Your father lived in Surrey, owned a stone house near Sarlat, and kept a French bank account for the bills. After the funeral you, named as executor in his English will, write to the French notaire, the public officer who alone can settle a succession involving French land, and to the bank, enclosing the sealed English Grant of Probate, the court document that proves in England and Wales who may administer the estate. The replies stop you cold. The bank says the funds stay frozen until a French paper is produced. The notaire asks for a registered will, civil-status documents, and possibly a European Certificate of Succession, which is the certificat successoral européen, the EU-wide document that proves who inherits and with what powers. Nothing in the English grant, however official it looks, transfers a French house or forces a French bank to pay, and since Brexit there is no shortcut around that wall. British families discover this at the worst possible moment, with insurance and tax deadlines running while the file sits still.

This guide explains the crossing in order. It is written for the person, the executor or heir, not for the purchase of the house, which belongs to our property pages, and not for the inheritance tax bill, which our companion guide on who taxes the French property under the 1963 treaty and what the notaire must file within six or twelve months already covers, and for the choice of English law in the will itself, which our pillar guide on choosing English law for a French house and keeping children protected already covers. Here the question is procedure after death: why the English papers alone change nothing in France, which document unlocks the bank and the land register, which court can decide if someone contests, what the English executor can and cannot do on French soil, what the surviving spouse and the children each receive, and how to challenge a refusal by a bank, a notaire or a court. Every decisive statement below rests on a quoted statute or a linked court decision, and every French term is explained where it first appears.

I. Why will the French notaire and the bank not act on the English Grant of Probate alone?

A. Can the French bank keep the money until the English will is registered and the European Certificate is produced?

Short answer: in most cases, yes, and the Court of Cassation, which is the Cour de cassation, the supreme court for civil matters that quashes incorrect applications of the law, has approved exactly that sequence. The starting point is a French peculiarity that surprises every English executor. Wills made abroad cannot be enforced against assets in France until they are registered with the French tax administration, a step called enregistrement. Article 1000 of the Civil Code, which is the Code civil, the statute that governs wills, gifts and successions, provides that “Les testaments faits en pays étranger ne pourront être exécutés sur les biens situés en France qu’après avoir été enregistrés au bureau du domicile du testateur, s’il en a conservé un, sinon au bureau de son dernier domicile connu en France ; et, dans le cas où le testament contiendrait des dispositions d’immeubles qui y seraient situés, il devra être, en outre, enregistré au bureau de la situation de ces immeubles, sans qu’il puisse être exigé un double droit.” (Civil Code, art. 1000). The tax mirror of that rule sits in Article 655 of the General Tax Code, which is the Code général des impôts, the statute that collects most tax procedure: “Les testaments faits en pays étrangers ne peuvent être exécutés sur les biens situés en France, qu’après avoir été enregistrés au service des impôts du domicile du testateur, s’il en a conservé un, sinon à celui de son dernier domicile connu en France ; et dans le cas où le testament contient des dispositions d’immeubles qui y sont situés, il doit être, en outre, enregistré au service des impôts de la situation de ces immeubles, sans que les pénalités prévues aux articles 1727 et suivants soient applicables.” (General Tax Code, art. 655). Registration gives the will a certain date, the date certaine, the officially fixed date that protects it against later dispute, and it costs a fixed duty rather than a proportion of the estate.

An heir holding a European Certificate of Succession tried to argue that this old formality had died with the EU Succession Regulation, which is Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of 4 July 2012, the European text that organises jurisdiction, applicable law and the European Certificate in cross-border successions. He produced an uncontested Certificate to BNP Paribas and demanded the funds; the bank refused until the foreign will was registered. The Court of Cassation sided with the bank. It held that “La cour d’appel a justement retenu que, conformément au considérant 71 du règlement UE n° 650/2012 du 4 juillet 2012, le certificat successoral européen avait une efficacité probatoire mais ne constituait pas un titre exécutoire, de sorte que, s’il attestait de la qualité et des droits d’héritier, il n’épuisait pas nécessairement les formalités à mettre en oeuvre pour obtenir l’exécution de ces droits.” (Cass., 1st Civil Chamber, 13 April 2022, No. 20-23.530). In plain English: the Certificate proves who inherits but it is not an enforcement order, so it does not sweep away the remaining steps needed to obtain payment. The court then approved the registration demand, finding that the judges had “retenu à bon droit que les dispositions des articles 1000 du code civil et 655 du code général des impôts prévoyant l’enregistrement des testaments faits en pays étrangers, constituaient une formalité fiscale dès lors que celle-ci relevait de l’administration fiscale et donnait lieu au paiement d’un droit fixe de 125 euros” (Cass., 1st Civil Chamber, 13 April 2022, No. 20-23.530). Registration is a fiscal step handled by the tax office for a fixed 125-euro duty, and the demand “ne portait pas atteinte au principe d’application directe du règlement ni ne le privait de son effet utile” (Cass., 1st Civil Chamber, 13 April 2022, No. 20-23.530). It neither denied the direct effect of the Regulation nor robbed the Certificate of its useful effect.

For the British executor this settles the order of battle. The Grant of Probate obtained in England, through the procedure described on the official UK page for applying for probate in England and Wales, proves authority in the UK and persuades no French bank on its own, because French law proves heirship, which is the qualité d’héritier, the legal status of being an heir, by its own means: “La preuve de la qualité d’héritier s’établit par tous moyens. Il n’est pas dérogé aux dispositions ni aux usages concernant la délivrance de certificats de propriété ou d’hérédité par des autorités judiciaires ou administratives.” (Civil Code, art. 730). In practice the bank waits for two things: the registered English will, and either the French deed of notoriety, which is the acte de notoriété, the notarial deed that lists the heirs, or the European Certificate. The Certificate itself is designed exactly for your position, because the Code of Civil Procedure opens the application to every heir, legatee, testamentary executor and estate administrator through a French notaire, and once issued the Certificate proves heirship across Member States with the probative effect the Court of Cassation upheld in the BNP Paribas ruling quoted above. Presumed accurate is powerful but not everything: as that ruling shows, a bank that demands the 125-euro registration commits no fault, while a bank that pays out on a valid Certificate to the person it names is protected. So the practical file for the bank is a triple lock: sealed English grant with sworn translation, which is the traduction assermentée, the translation by an officially sworn translator that French offices require; proof of registration of the will; and the Certificate or the French notarial deed. Send all three together, by registered letter, and keep the receipts, because any later claim for late-payment interest turns on the date the bank held a complete file.

B. Which French court can decide the succession when the deceased lived outside the European Union?

Many British deaths sit in this configuration: the deceased lived in England, or in Morocco, Switzerland or elsewhere outside the EU, but owned a house or accounts in France. Before arguing about shares, the family must know which country’s courts can rule at all, a question called international jurisdiction, which is the compétence internationale, the power of a country’s courts to hear a cross-border case. The Succession Regulation answers it in Article 10, and the Court of Cassation restated the rule word for word in May 2026: “Selon ce texte, lorsque la résidence habituelle du défunt au moment du décès n’est pas située dans un État membre, les juridictions de l’État membre dans lequel sont situés des biens successoraux sont néanmoins compétentes pour statuer sur l’ensemble de la succession dans la mesure où le défunt possédait la nationalité de cet État membre au moment du décès.” (Cass., 1st Civil Chamber, 20 May 2026, No. 23-20.436). Where the deceased’s habitual residence, which is the résidence habituelle, the place of real and stable everyday life, lay outside the EU, the courts of the member state where estate assets lie can still rule on the whole succession if the deceased held that state’s nationality at death. A French national who retired to Marrakesh but kept a flat in Paris can therefore have the entire succession heard in France, not merely the French flat in isolation.

Two refinements from that same ruling matter enormously for British families. First, the jurisdiction is compulsory, not discretionary: “La Cour de justice de l’Union européenne a dit pour droit que la compétence prévue par ce texte a un caractère obligatoire (CJUE, arrêt du 7 avril 2022, VA et ZA, C-645/20, point 29) et que, pour son application, le lieu de situation des biens successoraux s’apprécie au moment du décès (voir, en ce sens, CJUE, arrêt du 7 novembre 2024, Hantoch, C-291/23).” (Cass., 1st Civil Chamber, 20 May 2026, No. 23-20.436). The court of the place of the assets cannot decline as if this were a favour; and the assets are located at the date of death, so a sale completed after death does not retrospectively remove jurisdiction. Second, clever paperwork cannot erase the assets to defeat jurisdiction. In that case a 1988 deed purported to transfer all of the deceased’s property to the surviving husband one hour before death, and the appeal court concluded she owned nothing anywhere at death. The Court of Cassation quashed that reasoning, holding that the retroactive gift, made to take effect on death, could not be treated, for jurisdiction purposes, as if she already owned nothing when she died. An English will that leaves everything to the survivor changes who receives, never whether the French court can hear the dispute about the French house. A 2020 ruling had already treated these subsidiary-jurisdiction provisions as a matter of public policy, which is the ordre public, the core rules the judge must apply on his own motion even if nobody pleads them, by referring the interpretation question to the Court of Justice of the European Union (Cass., 1st Civil Chamber, 18 November 2020, No. 19-15.438, reference to the CJEU).

What does this mean for a British passport holder? The deceased’s British nationality alone does not open Article 10 jurisdiction in France, because the text requires the nationality of the state whose courts are asked to rule. But the French house itself still anchors French proceedings in three everyday ways. The land register, which is the publicité foncière, the registration system that alone makes a change of ownership enforceable against third parties, answers only to French deeds drawn by a French notaire. Any heir who wants to sell, mortgage or share the house needs the French succession settled, whatever London decided. Any dispute about the forced share of the children against French land is heard where the land lies. And where the deceased chose French law in the will, or lived habitually in France, the general jurisdiction of Article 4 of the Regulation points to France directly, a full discussion of which belongs to our pillar guide on the choice of English law and the protection of children. The practical lesson is to file early in the right place: a summons for judicial partition, which is the partage judiciaire, the court-ordered division of the estate, lodged before the wrong court wastes a year, while a declaration of jurisdiction missed by the opponent becomes final. If a French appeal court wrongly declines jurisdiction over a succession with French assets, the remedy is an appeal to the Court of Cassation, which is the pourvoi en cassation, the final review limited to errors of law, within two months of service of the appeal judgment, because that review alone can quash the refusal and send the case back.

II. How do you get the English executor recognised and the French house transferred after Brexit?

A. Will a will written in English work before a French notaire, and what can the executor actually do?

The English will is not the problem many notaires first suggest. An international will, which is the testament international, the uniform form created by the Washington Convention of 26 October 1973 that France applies, may be written in any language, and the testator’s imperfect French does not invalidate it where the formalities were respected. The Assembly Plenary, which is the Assemblée plénière, the most solemn formation of the Court of Cassation that settles disputed interpretations, ruled in January 2025 that “Selon le premier de ces textes, le testament international peut être écrit en une langue quelconque, à la main ou par un autre procédé.” (Cass., Plenary Assembly, 17 January 2025, No. 23-18.823), and that “Aux termes du deuxième, le testateur déclare en présence de deux témoins et d’une personne habilitée à instrumenter à cet effet que le document est son testament et qu’il en connaît le contenu.” (Cass., Plenary Assembly, 17 January 2025, No. 23-18.823). The testator declares before two witnesses and the authorised officer that the paper is his will and that he knows its contents; an interpreter may assist under the conditions of the law that governs the witnesses and interpreters. A will drafted in English, signed before a notary with two witnesses and an interpreter where needed, therefore survives the language objection, provided the attestation certificate required by the Convention is attached and the whole is registered under Article 1000 as Part I explained. The notaire who rejects an English-language will out of hand should be asked to state the precise formal defect in writing, because language alone is none.

The harder shock is the status of the executor himself. English law imagines the executor taking the estate, paying debts, then distributing. French law gives him a smaller, supervised role. Article 1025 of the Civil Code states that “Le testateur peut nommer un ou plusieurs exécuteurs testamentaires jouissant de la pleine capacité civile pour veiller ou procéder à l’exécution de ses volontés.” (Civil Code, art. 1025). He supervises or carries out the wishes; he does not become owner, and his powers end with the mission. An English executor who flies to France expecting to collect the rent, empty the account and sign the sale deed will be told, correctly, that only the heirs own, that the sale needs their consent and the notaire’s deed, and that the executor’s signature alone transfers nothing at the land register. Where testators want the executor to hold real management powers, the will must grant them expressly within what the applicable succession law allows, including the power to sell, and the French notaire will then verify that power against the law governing the succession rather than against English habit.

The document that bridges the two systems is the European Certificate of Succession applied for in France. Article 1381-1 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which is the Code de procédure civile, the statute that organises court and notarial procedure, provides that “Le certificat successoral européen prévu par le chapitre VI du règlement (UE) n° 650/2012 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 4 juillet 2012 relatif à la compétence, la loi applicable, la reconnaissance et l’exécution des décisions, et l’acceptation et l’exécution des actes authentiques en matière de successions et à la création d’un certificat successoral européen est délivré à la demande de tout héritier, légataire, exécuteur testamentaire ou administrateur de la succession par un notaire conformément à la procédure définie par les articles 65 à 67 de ce règlement.” (Code of Civil Procedure, art. 1381-1). Any heir, legatee, testamentary executor or administrator may ask a French notaire to issue it under Articles 65 to 67 of the Regulation, and the official public-service guide to settling a succession in France describes each step from the option between acceptance and renunciation to division among the heirs. Concretely the executor should lodge one organised application with the notaire holding the French file: the death certificate with sworn translation, the English will with its probate seal and sworn translation, proof of registration under Articles 1000 and 655, the family record showing spouse and children, and a statement of the assets. The notaire verifies heirship under the applicable law, issues the Certificate, and draws the deed of notoriety in parallel. Certified copies of the Certificate, which remain valid for six months each, then go to the bank, the insurer and the land-register office. Where a notaire refuses to issue the Certificate, demand the written reasons: a refusal based only on the English nationality of the will or the English appointment of the executor contradicts Article 1381-1 on its face and can be challenged before the court, while a refusal based on a genuine dispute about who inherits must be resolved by the succession court first, which is why Part II.B matters.

B. What do the surviving husband or wife and the children each receive, and how do you challenge a blocked succession?

Once the file moves, the substance surprises the second English expectation: in France children cannot simply be left out of a French-law succession. The forced share, which is the réserve héréditaire, the portion of the estate the law guarantees to certain heirs clear of all charges, is defined by Article 912 of the Civil Code: “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.” (Civil Code, art. 912). Only the disposable portion, which is the quotité disponible, the share the deceased could give to anyone, can pass to other beneficiaries. Whether that forced share bites depends on the law governing the succession: English law chosen validly in the will carries no forced share, while French law, or English law that the French court sets aside in an exceptional case, protects the children. That choice-of-law fight is the heart of our pillar guide on choosing English law for a French house, and the executor should never assume the English will disposes of the French house exactly as written until the notaire confirms the applicable law in the file.

The surviving spouse holds distinct rights that English families often underestimate in both directions. Where French law governs and the deceased leaves children, Article 757 of the Civil Code provides that “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.” (Civil Code, art. 757). The surviving husband or wife, which is the conjoint survivant, chooses between the life interest, which is the usufruit, the right to use the property and take its income for life, over all existing assets, or outright ownership, which is the pleine propriété, the full ownership that can be sold or given away, of one quarter. That choice is exercised formally, generally within the succession operations, and it shapes everything: the spouse who takes the life interest over the Dordogne house can live there for life while the children hold the bare ownership, which is the nue-propriété, the ownership without present use that becomes full on the death of the life tenant. Gifts that exceed the disposable portion are not void outright but reducible: the injured reserved heir brings the action for reduction, which is the action en réduction, the claim that claws back excessive gifts to restore the forced share, against the excessive gift in the order the Code prescribes. An English will that leaves the French house entirely to the second spouse, disinheriting children of a first marriage, is therefore not self-executing under French law: the children can demand reduction, and the notaire cannot close the file while that claim hangs over the land.

When the succession stalls, French law offers three calibrated remedies, and choosing the wrong one wastes months. First, the bank that keeps funds after receiving the registered will plus the Certificate or the deed of notoriety answers for faulty refusal: put it on formal notice, which is the mise en demeure, the registered letter demanding performance within a stated time, then sue its liability before the judicial court, which is the tribunal judiciaire, the general first-level civil court, claiming release plus interest for delay. The BNP Paribas precedent cuts both ways here: the bank that demanded registration acted lawfully, so complete the registration before crying fault, but the bank that invents further papers after a complete file has no shield. Second, the heir blocked by co-heirs who refuse to sign or to produce documents petitions the court to appoint a succession agent, which is the mandataire successoral, the court-appointed manager who administers a deadlocked estate, or to order judicial partition with a notary appointed to draw the division and the court settling disputes. Third, the party faced with a court that wrongly declines jurisdiction or a notaire who misapplies the Regulation appeals within the proper channel: appeal, which is the appel, the rehearing before the court of appeal within one month of service of a first judgment, against first rulings, and the final review for errors of law within two months against appeal judgments. Throughout, calendar discipline decides cases: the declaration of succession for tax, which is the déclaration de succession, the tax return the heirs owe the administration, runs six months from death where death occurred in France and twelve months where it occurred abroad, with interest and penalties beyond, as our tax guide on the 1963 treaty and the six or twelve-month filing duty details. Organise the file around those clocks: register the will first, obtain the Certificate second, file the tax return third, and litigate the genuine dispute, jurisdiction, applicable law or reduction, with the file otherwise complete, because judges help the diligent and punish the passive.

Conclusion

A British executor is never powerless in France, but power comes from French papers obtained in the right order, never from the English grant alone. Register the English will so it can be enforced against French assets, obtain the European Certificate or the French deed of notoriety so the bank and the land register know to whom they owe performance, and identify early which court can rule and which law governs the shares, because the forced share of the children and the option of the surviving spouse reshape every English plan the moment French law applies. The decisions quoted above draw the map: the Certificate proves but does not enforce, so the 125-euro registration stands; the French courts must hear the succession where their conditions are met, measured at death, and no ante-mortem paper shunt removes that power; a will in English survives the language objection where the Convention formalities were kept. Build the triple lock, bank the deadlines for tax and for appeal, and challenge each refusal at its true weak point, the bank that demands papers beyond a complete file, the notaire who rejects an English will for its language, the court that declines a jurisdiction the Regulation makes compulsory. That is how a locked house and a frozen account become an administered estate.

Need a quick opinion on your case

Our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm to review your English Grant of Probate, your frozen French bank account, your French house file, your European Certificate application or your blocked succession. First telephone consultation: 80 EUR including VAT. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22, or write via our contact page with the date and place of death, the English will and probate, the French assets concerned, and any refusal received from the bank, the notaire or the court.