Your mother has died at her home in the Dordogne. You live in Manchester, your brother lives in the house, and the French notaire — the public officer who settles successions in France — tells you that you now own the property together, half each, in a legal state called indivision, joint undivided ownership. You want to sell. Your brother refuses, pays nothing, and has changed the locks. Nothing in the English system of probate prepares you for this moment, because under French law none of the co-owners can be left stranded by the others, yet none of them can simply walk away with the bricks either.
This guide explains, for a British heir after Brexit, how to prove your share and put the blockage formally on record, how to force a partage — the legal division of the estate — through the French court and sell the house at licitation, the court-ordered auction between co-owners, how to keep the house instead by paying the others a balancing sum called a soulte, and how to challenge an unfair valuation or bill. Every decisive rule below is quoted word for word from the statute or decision that states it, with a link to the official text. One preliminary point is settled first in our companion guide on British wills, French houses and the choice of English law after Brexit: which country’s succession law governs the estate. Once that is fixed, the mechanics of leaving the indivision are pure French procedure, and they are the same whether you hold a British passport, a French one, or both.
I. My Sibling Refuses to Sell Our French House: How a British Co-Heir Forces a Partage
A. How do you prove your share and put the blockage on record before going to court
Before any confrontation, you need papers that prove three things: that you are an heir, what fraction you own, and that the other co-owner is genuinely blocking the exit. In France the keystone document is the acte de notoriété, the notarial certificate of heirship drawn up by the notaire after the death. It lists the heirs, their shares, the deceased’s marriages and children, and any will. Ask the notaire handling the succession for a copy as of right; if no notaire has been instructed, instruct one where the property sits, because the land registration office — the service de publicité foncière — will only record your ownership once the notarial certificate of ownership, the attestation notariée de propriété, is published there. Keep the English paperwork alongside: if the deceased left assets in England and Wales, the bank or the Land Registry there will ask for a grant of probate, and the GOV.UK probate guidance explains how to apply for probate as an executor or administrator. The French notaire does not need the grant to settle the French house, but your sibling’s English solicitor may, so run both tracks in parallel rather than in sequence.
With your title established, create a written record of the refusal. French judges attach real weight to a claimant who tried everything before suing, and the summons for a court-ordered partage is inadmissible without it, as explained below. Send a registered letter (lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception) setting out a concrete proposal — sale through a named agent at a stated price, or purchase of your share at a stated figure — with a deadline for reply. Follow it with a formal demand, a mise en demeure, served by a commissaire de justice, the court officer formerly called a huissier de justice, who can also draw up a formal report (constat) recording who occupies the house and in what condition. The official Service-Public fact sheet on succession and indivision, available in English, confirms the roadmap in plain terms: how decisions are made, what rights each heir has, and how indivision ends. Print it, annex it to your file, and work through its checklist with the notaire.
Do not assume that a blocking minority can paralyse everything while you prepare. Where the co-owners holding a sufficient majority agree, day-to-day management can continue without unanimity. Article 815-3 of the Civil Code provides: “Le ou les indivisaires titulaires d’au moins deux tiers des droits indivis peuvent, à cette majorité : 1° Effectuer les actes d’administration relatifs aux biens indivis ; 2° Donner à l’un ou plusieurs des indivisaires ou à un tiers un mandat général d’administration ; 3° Vendre les meubles indivis pour payer les dettes et charges de l’indivision ; 4° Conclure et renouveler les baux autres que ceux portant sur un immeuble à usage agricole, commercial, industriel ou artisanal.” The same article adds the safeguard: “Ils sont tenus d’en informer les autres indivisaires. A défaut, les décisions prises sont inopposables à ces derniers.” In concrete terms, if you and a consenting sister together hold two thirds, you can renew the buildings insurance, mandate an agent for valuations, and have the furniture valued, provided the obstructing brother is properly informed; decisions taken behind his back cannot be held against him. Selling the house itself is never an act of administration, so the two-thirds lever stops at the front door — but it keeps the estate alive and documented while the main battle takes shape.
Where urgency strikes — the roof leaks, the insurance lapses, the occupant refuses all access for the diagnostics required before any sale — the president of the local tribunal judiciaire, the ordinary civil court, can intervene within weeks. Article 815-6 of the Civil Code states: “Le président du tribunal judiciaire peut prescrire ou autoriser toutes les mesures urgentes que requiert l’intérêt commun.” The text continues: “Il peut également soit désigner un indivisaire comme administrateur en l’obligeant s’il y a lieu à donner caution, soit nommer un séquestre.” A court-appointed administrator (administrateur) or receiver (séquestre) can collect rents, pay charges, and organise access for surveyors, with security (caution) where the judge requires it. For a British claimant living in Leeds or Glasgow, this device solves the distance problem: the court’s appointee acts on the spot while you instruct from the United Kingdom.
B. How do you get the court to order the partage and sell the house at licitation
The foundation of everything is a single sentence. Article 815 of the Civil Code declares: “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.” Nobody can be forced to remain in joint ownership, and a division can always be demanded, unless a court judgment or an agreement has suspended it — for example a five-year conventional indivision agreed after the death, or a judge-ordered stay. Check first whether your family signed such an agreement before the notaire; if none exists, the obstructing sibling has no veto, only a right to be paid correctly.
The court route opens in three situations described by Article 840 of the Civil Code: “Ces demandes sont faites en justice : 1° S’agissant du partage, lorsque l’un des indivisaires refuse de consentir au partage amiable, s’il s’élève des contestations sur la manière d’y procéder ou de le terminer ou lorsque le partage amiable n’a pas été autorisé ou approuvé dans l’un des cas mentionnés aux articles 836 et 837”. A refusal to agree to an amicable division, or a dispute about how to carry it out, is therefore exactly the gateway the statute contemplates — your brother’s “no” is not the end of the case, it is the beginning of it. Jurisdiction is exclusive and territorial: Article 841 of the Civil Code provides that “Le tribunal du lieu d’ouverture de la succession est exclusivement compétent pour connaître de l’action en partage et des contestations qui s’élèvent soit à l’occasion du maintien de l’indivision soit au cours des opérations de partage.” The action must be brought before the court of the place where the succession opened — generally the deceased’s last domicile in France — and that court also orders auction sales and rules on guarantees between co-heirs: “Il ordonne les licitations et statue sur les demandes relatives à la garantie des lots entre les copartageants et sur celles en nullité de partage ou en complément de part.” Suing in London, or before the wrong French court, achieves nothing; suing in the right one unlocks the whole toolkit.
The summons itself — the assignation en partage — must do real homework, on pain of being thrown out. Article 1360 of the Code of Civil Procedure warns: “A peine d’irrecevabilité, l’assignation en partage contient un descriptif sommaire du patrimoine à partager et précise les intentions du demandeur quant à la répartition des biens ainsi que les diligences entreprises en vue de parvenir à un partage amiable.” Your solicitor must therefore attach a summary description of the estate, state what division you seek — sale of the house, attribution to you, lots — and list every step taken toward agreement: the registered letters, the mise en demeure, the mediation attempt, the notaire’s draft. This is where the paper trail built in section A pays for itself. The court then typically appoints a notaire to conduct the operations and a supervising judge, the juge commis, with an expert valuation of the house. If the house cannot be conveniently divided — and a single dwelling house almost never can — the court orders its sale by licitation, auction among the co-owners with outsiders admitted where the judge so decides, at a starting price (mise à prix) set on the expert’s report.
Do not let anyone tell you that disagreement alone justifies an auction without further enquiry. The Court of Cassation quashed an appeal decision that had ordered the auction sale of several jointly owned buildings merely because the co-owners disagreed. In Cass. 2nd civil chamber, 5 February 2025, No. 21-15.932, the Court ruled: “Il résulte de ce texte que la licitation des immeubles indivis ne doit être ordonnée que s’ils ne peuvent être facilement partagés en nature.” The lower court had to investigate whether the properties could be conveniently shared out in kind, and its failure to do so deprived the decision of legal basis. The same judgment is useful in a second way for British families: it was the siblings’ bank, holding court-ordered mortgages over their undivided shares, that sued them for division and auction. Creditors are not bystanders. Article 815-17 of the Civil Code confirms: “Les créanciers personnels d’un indivisaire ne peuvent saisir sa part dans les biens indivis, meubles ou immeubles. Ils ont toutefois la faculté de provoquer le partage au nom de leur débiteur ou d’intervenir dans le partage provoqué par lui.” A personal creditor cannot seize an undivided share directly, but it can force the division in its debtor’s place. If your sibling’s debts threaten the house, move first rather than letting the bank set the timetable.
II. Can You Keep the French House Instead of Selling It: Soulte, Attribution Préférentielle and the True Cost
A. How do you keep the house and pay off the others: attribution préférentielle and soulte
Forcing a sale is a right, not a duty. Where the Dordogne house is the family anchor, or the Paris flat is where your children go to school, French law offers a mirror device: you take the property into your lot and compensate the others in money. The compensation is the soulte, the balancing payment that equalises unequal lots. The allocation itself can be secured through attribution préférentielle, preferential allocation, which Article 831-2 of the Civil Code frames as follows: “Le conjoint survivant ou tout héritier copropriétaire peut également demander l’attribution préférentielle : 1° De la propriété ou du droit au bail du local qui lui sert effectivement d’habitation, s’il y avait sa résidence à l’époque du décès, et du mobilier le garnissant, ainsi que du véhicule du défunt dès lors que ce véhicule lui est nécessaire pour les besoins de la vie courante”. The article continues with the professional premises and the rural holding, but for most British families the dwelling-house head is the one that matters: the surviving spouse or any co-owner heir who actually lived there at the death can claim the home, the furniture in it and, where needed for daily life, the deceased’s car. And the surviving spouse enjoys a trump card: Article 831-3 adds that “L’attribution préférentielle visée au 1° de l’article 831-2 est de droit pour le conjoint survivant.” For the husband, wife or civil partner left behind, preferential allocation of the home is a matter of right, not of judicial discretion.
Two boundaries matter enormously in British files. First, outsiders cannot use the device. The Court of Cassation held in Cass. 1st civil chamber, 5 March 2025, No. 22-22.143: “Il résulte de ces textes que, si l’attribution préférentielle peut être demandée, sous les conditions prévues par la loi, dans le partage des indivisions de nature familiale, même d’origine conventionnelle, elle ne peut l’être que par le conjoint, par le partenaire d’un pacte civil de solidarité ou par tout héritier.” Even in a family-origin indivision, preferential allocation can be claimed only by the spouse, the civil partner or an heir. A buyer who has purchased one sibling’s undivided share to speculate on the house cannot then claim the dwelling preferentially; that reading shuts the door on the classic “vulture” manoeuvre. Second, the applicant must genuinely have lived there at the death for the dwelling head — a holiday home visited two weeks a year does not qualify, however deep the sentimental attachment. Frame the request around residence evidence: tax notices, utility bills, school certificates, neighbour statements.
The arithmetic of the soulte is then a matter of accounts, and the accounts are where British files are won or lost. Start with the value of the house at the division date, fixed by the expert, not by an estate agent’s optimism. Deduct or add three families of adjustments. Improvements paid from personal funds count: Article 815-13 of the Civil Code provides that “Lorsqu’un indivisaire a amélioré à ses frais l’état d’un bien indivis, il doit lui en être tenu compte selon l’équité, eu égard à ce dont la valeur du bien se trouve augmentée au temps du partage ou de l’aliénation.” The brother who paid £60,000 for the new roof is credited with the added value at division time, proved by invoices and the expert’s before-and-after assessment. Next, exclusive occupation is charged. Article 815-9 of the Civil Code lays down the principle: “Chaque indivisaire peut user et jouir des biens indivis conformément à leur destination, dans la mesure compatible avec le droit des autres indivisaires et avec l’effet des actes régulièrement passés au cours de l’indivision.” It then adds the price of exclusivity: “L’indivisaire qui use ou jouit privativement de la chose indivise est, sauf convention contraire, redevable d’une indemnité.” The occupant owes an occupation indemnity, the indemnité d’occupation, normally set by reference to the rental value. Take a worked example: house valued at 400,000 euros, two equal heirs, the resident brother having occupied it alone for three years at a rental value of 12,000 euros a year. The indemnity of 36,000 euros is credited to the indivision, so the sister who keeps the house owes a soulte of 200,000 euros minus half the indemnity due to her, adjusted for any improvement credit — precision here routinely moves the final cheque by tens of thousands of euros.
Handle the indemnity with the nuance the Court of Cassation demands. In Cass. 1st civil chamber, 1 June 2023, No. 21-14.924, the Court defined its nature: “Il résulte du premier de ces textes, que l’indemnité due au titre de l’occupation d’un bien indivis a pour objet de réparer le préjudice causé à l’indivision par la perte des fruits et revenus et de se substituer à ces derniers dont elle emprunte le caractère.” The indemnity repairs the loss of rental fruits and stands in their place. In that case the Court quashed an award precisely because there was no shared enjoyment to compensate — the spouses held only the bare ownership while a third party held the usufruit, the life interest conferring use and fruits — so no indemnity was due between them. The lesson for your file: claim the indemnity where a co-owner enjoys the whole house to your exclusion, quantify it with a rental appraisal from the date the exclusive occupation began, and do not claim it where the enjoyment was never legally shared, for example where a surviving parent holds a full usufruit over the property.
B. How much does leaving the indivision cost and how do you challenge the valuation or the bill
Leaving an indivision costs money in three layers: the price of the shares you acquire, the tax and notarial cost of the deed that records the exit, and the cost of the procedure where one was needed. The soulte itself is capital, not a fee: paying your brother 180,000 euros for his half is the purchase of his rights, usually financed by a French mortgage where the keeper lacks liquid funds — arrange the offer of finance before claiming preferential allocation, because a keeper who cannot pay will lose the house at licitation instead. The deed of division drawn up by the notaire, the acte de partage, attracts proportional registration duty plus the notaire’s regulated fees and disbursements; have the notaire produce a detailed projected statement (projet de décompte) before signature, line by line, and compare it with the English-side costs of the grant of probate so the family sees the full picture. Where the house is sold at licitation instead, deduct agents’ fees, the expert’s fees, advertising, and the procedural costs, which the judgment allocates — each route has a true net, and the comparison belongs in writing before anyone commits.
Two protective devices deserve attention before you sign or bid. First, if you plan to sell your undivided share to an outsider rather than to family, the family has a right of first refusal. Article 815-14 of the Civil Code requires that “L’indivisaire qui entend céder, à titre onéreux, à une personne étrangère à l’indivision, tout ou partie de ses droits dans les biens indivis ou dans un ou plusieurs de ces biens est tenu de notifier par acte extrajudiciaire aux autres indivisaires le prix et les conditions de la cession projetée ainsi que les nom, domicile et profession de la personne qui se propose d’acquérir.” Every co-owner can then pre-empt: “Tout indivisaire peut, dans le délai d’un mois qui suit cette notification, faire connaître au cédant, par acte extrajudiciaire, qu’il exerce un droit de préemption aux prix et conditions qui lui ont été notifiés.” Notification must go through a formal extrajudicial act, and the one-month clock is strict — a private email does not trigger it, and a late pre-emption fails. Second, remember the creditors’ lever described above: where a sibling’s personal creditor moves to force the division under Article 815-17, the family can stop the forced sale by paying the creditor or buying out the debtor’s share, since the co-owners may halt the proceedings by discharging the debt. Ask the notaire systematically for a statement of registered mortgages and enforcement entries before choosing the exit route.
Where the succession opened in Paris or the inner suburbs, three practical points reinforce the strategy rather than changing it. First, jurisdiction follows the place of opening, so a mother who died domiciled in the 16th arrondissement sends the whole partage action to the Paris tribunal judiciaire exclusively, however scattered the heirs between London, Edinburgh and Dubai. Second, the Paris court’s docket is heavy: file a complete summons first time, with the estate description, the division proposal and the full record of amicable steps required on pain of inadmissibility, because a defective summons in Paris costs a year, not a month. Third, assemble the Paris-specific file early: the acte de notoriété, the property title and co-ownership regulations where the asset is a flat (règlement de copropriété), the mandatory pre-sale survey reports (diagnostics techniques), the building’s works history, and the rental appraisal supporting the occupation indemnity. Delays in Paris practice almost always come from missing papers, not from missing rights.
Finally, every figure in the operation can be challenged, and the challenge has a forum. Contest the expert’s valuation by producing a reasoned counter-appraisal and asking the supervising judge, the juge commis, to order a second opinion or to fix the starting price differently; contest an inflated improvement credit by demanding invoices, dates and proof of payment from personal funds; contest the occupation indemnity by disputing the start date, the rental reference or the periods of genuine shared use; contest the notaire’s statement by requiring each fee and duty to be sourced to its tariff or statute. Decisions of the supervising judge are notified with avenues of appeal, and appeal time limits in this field are short — diary them the day the decision arrives and instruct appeal counsel immediately rather than negotiating past the deadline. The family that keeps a dated bundle — letters, demands, appraisals, statements, decisions — wins these satellite disputes far more often than the family that argues from memory.
Conclusion
A British co-heir blocked over a French house is never without a remedy, but the remedy rewards method. Prove your share through the notaire’s certificate and the land register, put the refusal on record with registered letters and a formal demand, use the two-thirds majority and the urgent-measures judge to protect the property meanwhile, then force the partage before the court of the place of opening with a summons that states the estate, the proposal and the efforts already made. At the end of that road lies either the auction sale at licitation, ordered only where division in kind is not feasible, or the preferential allocation of the house to the one who lives there, balanced by a soulte corrected for improvements and exclusive occupation. Each succession turns on its own papers — titles, dates, valuations, debts — so measure every step against the documents, challenge every figure through the judge who supervises the operations, and keep the whole file in dated order from the first letter to the final deed.