You moved to France for the light, the space and the slower mornings, and you brought your English will with you. In England that will does exactly what it says: it leaves your house to your spouse, it favours one child, it leaves a friend provided for. In France, the same document can fail. The reason is simple and brutal. Once France becomes the country where you habitually live, French conflict rules point your whole succession at French law by default, and French law reserves a fixed share of your estate for your children no matter what your will says. That reserved share is called the réserve héréditaire (forced-heirship share), and only the remainder, the quotité disponible (freely disposable share), is yours to give away.

European law gives you a way out. As a British national living in France, you may elect English law to govern your entire succession in a clause called a professio juris (choice-of-law declaration). Done properly, that election displaces the French forced share. But since late 2021 a safety net for children, the prélèvement compensatoire (compensatory levy), lets a child disinherited under a foreign law take the equivalent from your French assets. This guide explains how the trap works, how to draft an election that holds, what the notaire (the French public officer who settles estates), the bank and the tax office will demand after death, and how your family challenges a claim or defends your choice, with the exact legal texts in support.

I. How French forced heirship limits your English will and why electing English law is the answer

A. What share of your French estate must go to your children

Start with the French default, because it applies to you the moment your habitual residence is in France. Article 912 of the Civil Code defines the mechanism: “La réserve héréditaire est la part des biens et droits successoraux dont la loi assure la dévolution libre de charges à certains héritiers dits réservataires, s’ils sont appelés à la succession et s’ils l’acceptent. La quotité disponible est la part des biens et droits successoraux qui n’est pas réservée par la loi et dont le défunt a pu disposer librement par des libéralités.” In plain English, a slice of everything you leave is locked by statute for certain heirs, called réservataires (protected heirs), and only the rest can be given by gift or will.

The size of the locked slice depends on how many children you leave. Article 913 provides: “Les libéralités, soit par actes entre vifs, soit par testament, ne pourront excéder la moitié des biens du disposant, s’il ne laisse à son décès qu’un enfant ; le tiers, s’il laisse deux enfants ; le quart, s’il en laisse trois ou un plus grand nombre.” With one child, half your estate is reserved and half is free. With two children, two thirds are reserved and one third is free. With three children or more, three quarters are reserved and only one quarter is free. Take a concrete household: a British couple in the Dordogne with a house and savings worth 600,000 euros and two children. If French internal law governs, 400,000 euros must reach the children in some form, and only 200,000 euros can be directed freely, for example to give the surviving spouse more than the statute allows or to favour a disabled child over a wealthy one.

Your spouse is not a réservataire when children survive you, which surprises many British couples who assumed everything passes to the survivor. The surviving husband or wife has statutory options under article 757: “Si l’époux prédécédé laisse des enfants ou descendants, le conjoint survivant recueille, à son choix, l’usufruit de la totalité des biens existants ou la propriété du quart des biens lorsque tous les enfants sont issus des deux époux et la propriété du quart en présence d’un ou plusieurs enfants qui ne sont pas issus des deux époux.” The usufruit (life interest, the right to use the property and take its income) over the whole estate or full ownership of one quarter: that is the whole of the French spouse’s guaranteed menu where there are children. A will that leaves everything outright to the spouse, standard practice in England, exceeds the free share as soon as the family has two children, and the excess is vulnerable. If you die with no will at all, the statute distributes by strict orders of heirs under article 734, children first and everyone else excluded while a nearer order survives: “En l’absence de conjoint successible, les parents sont appelés à succéder ainsi qu’il suit : 1° Les enfants et leurs descendants ; 2° Les père et mère ; les frères et soeurs et les descendants de ces derniers ; 3° Les ascendants autres que les père et mère ; 4° Les collatéraux autres que les frères et soeurs et les descendants de ces derniers. Chacune de ces quatre catégories constitue un ordre d’héritiers qui exclut les suivants.” Our companion guide on dying without a will in France walks through that intestacy ladder for British families: A Briton Has Died in France Without a Will After Brexit: Who Inherits the French House.

England starts from the opposite end. Testamentary freedom is the rule: you may leave your estate to anyone, including nobody in your family. A French-speaking practitioners’ comparison puts it bluntly: under English law a testator may favour a stranger, disadvantage his descendants or cut them out altogether, with no minimum share owed to close relatives. That contrast is precisely why British wills so often collide with the French reserve. French courts have a long record of enforcing the reserve on French land even against wills made under foreign law. In a widely discussed ruling of 4 July 2018, the First Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation, on appeals nos 17-16.515 and 17-16.522, upheld a Paris appeal decision that a Moroccan-homologated will, though granted enforcement in France, could not displace the reserve on French immovables: “la dévolution successorale desdits immeubles devait tenir compte des règles de la réserve héréditaire, laquelle, d’ordre public interne, ne pouvait être écartée par des dispositions testamentaires établies selon la loi du domicile du défunt et régissant son statut personnel.” That case was decided under the old pre-2015 split system, where French land automatically attracted French law, but it shows the courts’ attachment to the reserve and explains why an explicit, valid election of English law under today’s European rules matters so much.

When the reserve bites, the arithmetic is done the same way every time, and a very recent judgment shows the method. A reserved heir asks the court for réduction (reduction of excessive gifts), and article 920 states: “Les libéralités, directes ou indirectes, qui portent atteinte à la réserve d’un ou plusieurs héritiers, sont réductibles à la quotité disponible lors de l’ouverture de la succession.” The court builds a notional pot under article 922: “La réduction se détermine en formant une masse de tous les biens existant au décès du donateur ou testateur.” Lifetime gifts are fictitiously added back, debts deducted, and the reserve is measured against that reconstructed total. On 6 July 2026 the Angers civil court applied exactly this method, reuniting 357,679 euros of lifetime gifts with 171,267.96 euros of assets existing at death: “La masse de calcul à partir de laquelle peuvent être déterminées le montant de la réserve et de la quotité disponible s’élève donc à la somme de 528.946,96 euros (357.679 + 171.267,96).” The sole protected heir then took half of that pot. Where a gift exceeds the free share, article 924 converts the sanction into money: “Lorsque la libéralité excède la quotité disponible, le gratifié, successible ou non successible, doit indemniser les héritiers réservataires à concurrence de la portion excessive de la libéralité, quel que soit cet excédent.” The house is rarely seized and sold; usually the favoured person pays compensation. That is cold comfort if your whole plan was to leave the French house outright to your spouse.

B. How to choose English law in your will while living in France

The European Succession Regulation, Regulation 650/2012, governs cross-border estates for deaths connected with participating states, and France applies it directly. Its default rule is residence, not nationality. Article 21(1) provides: “Unless otherwise provided for in this Regulation, the law applicable to the succession as a whole shall be the law of the State in which the deceased had his habitual residence at the time of death.” If you live year-round in France, that default is French law, covering your French house, your UK assets and everything else as one block. A narrow escape hatch exists where the deceased was plainly closer to another country, since article 21(2) adds that where it is clear from all the circumstances that at death the deceased was manifestly more closely connected with another state, that other state’s law applies. Do not rely on that exception. Courts read manifest closeness strictly, and a settled British household in France, with French tax residence, French healthcare and children at French schools, will not squeeze through it.

The reliable route is the election, the professio juris. Article 22(1) of the Regulation states: “A person may choose as the law to govern his succession as a whole the law of the State whose nationality he possesses at the time of making the choice or at the time of death.” Three points matter enormously for Britons. First, only nationality counts: as a British citizen you may choose English law, or Scots law if you are Scottish, but you cannot choose the law of a country where you merely own a holiday home. Second, the nationality can be assessed at either of two dates, when you sign the clause or when you die, so an election survives a later naturalisation as French. Third, if you hold two nationalities, for example British and Irish, or British and French after naturalisation, you may choose either national law. The election covers the succession as a whole, so one valid clause governs the Dordogne house and the Manchester flat together, which is exactly what prevents the old split where each property attracted a different law.

Form is where elections live or die. Article 22(2) requires that “The choice shall be made expressly in a declaration in the form of a disposition of property upon death or shall be demonstrated by the terms of such a disposition.” An express declaration in a will or codicil is the safe course; an implied choice deduced from scattered references is litigation waiting to happen. Article 22(3) adds that “The substantive validity of the act whereby the choice of law was made shall be governed by the chosen law,” so English law itself decides whether your election was validly consented to, while French form requirements still frame the document the notaire will handle.

In practice, instruct a French notaire alongside your English solicitor and put the clause in both wills. A French holographic will, the testament olographe, is valid only on strict handwritten conditions set by article 970: “Le testament olographe ne sera point valable s’il n’est écrit en entier, daté et signé de la main du testateur : il n’est assujetti à aucune autre forme.” Entirely handwritten, dated and signed, with no witnesses needed and no other formality admitted. If your handwriting is shaky or the clause is long, prefer the public will, the testament authentique, received under article 971: “Le testament par acte public est reçu par deux notaires ou par un notaire assisté de deux témoins.” A workable express clause reads: “I declare that English law shall govern the succession to the whole of my estate pursuant to Article 22 of Regulation 650/2012.” Name the law, cite the Regulation, and state that it covers all of your property worldwide. Coordinate the two wills so neither accidentally revokes the other: English wills routinely contain a blanket revocation sentence that can kill the French will holding your election, and French wills can do the reverse. Ask each drafter to carve the other will out of any revocation clause in writing.

Review the election whenever your connecting factors move. Returning permanently to England makes the election pointless but harmless, since English law would govern anyway. Acquiring French nationality adds a second eligible law without destroying the English election. Divorce, a new child, a sale of the French house or a transfer of property into a family company should each trigger a re-read of both wills, because the election governs the whole succession and a stale will can frustrate it. Couples who bought through a tontine clause or hold through a family property company face extra articulation questions between the election and the ownership structure; our guide on second marriages and the tontine explores that collision: British Second Marriage and Your French House in a Tontine After Brexit. Tell your notaire where the signed originals are kept, in France and in England, and keep a copy with the election clause highlighted. After death, nobody can repair a missing declaration.

II. How your choice works when the estate opens and how to defeat a claim against it

A. What the notaire, the bank and the tax office will ask for

When a British resident dies in France, the French notaire opens the file and establishes who takes what in an acte de notoriété (the formal deed identifying the heirs). Expect the notaire to demand four things before releasing anything: the death certificate with a sworn translation if issued in England, the original wills with their election clauses, proof of your nationality at the date of the will and at death, and evidence of your habitual residence in France, such as tax notices, utility contracts and healthcare registration. If the file includes English assets, the notaire will also want the English grant of probate or a certified copy of the English will, and French banks routinely freeze the deceased’s accounts until those papers land on the right desk. Where a bank or a notaire refuses a UK probate document, our step-by-step guide on that exact refusal applies: French Notaire Refuses Your UK Grant of Probate After Brexit? How to Unlock the French Estate. For the full timetable of first papers, funeral or repatriation choices and tax deadlines, see our first-hours guide: My British Spouse or Parent Has Just Died in France After Brexit.

French inheritance tax, the droits de mutation à titre gratuit (transfer duties on gifts and estates), is then computed beneficiary by beneficiary on what each person actually receives under the applicable law. Each child benefits from a personal allowance before the rate scale bites. Article 779 of the General Tax Code grants “un abattement de 100 000 € sur la part de chacun des ascendants et sur la part de chacun des enfants vivants ou représentés par suite de prédécès ou de renonciation.” Above the allowance, article 777 applies a sliding scale in the direct line from 5 per cent on the first slice to 45 per cent beyond 1,805,677 euros. Two consequences follow for your election. First, electing English law changes who receives what, and therefore who pays tax on what, but it does not move the property out of French tax: French-situated assets of a French resident stay within French transfer duties. Second, lifetime gifts that use up allowances can still be the smart complement to the election, because each parent may give each child up to 100,000 euros free of duty every fifteen years within the allowance system. Families considering a transfer of the French house during their lifetime should read our donation-partage guide first: British Resident in France Gifting Your French House to Your Children After Brexit.

The hardest limit on your election is the compensatory levy introduced for deaths from late 2021. Article 913 now ends with this paragraph: “Lorsque le défunt ou au moins l’un de ses enfants est, au moment du décès, ressortissant d’un Etat membre de l’Union européenne ou y réside habituellement et lorsque la loi étrangère applicable à la succession ne permet aucun mécanisme réservataire protecteur des enfants, chaque enfant ou ses héritiers ou ses ayants cause peuvent effectuer un prélèvement compensatoire sur les biens existants situés en France au jour du décès, de façon à être rétablis dans les droits réservataires que leur octroie la loi française, dans la limite de ceux-ci.” Read it against your situation. You are British, so since Brexit you are not a European Union national, but the condition is alternative: it is enough that you or at least one of your children is a Union national or habitually resident in a Member State when death occurs. A Briton settled in France is habitually resident in a Member State, so the gateway condition is satisfied. English law, which gives children no fixed reserved share, is a foreign applicable law with no child-protecting reserved mechanism, so the second condition is satisfied too. Any child left with less than the French reserved share may then take a compensatory levy, but only from assets existing in France at death and only up to the French reserved entitlement. The official service-public explainer confirms the mechanism and both conditions in its English-language page on disinheriting children. The practical result is a split outcome: your English election fully protects gifts of UK property and money, while your French house remains exposed to a top-up claim by a disappointed child, capped at what French law would have reserved for that child.

B. How to challenge a forced-heirship claim or defend your election

Claims arrive from two directions, and the procedure differs each way. A child who says the French reserve was infringed brings an action en réduction (reduction claim) against the over-favoured gifts. Article 921 reserves that weapon strictly to the protected circle: “La réduction des dispositions entre vifs ne pourra être demandée que par ceux au profit desquels la loi fait la réserve, par leurs héritiers ou ayants cause : les donataires, les légataires, ni les créanciers du défunt ne pourront demander cette réduction, ni en profiter.” A disappointed legatee, a creditor of the estate or a child-in-law cannot launch it. Time is short and double-barred: “Le délai de prescription de l’action en réduction est fixé à cinq ans à compter de l’ouverture de la succession, ou à deux ans à compter du jour où les héritiers ont eu connaissance de l’atteinte portée à leur réserve, sans jamais pouvoir excéder dix ans à compter du décès.” Five years from the death, or two years from learning of the infringement, with an absolute ten-year ceiling. Miss the window and the excessive gift stands. The claimant sues before the tribunal judiciaire (the ordinary civil court) of the place where the estate opened, exhibits lifetime gifts and the will, and asks the court to rebuild the article 922 pot, measure the reserve against it and condemn the favoured person to pay the excess as an indemnity under article 924. Defending means auditing every alleged gift, disputing valuations at the date of death, proving debts that shrink the pot, and checking the claimant’s standing and dates first, because standing and limitation kill more claims than valuation fights ever do.

Defending the English election itself is a different battle, fought on validity and scope. Attack the election and you attack everything built on it, so expect challenges to cluster on four points. First, nationality: produce the British passport or naturalisation certificate covering the date of the clause or the date of death, since article 22 accepts either date. Second, express form: the signed will must contain the declaration in so many words, because an election merely suggested by surrounding papers invites a judge to discard it. Third, coordination: show that no later will revoked the clause, in either country, by exhibiting the full chain of wills and codicils with their revocation paragraphs. Fourth, scope: the Regulation makes the chosen law govern the whole succession, including, as article 23(2)(b) states, the determination of beneficiaries and of succession rights including those of the surviving spouse, so a claimant cannot cherry-pick French spouse-protection rules on top of an English-law estate. Where the election holds, the French article 757 menu for the surviving spouse falls away and the spouse takes whatever the English-governed will gives, which is why spouse-first couples must draft the English will generously rather than relying on French default options. Conversely, a child invoking the compensatory levy must be met point by point: habitual residence or Union nationality at death, absence of any reserved mechanism under English law, French-situated existing assets only, and the cap at the French reserved share. Each element is a potential defence, from contesting the deceased’s habitual residence where the family straddled the Channel, to proving the child already received the equivalent through lifetime gifts or insurance arrangements that count toward the reserved entitlement.

Two household patterns deserve special care. In second families, children of a first marriage often discover the French house passing to a step-parent under an English-law will and reach for the levy; settling early through a family agreement before positions harden usually costs less than a full reduction trial, and our partition guide shows how buyouts between siblings are structured when co-ownership follows: You Have Just Inherited a French House With Your Siblings After Brexit. Where one heir lives in England and another in France, gather English valuations, French valuations and currency evidence at the same time, because the article 922 pot mixes both countries’ assets and exchange-rate dates become fighting ground. Keep every notarial letter, bank statement and valuation instruction from the first week: limitation defences turn on the exact day an heir learned of the infringement, and that day is proved by paper.

Conclusion

Living in France does not condemn your estate to French forced heirship, but freedom must be written down to exist. Without an express election, habitual residence delivers your whole succession to French law and the reserve takes half, two thirds or three quarters for the children depending on their number. With a valid English-law election under article 22, your will governs the estate as a whole, your spouse can take the house outright, and unequal shares between children can stand. The price of that freedom is discipline: an express clause in a properly executed will, coordinated English and French documents, and a clear-eyed view of the compensatory levy that still guards children against the French assets. Draft the clause now, tell the notaire where the originals sleep, and review the arrangement each time the family or the property changes. Your heirs will litigate over ambiguity; give them clarity instead.

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