When your British husband or wife dies owning a house in France, grief comes first and French paperwork comes second, but the paperwork does not wait. The notaire (the French public officer who settles estates) will ask, within weeks, which law governs the succession, what share you take as the surviving spouse, whether you want the usufruit (the lifelong right to use the property and take its income) or full ownership of part of the estate, and whether any tax is due. Brexit changed none of these succession rules directly: the European rules on cross-border estates still apply in France, and a British nationality can still be chosen to govern the whole estate. What Brexit did change is the background — residence rights, tax residence and the practical distance between the two countries — which makes a well-prepared file more important than ever. This guide explains, for a British surviving spouse, which law decides your share of the French house, what happens with or without an English choice of law, how you keep the right to live in the house, why you normally pay no French inheritance tax as a spouse, and how to challenge a notaire or a tax assessment that gets it wrong.
I. Which law decides what the surviving spouse gets from the French house?
The first question the notaire asks is never about the house itself. It is about the law. Since 17 August 2015, one European text answers it for every cross-border death connected with France: Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on jurisdiction, applicable law and the European Certificate of Succession. France applies it; the United Kingdom never opted into it, but that does not matter, because the Regulation designates its applicable law universally — even the law of a non-EU state such as post-Brexit England and Wales. Two articles do almost all the work: Article 21, the default, and Article 22, the choice. Your position as a surviving spouse depends entirely on which of the two governs your late spouse’s estate.
A. My spouse died without choosing English law — what does the French default give me?
Where the deceased made no valid choice of law, Article 21(1) of the Regulation lays down the default rule: apart from the exceptions the Regulation itself provides, the whole succession is governed by the law of the state where the deceased had his or her habitual residence at the time of death. For a British couple living year-round in the Dordogne, that means French law governs everything, including the French house. For a British owner who kept his habitual residence in Kent and merely holidayed in France, the default may instead point to English law — but the French house still passes through a French notaire, French land registration and French tax, so French rules stay in the picture regardless.
Assume French law applies. The surviving spouse — the conjoint survivant, meaning the husband or wife, not an unmarried partner — takes a legal share alongside the children. Article 757 of the Code civil states: “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.” In plain terms, where all the children are yours together, you choose: either the usufruit of everything, or outright ownership (pleine propriété) of one quarter. Where your late spouse leaves a child from an earlier relationship — the classic second-marriage situation — you have no choice: you take one quarter in full ownership, and the children share the rest. That distinction is the single most misunderstood point for British blended families, because English expectations of “everything goes to the spouse” do not exist in French intestacy.
A will or a gift between spouses (donation entre époux, sometimes called donation au dernier vivant) can improve your lot well beyond that legal minimum. Article 1094-1 of the Code civil allows a spouse who leaves children to give the other “soit de la propriété de ce dont il pourrait disposer en faveur d’un étranger, soit d’un quart de ses biens en propriété et des trois autres quarts en usufruit, soit encore de la totalité de ses biens en usufruit seulement” — that is, either the maximum share freely disposable in favour of a stranger, or one quarter outright plus three quarters in usufruit, or the whole estate in usufruit. The same article adds a precious practical tool: “Sauf stipulation contraire du disposant, le conjoint survivant peut cantonner son émolument sur une partie des biens dont il a été disposé en sa faveur.” Cantonnement means you can confine your gift to chosen assets — typically the French house — and leave the rest to the children, which defuses many stepfamily disputes before they start.
Gifts and legacies you already received do not simply pile on top of your legal share. Article 758-6 of the Code civil provides: “Les libéralités reçues du défunt par le conjoint survivant s’imputent sur les droits de celui-ci dans la succession. Lorsque les libéralités ainsi reçues sont inférieures aux droits définis aux articles 757 et 757-1 , le conjoint survivant peut en réclamer le complément, sans jamais recevoir une portion des biens supérieure à la quotité définie à l’article 1094-1 .” The Cour de cassation drew the full consequence in a blended-family case on 12 January 2022 (First Civil Chamber, appeals nos. 19-25.158 and 20-10.091): the Court holds that, on the combined reading of those provisions, the surviving spouse must account for gifts received from the deceased by setting them against his or her share, under the special imputation mechanism of Article 758-6. The same decision adds that the presumption that legacies are exempt from the duty to account, laid down by Article 843 of the Code civil, does not apply to the surviving spouse — so unlike ordinary legatees, you cannot cumulate a legacy of the house with your full Article 757 share; the legacy is set against (s’impute sur) your rights, with only any shortfall claimable as a top-up. The calculation base itself is protected by Article 758-5, which rebuilds a fictional mass of all property existing at death plus gifts made to heirs, so lifetime gifts to children cannot quietly shrink your quarter.
Behind the spouse stand the children, and French law protects them with the réserve héréditaire (the forced share). Article 912 defines it: “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.” The surviving spouse is not a réservataire — only descendants (and, failing them, no ascendants since 2006) are — which is why the spouse’s protection comes from the mechanisms above rather than from the réserve itself. Where English law has been chosen, the children keep one French safety net: the prélèvement compensatoire (compensatory levy) of Article 913. Its second paragraph applies where the deceased or at least one child was, at death, a national of an EU Member State or habitually resident there and the applicable foreign law offers children no forced-share mechanism: “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.” In a Franco-British family that usually means the children can take their French-law shares directly from the French house, whatever the English will says.
B. My spouse elected English law in his or her will — am I left with nothing?
A British national can elect the law of his nationality to govern his whole estate. Article 22(1) of Regulation 650/2012 allows a person to submit his or her succession as a whole to the law of a state whose nationality he or she holds, whether at the time of the choice or at the time of death. Article 22(2) insists on form: the choice must be made expressly, in a declaration taking the form of a disposition of property upon death, or must clearly emerge from the terms of such a disposition. The full Regulation text is published by the EU Publications Office on EUR-Lex. For a British owner this professio juris (declaration choosing the applicable law) normally points to the law of England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland as appropriate. The election must be express — a clear clause in the will — because a vague reference to “my English will” may fail the Article 22(2) test, and the French notaire will then fall back on habitual residence under Article 21.
English succession law starts from testamentary freedom: in principle your spouse could leave the French house to anyone. In practice the surviving spouse is far from defenceless. Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, a surviving husband or wife can ask the English court for reasonable financial provision from the estate where the will fails to provide it, and the court can reorder the estate in the spouse’s favour. The UK government’s guidance on probate and what to do when someone dies is the starting point for the English side of the procedure. But two French correctives survive any election of English law. First, the children’s prélèvement compensatoire described above bites directly into the French house. Second, French courts keep a firm grip on the French assets: even where the deceased lived outside the EU, they can hear the succession case. In its judgment of 21 September 2022 (First Civil Chamber, appeal no. 19-15.438), given after a preliminary reference to the Court of Justice of the European Union, the Cour de cassation recalled the subsidiary jurisdiction of Article 10(1)(a) of the Regulation: where the deceased’s habitual residence at death lay outside the Member States, the courts of the Member State where estate assets are situated may nevertheless rule on the whole succession where the deceased held that State’s nationality. That case concerned a French national living in the United Kingdom whose widow lived in London; the Court held the French courts had wrongly declined jurisdiction and ruled them competent for the whole succession. The mirror reasoning protects British families the other way round: a British deceased’s French house keeps a French judge available, and the notaire cannot simply wave away an English choice of law — nor, conversely, can the family bypass the French formalities.
Practical consequences follow. A UK grant of probate has no direct effect in France; it must be translated by a sworn translator (traducteur assermenté), and the notaire will demand the death certificate with an apostille, the original will, proof of kinship and the title deeds (titre de propriété). Where the estate spans both countries, the European Certificate of Succession (certificat successoral européen) proves heirship in France without re-litigating the English position. And where the election of English law looks defective — signed copy only, ambiguous clause, later codicil revoking it — the challenge runs in France before the tribunal judiciaire (the ordinary civil court), because formal validity and revocation are governed by strict rules the English testator may never have considered.
II. How do I keep the house, pay the right tax and challenge a refusal?
Once the applicable law is settled, two concrete questions dominate every British widow or widower’s file: can I go on living in the house, and what will it cost me in tax? French law answers the first question with unusual generosity and the second with a full exemption for spouses — but both answers come with deadlines and paperwork that punish delay.
A. Can I stay in the house for life, and what is my usufruit worth in practice?
Three layers of protection can keep you in the French home. The first is immediate and automatic. Article 763 of the Code civil gives the surviving spouse who actually occupied the home as the main residence at death: “Si, à l’époque du décès, le conjoint successible occupe effectivement, à titre d’habitation principale, un logement appartenant aux époux ou dépendant totalement de la succession, il a de plein droit, pendant une année, la jouissance gratuite de ce logement, ainsi que du mobilier, compris dans la succession, qui le garnit.” One year, free of charge, by right — classified as a direct effect of the marriage, not even as a succession right, and a matter of public policy. The second layer is lifelong. Article 764 provides: “Sauf volonté contraire du défunt exprimée dans les conditions de l’article 971 , le conjoint successible qui occupait effectivement, à l’époque du décès, à titre d’habitation principale, un logement appartenant aux époux ou dépendant totalement de la succession, a sur ce logement, jusqu’à son décès, un droit d’habitation et un droit d’usage sur le mobilier, compris dans la succession, le garnissant.” Note the exception: a will made in the strict authentic form of Article 971 can deprive you of this lifelong right — one more reason to read the English will with a French eye. The official service-public.fr guide on the spouse’s housing rights and its companion page on inheritance rules where the deceased left children summarise these rights for non-lawyers.
The third layer is a trap for the unwary: you must claim the lifelong right within a year. Article 765-1 states: “Le conjoint dispose d’un an à partir du décès pour manifester sa volonté de bénéficier de ces droits d’habitation et d’usage.” On 2 March 2022 (First Civil Chamber, appeal no. 20-16.674), the Cour de cassation censured a court of appeal that had treated a widow’s mere continued occupation as a tacit claim: the surviving spouse has one year from the death to express the wish to benefit from the lifelong housing right, that expression of will may be tacit, but it can never be inferred from simply staying on in the property. Simply staying put is not enough. Write to the notaire within the year, expressly claiming the Article 764 right, and keep proof of dispatch. British families who spend the first year shuttling between the UK and France are the classic victims of this deadline.
Beyond the walls themselves, the usufruit you take under Article 757 or under a gift between spouses is an economic asset with its own rules. As usufruitier (the holder of the usufruit) you may live in the house or let it and keep the rents; you pay routine maintenance and, in practice, the taxe foncière (the French local property tax on owners); the children, as nus-propriétaires (bare owners), bear major structural repairs. You cannot sell or mortgage the house alone, and neither can they without you. An inventory of furniture and a schedule of condition of the building can be demanded by either side and will save bitter arguments later. Where generations no longer speak to each other, either side can force an exit: Article 759 provides that “Tout usufruit appartenant au conjoint sur les biens du prédécédé, qu’il résulte de la loi, d’un testament ou d’une donation de biens à venir, donne ouverture à une faculté de conversion en rente viagère, à la demande de l’un des héritiers nus-propriétaires ou du conjoint successible lui-même” — the usufruit can be converted into a lifetime annuity (rente viagère) at the request of the children or of the spouse. The Cour de cassation held on 19 November 2014 (First Civil Chamber, appeal no. 13-24.589) that converting the usufruct into a life annuity is a partition operation whose effects run for the future only — conversion works only forward, never rewriting the rents already received. Combined with cantonnement, these tools let a pragmatic family concentrate the spouse on the house, convert the rest into income, and close the file without a partition auction (licitation) that would sell the beloved house to strangers.
B. What tax do I pay as a surviving spouse, and how do I challenge the notaire or the tax bill?
The tax answer is short for the spouse and longer for everyone else. Article 796-0 bis of the Code général des impôts states: “Sont exonérés de droits de mutation par décès le conjoint survivant et le partenaire lié au défunt par un pacte civil de solidarité.” Whatever the house is worth, the surviving husband, wife or civil partner pays no French inheritance tax (droits de succession) on what he or she receives. That exemption has applied since the TEPA reform of 2007 and covers British spouses exactly as French ones.
The children, by contrast, are fully taxable on the French house — even where the deceased lived in Britain. Article 750 ter of the Code général des impôts catches French-situated property in both cases: worldwide assets “lorsque le donateur ou le défunt a son domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 B”, and, crucially, “Les biens meubles et immeubles, que ces derniers soient possédés directement ou indirectement, situés en France” even “lorsque le donateur ou le défunt n’a pas son domicile fiscal en France”. Shares in a property company holding the house are expressly treated as indirect ownership, so holding through a vehicle does not escape the net. Each child then benefits from an allowance (abattement) of 100,000 euros — Article 779: “il est effectué 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” — before the progressive scale of Article 777 applies, running from 5% to 45% in the direct line. Double taxation with the United Kingdom is relieved by the Franco-British convention of 21 June 1963 on death duties, published in France by Decree no. 64-789 of 27 July 1964 and available as a certified text on impots.gouv.fr: tax properly paid in one state is credited against the other state’s claim on the same property. On the British side, where the deceased remained domiciled in the UK, inheritance tax may bite on the worldwide estate including the French house — the UK government’s inheritance tax guidance explains the spouse exemption and the residence nil-rate band — so the file must be computed in both countries together, not France first and Britain as an afterthought.
Deadlines are unforgiving. Article 641 of the Code général des impôts sets the time for filing the succession declaration (déclaration de succession): “Les délais pour l’enregistrement des déclarations que les héritiers, donataires ou légataires ont à souscrire des biens à eux échus ou transmis par décès sont : De six mois, à compter du jour du décès, lorsque celui dont on recueille la succession est décédé en France métropolitaine; D’une année, dans tous les autres cas.” A British spouse whose husband dies in a London hospital therefore has a year, not six months — but interest for late payment and penalties run from day one after the deadline, and the notaire needs months to assemble valuations, translations and the children’s documents. Start the file in the first month.
When something goes wrong, challenge early and in the right forum. If the notaire refuses to apply an English choice of law, misreads the will, or sides openly with the children, instruct a French succession lawyer (avocat) to put the objections in writing and, failing agreement, petition the tribunal judiciaire for directions, for the appointment of an administrator (mandataire successoral), or for a reduction action (action en réduction) where gifts exceed the disposable share. If the dispute concerns the tax assessment (avis de mise en recouvrement), the route is a formal claim (réclamation contentieuse) to the tax office followed, if rejected, by the administrative court (tribunal administratif) — again within strict time limits that run from receipt of each document. Keep every original: the will, the death certificate with apostille, the sworn translations, the title deeds, the house valuation and all correspondence with the notaire. Files are won on paper, and cross-Channel files are lost on missing paper.
Conclusion
A British surviving spouse does not lose the French house on Brexit, and does not lose it on an English will either — but every protection has a procedure attached. Identify the governing law first: habitual residence by default, English nationality by an express Article 22 election. Take your Article 757 share with open eyes, remembering that legacies are set against it and that in a blended family you take one quarter outright. Claim your lifelong right to the home in writing within the year, because staying silent while staying put protects nothing. Pay no tax yourself as an exempt spouse, get the children’s declaration filed within six or twelve months, and use the 1963 treaty credit rather than paying twice. And where the notaire blocks the file or the assessment looks wrong, challenge in the proper court within the proper time rather than letting resentment harden into an expired deadline. The house your spouse chose in France deserves a succession conducted with the same care.
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A telephone consultation within 48 hours with an avocat of the firm, for British surviving spouses dealing with a French house, an English will, or a blocked succession. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write via our contact page. Our office in Paris advises clients across Paris and Île-de-France as well as British families throughout France.
Source: Cour de cassation — Judilibre open-data base and Légifrance, Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on EUR-Lex, service-public.fr, impots.gouv.fr and gov.uk.