorities. The translated bundle should allow the French reader to see the document, its seals, its apostille and its annexes.
5. Send the original or officially certified copy, the apostille and the sworn translation together, with a short index explaining what each item proves.
6. Keep a separate working copy for the UK probate file, the French notary and any tax or bank correspondence. Never send the only original without recording how and when it was delivered.

Do not automatically apostille every page or every translation. French public guidance on the apostille reform explains which official documents require this authentication and why the receiving authority’s requirements matter. A translation presented with the original document should therefore be checked separately: a further authentication issue can arise if the translator’s signature has been certified as a separate public act. The relevant official explanation is available from Service-Public.fr’s apostille guidance.

The documents commonly needing separate treatment are the Grant of Probate, the will, the death certificate, a marriage or birth certificate, a deed of renunciation, a court order and a power of attorney. A French notary may accept some documents without the same formality, ask for a different version or require a legal opinion explaining a UK institution for which French law has no exact equivalent. The executor should not apply one authentication assumption to the whole bundle.

An apostille also does not make a foreign notarial act equivalent to a French authentic instrument. In First Civil Chamber, 14 April 2016, no. 15-18.157, dealing with an Australian notary’s certificate, the Court recorded that the court of appeal had, « après avoir constaté qu’il avait simplement apostillé la procuration à l’effet de constituer hypothèque, reçue du notaire français, en a exactement déduit que cet acte ne revêtait pas les solennités requises en France ». The executor should therefore distinguish three questions: is the signature authentic, is the document legally effective under its home law, and is its form sufficient for the French act the notary must prepare?

For civil-status documents, Article 47 of the Civil Code says that a foreign civil-status act made in the forms used in that country has evidential force unless other material shows that it is irregular, false or factually inaccurate. The text is available at Civil Code, Article 47. That provision is important, but a Grant of Probate is not simply a birth or marriage certificate. The notary may therefore request a different proof of authority and a translation of the foreign legal concepts behind the grant.

A practical document index can be written in English for the executor and in French for the notary. For example:

Document	What it proves	Question to ask before sending
Grant of Probate or equivalent	Appointment or confirmation of the UK personal representative	Does the copy carry the issuing court’s seal, and does the notary want an apostille?
Will and codicils	The deceased’s testamentary instructions	Which law governs validity, interpretation and reserved-heir issues?
Death certificate	Death and the civil identity of the deceased	Is a full certificate required, and is a French translation or authentication requested?
Birth, marriage and status records	The family chain and possible heirs	Are there missing links, previous marriages, adoptions or name changes?
Legal opinion or certificate of customary law	The meaning of a UK legal institution in its home law	Does the notary need an explanation of executor powers, intestacy or the will?
Power of attorney	Authority for a person in France to sign or communicate	Is the form acceptable in France and does it need separate authentication?

The table is not a universal checklist. The correct bundle depends on the deceased’s jurisdiction, the type of asset and whether a beneficiary or creditor contests the file. It is a way to prevent the common mistake of treating an apostille as a substitute for a family tree, a will analysis or a French deed.

B. What to do when the French notary rejects or stalls the file

A refusal should be converted into a precise written issue. Ask the notary to identify the document rejected, the missing formality, the legal reason for the request and the exact replacement required. “The Grant is not accepted” is too vague to correct. “Please provide a sealed copy issued by the Probate Registry, legalised by apostille, followed by a French sworn translation” is a clear procedural request. The same applies to a request for a certificate of customary law: ask whether the notary needs a statement of English law, Scots law or Northern Irish law, and which question the opinion must answer.

There are four different kinds of refusal. The first is a document defect: a missing page, an illegible seal, the wrong version of a death certificate, an apostille attached to a photocopy when the recipient needs the official copy, or a translation that omits the annexes. The remedy is to obtain a corrected document, authenticate it in the proper country and provide a new sworn translation. Do not try to solve a document defect by sending repeated emails with the same scan.

The second is a proof-of-heir problem. The notary may be unable to prepare the French acte de notoriété because the family chain is incomplete, a child’s status is unclear, a prior marriage is undocumented or the will conflicts with an intestacy claim. Article 730-1 specifically requires the deed to refer to the death certificate and the supporting evidence. The executor should prepare a chronological family tree with every name variation and attach the underlying certificates, rather than merely asserting that the Grant has already been issued.

The third is a dispute about the effect of the foreign document. A Grant may be enough to show that the executor can communicate with a bank, but insufficient to transfer ownership of a French asset or to settle a disagreement between beneficiaries. Article 509 of the Code of Civil Procedure states: « Les jugements rendus par les tribunaux étrangers et les actes reçus par les officiers étrangers sont exécutoires sur le territoire de la République de la manière et dans les cas prévus par la loi. » The provision is available at Code of Civil Procedure, Article 509.

Article 509 does not mean that every Grant of Probate must undergo an exequatur. Exequatur is the French procedure by which a foreign judgment or act is given enforceable effect in France. The notary may be using the Grant as evidence of the representative’s appointment rather than asking the French court to enforce a foreign order. If the requested act is intended to compel payment, transfer title, decide a contested right or bind a third party, the recognition question becomes more serious. The executor should ask the notary to state whether the document is wanted as evidence, as a source of foreign-law information or as an instrument to be enforced.

In First Civil Chamber, 29 June 2022, no. 21-13.466, concerning Jersey trust orders and an application for exequatur, the Court repeated: « les jugements rendus par les tribunaux étrangers et les actes reçus par les officiers étrangers sont exécutoires sur le territoire de la République de la manière et dans les cas prévus par la loi ». The same decision stated that the French judge must investigate the content of foreign law with the assistance of the parties where necessary. That is a strong reason to provide a focused English-law or Scots-law opinion instead of leaving the notary to guess what the Grant means.

The fourth problem is a substantive disagreement between beneficiaries. If the issue concerns the validity of the will, the applicable law, a reserved portion, a trust, a lifetime gift or the identity of an heir, a notary cannot simply manufacture agreement by changing the translation. The parties may need a French court application, an English or Scottish probate step, or coordinated proceedings. The executor should preserve estate assets, avoid distributing funds prematurely and obtain advice on jurisdiction and limitation periods.

If the notary or another party claims that an apostille is irregular, the executor should ask for the specific irregularity and the evidence supporting it. In First Civil Chamber, 27 November 2024, no. 23-18.341, the Court applied the adversarial principle where a party had not been given an opportunity to answer an argument about an irregular apostille: « M. [Z] n’avait pas été mis en mesure de répondre au moyen tiré de l’irrégularité de cette apostille ». That does not guarantee that an apostille is valid. It does mean that a decisive procedural objection should not be accepted without an opportunity to respond.

Urgency must also be managed separately from the document dispute. French law allows some acts to preserve an estate without implying an acceptance. Article 784 refers to « Les actes purement conservatoires ou de surveillance et les actes d’administration provisoire ». The official text, including the examples of urgent funeral costs, taxes, rents, estate debts and actions preventing the liabilities from worsening, is available at Civil Code, Article 784. The executor should ask the notary and the bank how urgent payments will be made while the heir-status file is being completed.

Beneficiaries also need to understand the option timetable. Article 771 provides that an heir cannot be forced to choose before four months from the opening of the succession; after that period, certain people may formally call on the heir to choose. The full provision is at Civil Code, Article 771. If an heir renounces, Article 805 states: « L’héritier qui renonce est censé n’avoir jamais été héritier. » That rule can change who must be contacted and can affect the family tree supplied to the notary. It is not safe to treat a missing apostille as a reason to ignore the option timetable.

Where several beneficiaries are already identified but disagree about an asset, the French concept of indivision means co-ownership pending partition. Article 815 states: « Nul ne peut être contraint à demeurer dans l’indivision et le partage peut toujours être provoqué, à moins qu’il n’y ait été sursis par jugement ou convention. » The text is available at Civil Code, Article 815. That does not create an instant sale or payment right, but it explains why a beneficiary may seek a partition route if a French asset remains blocked after the document issue is resolved.

Tax deadlines should be put on the same written timetable. The executor should record the date of death, the place of death, the date on which documents were requested, the date of each submission and the date of every response from the notary and the tax administration. If the death occurred in France, the six-month period under Article 641 of the General Tax Code may arrive before a British apostille is returned. If the death occurred in the UK or another country, the ordinary period may be one year, but special rules can apply to French immovables and other situations. The executor should not wait for a dispute to mature before asking the French tax office how to file, pay, request a provisional treatment or document the difficulty.

A strong escalation letter should contain five attachments or annexes: a one-page chronology; the document index; the exact written refusal; a legal explanation of what each foreign document proves; and a proposed corrective package. It should ask for a response by a reasonable date, identify any asset-preservation emergency and reserve the executor’s position on disputed legal questions. If the notary still refuses to proceed, a French lawyer can assess whether to seek an appointment or replacement, challenge a bank’s refusal, bring an action concerning the heirs or coordinate a recognition application. The appropriate route depends on the asset, the parties and the relief sought.

Conclusion

A UK executor dealing with a French inheritance after Brexit should treat the Grant of Probate as one link in a chain, not as a universal key. The French file must connect the death, the applicable law, the heirs, the executor’s authority, the authenticity of every foreign document and the tax timetable. The usual sequence is to obtain the correct official copy, ask whether an apostille is required, arrange a complete sworn French translation and give the French notary a structured explanation of what the document proves.

If the file is rejected, ask for a written and document-specific reason. Separate an authentication defect from an incomplete family chain, a disagreement about the applicable law and a request for enforceable effect. Keep urgent estate payments and tax deadlines under review. The French Civil Code gives the act of notoriety a defined evidential role, while the case law confirms that an apostille authenticates origin but does not decide the substance of an inheritance. A focused legal opinion and a precise document pack can often turn an apparently impossible cross-border file into a sequence of solvable questions.