Your father moved to the Dordogne five years ago, bought a stone house with a barn, opened a French bank account, registered with the local doctor, and never got round to writing a French will. He held an English will from 2009 that left everything to his late wife, or perhaps he left no will at all. Now the telephone rings in Manchester: he has died in France, the notaire (the French public officer who settles every estate) is asking for papers you do not have, the bank has frozen the account, and one of your siblings lives in the house and refuses to leave. English rules of intestacy do not decide who gets the French house. French intestacy law does, and it follows its own ranking, its own protection for the surviving spouse, and its own paperwork. This guide explains, in plain English with UK spelling, who inherits the French home when a British owner dies without a usable will, what a surviving husband, wife or partner really keeps, how the family unlocks the file, and how to challenge a valuation, a tax bill or a blocked estate.

Three warnings shape everything that follows. First, when a British national lived habitually in France at death and left no valid choice of law, the default rule in France applies the law of the country of habitual residence to the whole succession, including the French house. An old English will that was never updated, or no will at all, therefore leads the French notaire to apply French intestacy rules to the French property. Second, the surviving spouse in France is never left with nothing, but never takes everything when children survive: the exact share depends on whether the children are common to the couple or born of an earlier relationship. Third, a cohabiting partner and, crucially, a civil partner under an English civil partnership that was never converted into a French PACS (pacte civil de solidarité, the French registered partnership) inherits nothing under intestacy. Only marriage gives the automatic intestate share and the protected housing rights described below. Readers who do have a will should compare this intestacy position with the planning route described in our guide to choosing English law for a French house and protecting children, which explains how a valid choice of law changes the outcome.

I. Who inherits the French house when a British owner dies without a will?

A. How French intestacy ranks your spouse, children and parents

Death opens the succession immediately in the eyes of French law. Article 724 of the Civil Code provides: “Les héritiers désignés par la loi sont saisis de plein droit des biens, droits et actions du défunt. Les légataires et donataires universels sont saisis dans les conditions prévues au titre II du présent livre. A leur défaut, la succession est acquise à l’Etat, qui doit se faire envoyer en possession.” In practice, the named heirs own the estate from the day of death even before any paperwork is signed, but they cannot sell the house, close the bank account or change the Land Registry entry until the notaire has established who they are. Where nobody in the legal ranking accepts, the estate passes to the State, which must apply to take possession. That final safety net matters for distant British families who wonder whether an estate with debts and a crumbling cottage can simply be abandoned: yes, by a formal renunciation, and then the State route applies.

The ranking itself is fixed by statute. Article 731 of the Civil Code states: “La succession est dévolue par la loi aux parents et au conjoint successibles du défunt dans les conditions définies ci-après.” Parents here means relatives in the wide sense, and the surviving spouse is part of the legal devolution alongside blood relatives. The order among relatives is then set by article 734 of the Civil Code: “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.” Each category, called an order, shuts out the next. Children therefore exclude the deceased’s parents, brothers and sisters entirely, while grandchildren step into a predeceased child’s shoes by representation and share that child’s portion between them.

For a British family this ranking produces results that surprise English minds. All children are strictly equal: legitimate, adopted and children born outside marriage share alike once filiation is established, and children of an earlier marriage or relationship count exactly as much as children of the current marriage. A son from a first marriage in Leeds takes the same intestate portion of the Dordogne house as a daughter born in Bergerac during the second marriage. Grandchildren only inherit directly if their own parent died before the deceased or renounced; otherwise they wait. Where there are no children and no surviving spouse, the second order applies: father and mother each take a defined share alongside brothers and sisters, and only in their absence do grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins come forward. The official service-public pages on intestate succession summarise the same orders for the general public and confirm that the surviving spouse competes with, but never simply erases, the children’s rights.

Marriage is the gateway to every spousal right in this section. A married husband or wife is a conjoint successible, a spouse with succession rights. A partner in an English civil partnership that was never registered or converted in France, a PACS partner whose partnership ended before death, and a cohabiting partner however long the relationship lasted, are not intestate heirs at all. They keep jointly owned property according to the title deeds and any contract, but they take no intestate share of the deceased’s half and they do not enjoy the one-year occupation without rent or the lifelong right of habitation described below. In a cross-border family where the couple married in England, divorced, remarried, or lived together for twenty years without marrying, the notaire will therefore start by demanding the marriage certificate, any divorce decree absolute with a certified French translation, and the PACS register extract where relevant. A surviving spouse who is still married but judicially separated keeps the intestate vocation; only a final divorce decree or annulment removes it. Families who assumed that a long English cohabitation or a civil partnership would be treated like a marriage in France discover at this point that it is not, and the deceased’s children or parents take the whole estate instead.

A practical example helps. David, domiciled near Sarlat, dies without a will leaving his wife Susan and two children, one from his first marriage. The house is worth 320,000 euros and is his separate property. Susan does not take the house outright. The children together take the bulk in ownership, and Susan takes either a defined ownership share or a right of use over the whole, as the next section explains. If David had left no children but both parents alive, Susan would share with them. If he had left no spouse, no children, no parents and one sister, the sister would take everything, to the exclusion of grandparents. These rigid outcomes are exactly why British owners who want a different result are urged to make an English-law choice in a valid will during their lifetime, as explained in our linked guide above; once death occurs without that step, the ranking cannot be renegotiated by the family, only accepted, renounced within the legal option period, or shared out by agreement.

B. What the surviving spouse really receives: share, usufruct and the right to stay in the home

The surviving spouse’s portion depends on who else survives, and the distinction between common and non-common children is decisive. Article 757 of the Civil Code 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.” An usufruit (usufruct) is the lifelong or long-term right to use a property and take its income without owning its capital; the children hold the nue-propriété (bare ownership) underneath. Where every surviving child is the child of both spouses, the widow or widower chooses between the usufruct of everything and outright ownership of one quarter. Where even one child comes from another relationship, there is no choice: the statute gives outright ownership of one quarter only, and the usufruct option disappears.

The Court of Cassation enforces that boundary strictly. In its judgment of 5 March 2025, First Civil Chamber, appeal number Z 23-11.430, available at Cour de cassation, 5 March 2025, No 23-11.430, the Court states: “Selon ce texte, si l’époux prédécédé laisse un ou plusieurs enfants qui ne sont pas issus des deux époux, le conjoint survivant recueille la propriété du quart des biens existants.” The case concerned a deceased husband survived by a daughter born of an earlier union and a widow who claimed an usufruct; the court of appeal had treated the widow as if she could still opt for the whole usufruct, and the Court of Cassation quashed that reasoning because, with a non-common child, the surviving spouse can only ever take the quarter in ownership. For British second marriages this is the single most misunderstood point: the widow does not get to choose the whole-house usufruct when stepchildren exist, and any inventory or private letter suggesting otherwise has no legal force.

The usufruct itself, when it is available, is wider than families expect. In its opinion of 20 May 2026, First Civil Chamber, appeal number W 25-11.757, published at Cour de cassation, opinion of 20 May 2026, No 25-11.757, the Court explains: “L’article 757 du code civil, en ce qu’il dispose que le droit d’usufruit du conjoint survivant s’exerce sur la totalité des biens existants lors du décès, prévoit que ce droit s’exercera sur l’intégralité des biens du défunt, sans distinguer selon qu’il en avait la pleine propriété ou la nue-propriété.” A surviving spouse who validly opts for the whole usufruct therefore also picks up a second-rank usufruct over property the deceased held only as bare owner, for example a share in a grandmother’s house encumbered by an elder’s life interest, which will take effect when the first usufruct ends. The opinion answers a technical tax question, but its message for families is concrete: opting for the usufruct catches everything the deceased owned in any form, not only the French main home.

Where no children survive, the spouse’s position strengthens but parents retain a slice. Article 757-1 of the Civil Code provides: “Si, à défaut d’enfants ou de descendants, le défunt laisse ses père et mère, le conjoint survivant recueille la moitié des biens. L’autre moitié est dévolue pour un quart au père et pour un quart à la mère. Quand le père ou la mère est prédécédé, la part qui lui serait revenue échoit au conjoint survivant.” With both parents alive, the spouse takes half and each parent one quarter; with one parent alive, the spouse takes three quarters. And article 757-2 of the Civil Code adds: “En l’absence d’enfants ou de descendants du défunt et de ses père et mère, le conjoint survivant recueille toute la succession.” Only at that point does the widow or widower take the French house outright by intestacy. Siblings inherit nothing while a surviving spouse stands alongside parents in the second order, a result that often shocks British brothers and sisters who assumed the family cottage would return to the bloodline.

Alongside the ownership share, the spouse who actually lived in the home enjoys two layered housing protections that operate even before the division is agreed. Article 763 of the Civil Code provides: “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.” For one year the surviving spouse stays without paying rent, with the furniture, and where the home was rented or partly owned in undivided shares the estate refunds rent or occupation payments during that year. These one-year rights are treated as direct effects of the marriage and not as succession rights, and the article is a matter of public policy, so the family cannot contract out of them in advance.

Beyond that first year, the spouse who occupied the home as the main residence holds a lifelong right to live there and use its furniture. Article 764 of the Civil Code states: “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.” Only a will executed in the strict authentic form of article 971 can deprive the spouse of this lifelong shelter, and even such a deprivation leaves intact any usufruct the spouse takes by law or gift. The value of these housing rights is then credited against the spouse’s overall share, with an adjustment payment if they exceed it, and article 766 of the Civil Code allows conversion by agreement: “Le conjoint successible et les héritiers peuvent, par convention, convertir les droits d’habitation et d’usage en une rente viagère ou en capital. S’il est parmi les successibles parties à la convention un mineur ou un majeur protégé, la convention doit être autorisée par le juge des tutelles.” In plain terms, adult children and the surviving stepmother can agree that she receives a lump sum or an annual index-linked payment instead of living in a four-bedroom farmhouse nobody can maintain, provided the guardianship judge approves where a minor heir is involved.

Three consequences follow for British households. First, a surviving wife with two common children will usually be advised to compare the quarter in ownership, which she can sell or leave by her own will, against the whole usufruct, which lets her live in and rent out the French house for life but leaves the capital to the children and complicates any sale. Second, a surviving husband with stepchildren has no such comparison to make: he takes one quarter in ownership plus the one-year and lifelong housing rights if he lived there, and the stepchildren take three quarters between them. Third, lifetime gifts the deceased made to one child, or to a new partner, do not vanish because there is no will; they are brought back into the accounting through the reserved-share mechanism examined in Part II, and children who received less can demand equalisation. The housing rights also explain why a quick sale demanded by children in London cannot lawfully evict a widowed mother still in her first year of occupation without rent, and why any buyer in Paris or the provinces will insist on seeing the spouse’s written position before exchanging on an estate property.

II. How do you unlock, value and challenge the estate after Brexit?

A. Proving you are an heir, paying debts safely and running the joint ownership

Ownership passes at death, but proof unlocks everything. Article 730 of the Civil Code states: “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.” In an international file that latitude as to proof still runs through one central document: the acte de notoriété, the notarial deed that names the heirs. Article 730-1 of the Civil Code provides: “La preuve de la qualité d’héritier peut résulter d’un acte de notoriété dressé par un notaire, à la demande d’un ou plusieurs ayants droit.” The deed must cite the death certificate, list the civil-status papers produced, mention any lifetime gifts or wills that could affect devolution, and carry the signed declaration of the claimants that they are called to inherit alone or with others they name. Banks, insurers and the Land Registry office rely on it daily, and without it the frozen French account stays frozen.

For a British family the paper chase is the critical path. The notaire will ask for the full death certificate, the marriage certificate and any divorce decree, the birth certificates of every child, the English grant of probate or letters of administration where one exists, and certified French translations with an apostille under the Hague Convention where the issuing authority requires it. An English grant alone does not transfer a French house: it is evidence of who administers the English assets, not a French title deed, and the French Land Registry will only publish a French attestation immobilière drawn up by the notaire after the acte de notoriété. Where heirs live in different countries, each signs powers of attorney, identity checks follow anti-money-laundering rules, and one heir’s refusal to produce a birth certificate can stall the whole file. Families should therefore send complete copies, not originals in the post, keep a dated list of everything transmitted, and ask the notaire in writing what is still missing and which authority is said to require it. A European Certificate of Succession, issued in the Member State whose law governs the succession, can help prove heirship across borders, but in a French-house file the French notarial deeds remain the working documents the bank and the registry recognise without discussion.

Debts and taxes must be handled before anyone spends the sale price. Article 768 of the Civil Code states: “L’héritier peut accepter la succession purement et simplement ou y renoncer. Il peut également accepter la succession à concurrence de l’actif net lorsqu’il a une vocation universelle ou à titre universel. Est nulle l’option conditionnelle ou à terme.” The three options are therefore plain acceptance, formal renunciation at the court registry, or acceptance up to the net assets after an inventory, which shields personal savings from the deceased’s debts. The choice cannot be made conditional or time-limited, and an heir who has already taken full possession or sold estate goods may be treated as having accepted. Where a creditor or co-heir issues a formal summons to decide, article 772 of the Civil Code provides: “Dans les deux mois qui suivent la sommation, l’héritier doit prendre parti ou solliciter un délai supplémentaire auprès du juge lorsqu’il n’a pas été en mesure de clôturer l’inventaire commencé ou lorsqu’il justifie d’autres motifs sérieux et légitimes.” The heir who does nothing within those two months, or within the extra period the judge grants, is deemed to have accepted outright. British children who suspect hidden loans, unpaid French income tax, or a large care-home bill should therefore request the inventory route immediately and never sign a bank release or a sale mandate marked as an accepting heir before advice.

Until the house is divided or sold, the heirs own it together in indivision, the French form of joint ownership between heirs. Article 815 of the Civil Code states: “Nul ne peut être contraint à demeurer dans l’indivision et le partage peut toujours être provoqué, à moins qu’il n’y ait été sursis par jugement ou convention.” Any co-owner can force a division at any time unless a court or a signed agreement has suspended that right, typically for no more than five years renewable. Day-to-day management requires the agreement of the holders of at least two thirds of the rights for routine acts, and unanimity for disposals such as a sale, a mortgage or a major letting. The sibling who stays in the house owes an occupation payment to the others unless they agreed otherwise, must contribute to insurance, taxe foncière (the French annual local property tax) and essential repairs in proportion to shares, and cannot change the locks, rewire the proceeds to a personal account, or grant a long lease alone. Where relations are civil, a written convention d’indivision appointing a manager, fixing the occupation payment by reference to local rents, and setting a timetable for valuation and sale prevents most disputes. Where one heir blocks every decision, the answer is not self-help but a court application for a provisional manager or for partition, supported by the valuation evidence and the correspondence showing the deadlock.

B. Contesting the bill, the valuation or a blocked file: remedies and time limits

Even without a will, money given away during life can distort equality, and French law corrects that through the reserved share. Article 912 of the Civil Code provides: “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.” Children are the primary reserved heirs alongside, in some configurations, the surviving spouse. Lifetime gifts are therefore notionally added back to the estate to check whether the reserve was invaded; the heir who received too much must compensate the others by payment, and in some configurations by return of the asset. Article 913 of the Civil Code caps lifetime generosity: “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.” A British father who gave the Dordogne barn conversion to one daughter shortly before death, or who transferred large sums to a new partner, may therefore have exceeded the disposable portion even though he signed no will, and the disadvantaged children can bring an action for reduction within the limitation period. The calculation uses values at death, credits improvements paid for by the donee, and turns on expert valuation rather than on the family’s memory of what the gift was once worth.

Valuation disputes over the French house itself are the second battleground. The notaire proposes a value for the tax return and the division, the tax office can reassess it, and siblings often disagree because one wants to buy out the others cheaply while another wants a high price for an imminent sale. The file is won with dated evidence: two or three local estate-agent appraisals on headed paper with comparable sales, the diagnostic reports, photographs of structural defects or recent renovation invoices, and, where the gap exceeds a few percent, a joint expert valuation or a court-ordered appraisal. A niece in Yorkshire should not accept a figure derived from a single telephone estimate or from a neighbour’s asking price. She should ask in writing which comparables support the figure, over which period, and with what adjustment for condition, aspect and outbuildings, then file her own comparables and request that both sets be annexed to the partition papers. Where the tax office issues a reassessment of the declared value or denies a relief, the remedy runs through a reasoned claim to the tax office followed, if rejected, by an appeal to the administrative court within the statutory time stated on the notice; the notice itself must be kept with its envelope or electronic receipt because the clock runs from notification.

Blocked files follow a recognisable pattern, and each has a lever. If the notaire will not move because heirship is disputed, any interested party can apply to the judicial court for directions, for appointment of a provisional administrator, or for a declaration of heirship on the civil-status evidence, with the English documents proved by sworn translation and apostille. If one co-owner refuses every offer and also refuses to buy, the others can serve a formal demand to divide and then bring partition proceedings; the court can order sale by auction where division in kind is impossible for a single house, and can appoint a valuer meanwhile. If the bank retains funds after receiving the acte de notoriété, the tax clearance and valid instructions from all heirs, a written complaint citing the file reference, followed by referral to the banking mediator and then court proceedings for release with interest, usually breaks the logjam. If the Land Registry rejects publication of the transfer because names differ between the English passport, the French death certificate and the title deed, perhaps after a remarriage or a spelling variation between Susan and Suzanne, a rectifying affidavit with the underlying certificates resolves the mismatch faster than repeated resubmissions.

Time protects the vigilant. The two-month period after a formal summons to decide, described above, punishes passivity with deemed outright acceptance, so heirs should diary it on receipt and seek an extension from the judge before it expires where the inventory is incomplete. Actions to reduce excessive gifts and most partition-related claims run within five years from the facts that reveal them, while tax claims follow the notice’s own deadline, often short. Limitation is interrupted by a writ, not by a telephone call or an email asking the notaire to wait. Practical families therefore keep a single chronology: date of death, date each document was sent and received, date of the summons if any, date of each valuation, and date of each tax notice. They confirm every important step by registered letter or by the notaire’s secure platform, keep proof of posting, and never let a sibling’s promise to “sort the papers next month” consume a deadline that belongs to them. Where Paris or Ile-de-France property is involved, the same rules apply but the timetable is tighter in practice because the registry, the bank’s succession department and the court’s docket all expect complete files; adding the competent court, the property address, the lease or occupation position and the insurance position in the first letter avoids the standard round of requests for missing pieces.

Conclusion

When a British owner dies in France without a usable will, French intestacy decides the French house: children take the capital in equal shares by order, the surviving spouse takes a quarter in ownership, or a quarter or a whole usufruct with common children, plus a year of occupation without rent and a lifelong right to remain in the family home, while an unmarried or civil-partnered companion takes no intestate share at all. Heirship is proved through the French acte de notoriété, debts are contained through the inventory acceptance, the house is managed in joint ownership until division, and lifetime gifts remain accountable against the reserved share. Valuations, tax reassessments and refusals to act are all challengeable, but only with dated comparables, complete civil-status evidence and proceedings brought inside the applicable time limit. Families who understand this ranking, secure the housing rights early, and document every step turn a frozen file into a sale or a shared home; those who rely on English assumptions about spouses, partners and eldest children discover too late that the French order cannot be renegotiated after death.