Your husband or wife has died at home in France. You are British, resident in France since before or after Brexit, and the paperwork now arrives from two countries at once: a French notaire (the public officer who settles estates in France) asks for the will, the bank freezes the joint account, and a letter from England says nothing can move until a grant of probate is issued. Each side seems to wait for the other, and the six-month clock for the French tax declaration is already running.

This guide explains, in order, what actually has to happen. First, which law governs the succession and whether an English will choosing English law is effective for the house in France. Second, who does what between the French notaire and the English probate court, and how the frozen accounts are released. Third, what share the surviving spouse keeps against the children, how the family home is protected, and why the surviving husband or wife normally pays no French succession duty at all. Fourth, how the children are taxed, how the old France-United Kingdom succession treaty prevents double taxation through a little-known form numbered 2740, and how to challenge penalties and excessive assessments instead of paying them.

I. Which law governs the estate and who settles it: the French notaire, the English probate court, or both at once

A. Habitual residence still decides the applicable law after Brexit, and only an express written choice of English law changes the answer

Brexit did not remove the European Succession Regulation from French cases. Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of 4 July 2012 continues to govern every succession opened in France, including the succession of a British national who lived in France. Its connecting factor is simple in principle. Article 21 provides that, unless the deceased validly chose another law, the whole of the succession is governed by the law of the country where the deceased had his or her habitual residence at the time of death. Article 22 allows a choice, known as professio juris, but restricts it to the law of a country whose nationality the deceased possessed, either when making the choice or at death. For a British spouse who lived in Dordogne, Provence or Paris for years, French law therefore applies by default, even to a bank account kept in London, unless the will contains a valid choice of English law. The official text of the Regulation is the starting point for every franco-British file, and it is freely consultable at Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012.

The choice of English law must be express, and French courts enforce that requirement strictly. The Paris Court of Appeal held on 25 June 2025 (general register No 23/09484) that signing a French-law donation deed fifteen years before death did not by itself establish the deceased’s choice of law for the succession. In plain English, scattered clues are not enough. A valid professio juris is normally a clause in the will stating that the testator designates the law of England and Wales to govern the succession as a whole. This is why the first practical step for a surviving spouse is to re-read the English will word by word: a clause choosing English law changes the identity of the heirs, the size of the children’s shares and the administration of the estate, while its absence leaves French law, with its forced heirship share, in charge. Readers who want the full mechanics of that clause will find them in our companion analysis of British wills, French houses and the choice of English law after Brexit.

Habitual residence itself is a question of fact, and it is regularly litigated between the surviving spouse and the children of a first marriage. The leading published decision is the judgment of the First Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation of 18 November 2020, appeal No 19-15.438 (ECLI:FR:CCASS:2020:C100707), consultable at Cass. 1re civ., 18 November 2020, No 19-15.438 on courdecassation.fr. A French national had died in France, leaving a widow living in London and three children from a first union. The children asked a French court to appoint an estate administrator, arguing that “la résidence habituelle de C… X… au jour de son décès était située en France”. The Versailles Court of Appeal disagreed: “après avoir estimé que la résidence habituelle du défunt était située au Royaume-Uni, a dit que, conformément à l’article 4 du règlement, la juridiction française était incompétente pour statuer sur sa succession et désigner un mandataire successoral”. The Court of Cassation then referred the interpretation question to the Court of Justice of the European Union. For a British family the lesson is direct: where the deceased really lived day to day, worked, paid tax, saw the doctor and kept the centre of family life decides both the competent court and the applicable law, and that finding must be proved with documents, not asserted. Keep council tax bills, French tax notices, medical certificates, travel records and utility contracts from the first meeting with the notaire.

When French law governs, the children cannot be disinherited, whatever an English will says. Article 913 of the Civil Code, consultable at Article 913 of the Civil Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, fixes the disposable share: “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.” The balance, called the réserve héréditaire or forced heirship share, belongs to the children as a group. An English will leaving everything to the surviving spouse is therefore partly ineffective against French forced heirship whenever French law applies, and the reduction action belongs to the children. Conversely, when a valid choice of English law governs, testamentary freedom revives and the children take only what the will or the intestacy rules of England and Wales give them. Everything turns on that one clause, which is why the applicable-law question comes before any discussion of money.

B. The notaire opens the French file while England insists on a grant of probate, and the bank accounts stay frozen until heirship is proved

In France the heirs take the estate automatically at death. Article 724 of the Civil Code, at Article 724 of the Civil Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, states: “Les héritiers désignés par la loi sont saisis de plein droit des biens, droits et actions du défunt.” This saisine, immediate vesting by operation of law, surprises British families because no court order is needed in France to become heir. What is needed is proof of the status of heir, and Article 730, at Article 730 of the Civil Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, provides that “La preuve de la qualité d’héritier s’établit par tous moyens.” In practice the notaire draws up an acte de notoriété, a formal deed identifying the heirs on the basis of civil-status documents, the marriage certificate, the will and, where needed, a certified translation of the English grant of probate. Banks, insurers and the land registry rely on that deed to release funds and transfer the house, and without it nothing moves.

The notaire’s file follows a fixed sequence. After the death certificate and the family record book, the notaire searches the French central wills register, collects the English will with a sworn translation where required, establishes the list of heirs, draws up the inventory of assets and debts, publishes the attestation immobilière (the deed recording the change of ownership of French property) at the land publicity service, and prepares the succession declaration for the tax office. The official service-public guide to the steps after the death of a relative, at What to do when a relative dies on service-public.gouv.fr, lists each of these stages and the time limits attached to them. For a British file the notaire will also ask for the English death certificate where death occurred in England, the marriage certificate with apostille, and evidence of the matrimonial property regime, because an English marriage without a contract is not automatically a French community of property, and the regime decides which half of the couple’s assets even falls into the estate.

English assets follow a different logic. A French acte de notoriété does not unlock a bank account in London. English banks, registrars and the Land Registry require a grant of representation, normally a grant of probate where there is a will, issued by the Probate Service after inheritance tax clearance. The government guide at Applying for probate on gov.uk describes the application, and executors should expect to file an inheritance tax account even where no tax is due. The practical order is therefore: instruct the French notaire immediately so the six-month French declaration clock is managed, and in parallel instruct the English solicitor or apply for probate so the English accounts can be collected. Neither officer can do the other’s job, the notaire has no authority over Barclays or Lloyds, and the English executor has no standing before the French land registry without the notaire’s deeds. Families who wait for one side to finish before starting the other lose months and run straight into the late-filing penalties described below.

While the two files run, expect every account in the sole name of the deceased to be frozen, in both countries. Joint accounts continue in principle for the surviving holder, but institutions routinely block online access pending the heirship deed, and life-insurance capital (assurance-vie) follows its own beneficiary-clause track outside the succession, which the notaire verifies separately. A European Certificate of Succession, issued by the French notaire under the same 2012 Regulation, can help prove heirship for assets in other Member States, though it has no effect in England, which never took part in the Regulation. The surviving spouse should therefore budget for several months of frozen liquidity, keep paying the mortgage and the French property taxes from the joint account or personal funds, and keep every receipt, because administration expenses and debts of the deceased reduce the taxable base of the succession.

II. What the surviving spouse keeps and what the tax office can still claim: the survivor’s share, the family home, and how to challenge the bill

A. A quarter in full ownership or the whole estate in usufruct, a year in the home at no cost, and the right to convert the usufruct into a lifetime income

Where the deceased leaves children, French law gives the surviving spouse a personal option that no will can remove. Article 757 of the Civil Code, at Article 757 of the Civil Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, provides: “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, or usufruct, is the right to use the property and take its income, while the children hold the nue-propriété, the bare ownership that becomes full ownership when the usufruct ends. In practice a widow with two children of the marriage chooses between full ownership of one quarter of everything and a life interest over the whole estate. The usufruct option keeps her in the house and preserves the income, the quarter option gives capital she can spend or pass on, and the choice, once exercised in the notaire’s deed, is final. Blended families should note the trap: with even one child from another union, the usufruct-versus-quarter choice narrows, and gifts made during the marriage can already have exhausted part of the spouse’s rights.

The family home enjoys additional protection that operates before any sharing. Article 763 of the Civil Code, at Article 763 of the Civil Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, states: “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.” This one-year occupation is automatic and costs the estate nothing. Beyond that year, the surviving spouse can claim, against the heirs, a life-long right of habitation over the dwelling occupied as the main home at death, together with the furniture, provided the right is claimed within one year of death. Its value is charged against the spouse’s succession rights, with compensation if it exceeds them. A British widow who stays in the Provençal farmhouse or the Paris flat should therefore never let the children press her to leave or to sign a partition before she has taken advice: the statute protects her roof first and divides second.

An elderly usufruct can later become a burden for both generations, and the Code provides the exit. Article 759, at Article 759 of the Civil Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, states: “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.” Either the surviving spouse or any bare-owner child can demand conversion of the usufruct into a rente viagère, a lifetime annuity, calculated on actuarial tables. Children use it to recover full ownership of the house so they can sell or live in it, while the step-parent receives an income for life. Courts set the annuity where the parties disagree, and the conversion ends the permanent co-ownership between the widow and the children, which is often the true source of family litigation. Gifts between spouses (donation au dernier vivant) can enlarge the survivor’s rights up to the maximum disposable share between spouses, but they never reduce the children’s forced shares, and the notaire verifies their arithmetic against Article 913 before any distribution.

The survivor who ran the family business or farmed with the deceased has one more tool. Article 831 of the Civil Code, at Article 831 of the Civil Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, allows the surviving spouse to demand a preferential allotment (attribution préférentielle) of the business on partition, paying the other heirs an equalising payment (soulte) where needed. For the tax side, the decisive point is that the surviving spouse or civil partner pays no French succession duty at all, a total exemption confirmed by the official exemptions guide at Cases of exemption from succession duties on service-public.gouv.fr. The children, by contrast, are taxed after a personal allowance. Article 779 of the General Tax Code, at Article 779 of the General Tax Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, grants that “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”. Above the allowance, the progressive scale of Article 777, at Article 777 of the General Tax Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, runs from 5% on the first slice up to 45% beyond 1,805,677 euros. On the English side, no inheritance tax is normally due where the estate passes to the spouse: the government guide at Inheritance tax on gov.uk confirms that estates below the £325,000 threshold normally pay no tax, and that leaving everything above the threshold to a spouse, civil partner, charity or community amateur sports club normally has the same result. The surviving spouse is therefore the best-protected heir in both systems, and any tax demand addressed to the widow personally on inherited capital deserves immediate challenge.

B. File the French declaration within six months, claim the treaty credit with form 2740, and challenge penalties and double taxation instead of paying twice

The French declaration deadline is short and strict. Article 641 of the General Tax Code, at Article 641 of the General Tax Code on legifrance.gouv.fr, fixes it in these terms: “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 resident who dies in France therefore leaves the heirs six months, not a year, even though English probate routinely takes longer. The declaration must be filed even where no duty is due, for example where the exempt surviving spouse is the sole heir, because the filing proves the exemption and starts limitation periods. Missing the deadline triggers interest of 0.20% per month plus a surcharge starting at 10% from the thirteenth month, exactly as the official declaration guide warns: late filing exposes the heirs to penalties, with late-payment interest of 0.20% per month and a surcharge starting at 10% from the thirteenth month, whether the deadline was six months or one year. Full details are at Declaring a succession on service-public.gouv.fr. Where probate delays make timely filing impossible, the heirs should file an estimated declaration within the deadline and correct it later, and request a payment deferral or instalment plan in writing, rather than file nothing.

Double taxation is then neutralised by a treaty most families have never heard of. France and the United Kingdom concluded a convention for the avoidance of double taxation on death duties which, as the tax administration’s official commentary records, entered into force on 30 June 1964 and applies to the successions of persons who died from 21 June 1963 onwards, commentary consultable at France-United Kingdom succession convention on bofip.impots.gouv.fr. Its architecture follows the classic pattern detailed at Elimination of double taxation under the convention on bofip.impots.gouv.fr: immovable property is taxable where it stands, so the French house is taxed in France and the London flat in the United Kingdom, while other assets follow situs and domicile rules, and each State credits the tax levied by the other on the same property. Concretely, where the deceased was domiciled in France, the heirs obtain the credit of British inheritance tax against French duties by filing special form No 2740 in duplicate, obtained from the non-resident tax office (SIP-NR) in Noisy-le-Grand, as the administration instructs: heirs of a person domiciled in France who want British tax credited against French duties must complete special form No 2740 in duplicate. The form must be lodged with the payment or with a refund claim, one form per country, with the British Inland Revenue certificate attached. Where the deceased was domiciled in Britain, the mirror procedure runs before HM Revenue and Customs on its own claim form. Families who pay both bills in full without claiming the credit simply give away money the treaty reserves to them.

Every assessment can be challenged, and British heirs should use the remedies as routinely as French ones. Against a French notice, the first step is a written administrative claim (réclamation contentieuse) to the tax office that issued it, setting out the legal basis: exempt status of the surviving spouse, correct exercise of the Article 757 option, allowance calculation per heir, or treaty credit omitted from the computation, with the notaire’s deeds, the 2740 certificate and translations attached. Silence for six months equals an implied rejection, opening the appeal to the administrative court within two further months. Typical winning points in franco-British files include duties wrongly demanded from the exempt widow, refusal of the 100,000-euro allowance to a represented grandchild, valuation of the French house above market value at death, usufruct valued on the wrong age scale, and penalties maintained although the heirs filed an estimated declaration on time. For Paris and Île-de-France families, jurisdiction follows practical lines: the notaire of the deceased’s last French home leads the file, the Paris land publicity services record the property deeds, disputes over the partition go to the Paris judicial court, and tax appeals run through the local public-finance office with the administrative court of the place of assessment. Keep the death certificate, the will with translation, the grant of probate, every valuation and every letter from both tax administrations together from day one: in succession litigation the family that proves fastest usually pays least.

Conclusion

A British spouse’s death in France opens two files that must advance together: the French succession led by the notaire under the law of the habitual residence, and the English estate released through probate. The surviving partner keeps powerful statutory rights, the option between a quarter in ownership and a full usufruct, a year in the home at no cost, and a complete exemption from French succession duty, while the children take their forced shares with a 100,000-euro allowance each. The six-month declaration deadline tolerates no waiting for English probate, and the 1964 treaty credit claimed on form 2740 prevents the same assets being taxed twice. Families who identify the applicable law first, file on time even provisionally, and challenge every doubtful assessment preserve both the home and the capital the deceased worked a lifetime to build.