When a British citizen dies in France without leaving a will, the family faces two legal systems at once and a clock that starts running on the day of death. The children assume the English family home rules apply. The surviving spouse assumes everything passes to them. The French notaire (the public officer who settles estates in France) then explains that French law decides who inherits the house in the Dordogne, that the children cannot be disinherited even by accident, and that the inheritance tax return must be filed within six months. Meanwhile the bank accounts and property left in England cannot be touched until someone obtains an English grant of representation. This article explains, step by step, what happens when a Briton dies intestate (without a will) in France after Brexit: which law governs the estate, what the surviving spouse and the children each receive, which tax deadlines apply, how heirs prove their rights on both sides of the Channel, and how to challenge a decision that goes wrong.

Two preliminary points matter for every British reader. First, since Brexit the United Kingdom is a third state vis-à-vis the European Union, but the European Succession Regulation still shapes French practice: the French authorities apply its rules to determine which national law governs an international estate, including one connected with Britain. Second, dying without a will never means dying without heirs. French law designates the heirs itself, and as the Civil Code puts it: Les héritiers désignés par la loi sont saisis de plein droit des biens, droits et actions du défunt. (Article 724 of the Civil Code). In plain terms, the heirs designated by statute step automatically into the shoes of the deceased. Where there is property in both countries, the French estate and the English estate are settled in parallel, each under its own procedure. Families who did leave a will choosing English law face a different set of questions, covered in our guide to British wills, French houses and the choice of English law after Brexit; this article deals exclusively with the situation where no will exists at all.

I. Which law decides who inherits when a Briton dies without a will in France

A. Habitual residence, English assets and the notaire’s first checks

The first question the French notaire asks is where the deceased was habitually resident at the date of death, because that connecting factor normally decides which country’s succession law governs the estate as a whole. A British passport does not by itself make English law applicable, and owning a house in France does not by itself make French law applicable to everything: the analysis starts from the centre of the deceased’s life — the family home, the length and regularity of presence in France, professional and social ties — at the moment of death. For a British retiree who lived year-round in France, the answer will usually be French law, which then governs the devolution of the estate including the French house. Where significant assets remain in England, an English procedure will still be needed for those assets, because no French document automatically unlocks an English bank account or transfers English land.

This cross-border dimension regularly produces jurisdiction disputes, and the courts have set clear limits on forum shopping. In a ruling given on 29 May 2019 (pourvoi no 18-13.383), the First Civil Chamber of the Cour de cassation dealt with three siblings litigating over their father’s estate after he died in New York: one of them argued that the deceased had been habitually resident in Paris and therefore a assigné ses frère et soeur (les consorts H…) devant une juridiction française en partage judiciaire de la succession (Cass. 1re civ., 29 May 2019, no 18-13.383). The Paris courts declined jurisdiction, and the Cour de cassation upheld that refusal on the subsidiary ground of Article 10(2) of Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of 4 July 2012, recalling the exact test: lorsque la résidence habituelle du défunt au moment du décès n’est pas située dans un Etat membre et qu’aucune juridiction d’un État membre n’est compétente en vertu du paragraphe 1, les juridictions de l’État membre dans lequel sont situés des biens successoraux sont néanmoins compétentes pour statuer sur ces biens. The lesson for British families is practical rather than theoretical. When the deceased lived outside any Member State, the French courts can still decide the fate of property situated in France, but only in respect of that property; conversely, a British claimant cannot draw the whole worldwide estate before the French judge simply by pointing to a French asset. Before issuing proceedings anywhere, the family should therefore map three things: the country of habitual residence at death, the location of each asset, and which court is competent for which asset.

Once French law is identified as applicable, the notaire opens the file with a small set of verifications that British families should prepare for. The death certificate, the family record book (livret de famille) or English birth and marriage certificates, and evidence of the property titles allow the notaire to draw up the acte de notoriété, the authentic instrument that names the heirs and their shares. French law is deliberately flexible about proof at this stage: La preuve de la qualité d’héritier s’établit par tous moyens. (Article 730 of the Civil Code). English documents are accepted but will generally need sworn translation, and English grants of probate or letters of administration concerning the same deceased should be disclosed to the notaire so that the French and English files stay consistent. On the English side, the mirror step is the application to the Probate Service: the official guidance confirms the position for intestacy in one sentence — If there’s not a will, the closest living relative can apply. (see gov.uk, Applying for probate). That application also requires the estate to be valued first, because Before applying for probate, you must find out if you need to pay Inheritance Tax. In short, the French house is unlocked by the notaire‘s deed and the English assets by the English grant, and neither replaces the other.

One common misunderstanding should be cleared up immediately. Some families assume that because there is no will, the surviving spouse inherits everything, or that the children can agree among themselves to give everything to their mother or father. Neither is true under French intestacy law. The statute fixes both the identity of the heirs and the size of each share, and the notaire cannot rewrite that distribution even if the whole family agrees — or rather, the family can later rearrange assets between themselves by agreement (a partition or buy-out), but the starting point imposed by law remains. The next section sets out that starting point.

B. The surviving spouse and the children: who receives what without a will

French intestacy law organises blood relatives into four ranks, called orders, and each order excludes the ones below it where there is no surviving spouse entitled to compete. The statute states: 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. (Article 734 of the Civil Code). In practice, where the deceased leaves children, the children take the estate subject only to the rights of the surviving spouse described below; parents, brothers and sisters inherit only if there are no descendants. An unmarried partner, however long the cohabitation, appears nowhere in this statutory list and therefore inherits nothing intestate — a frequent shock for British couples who lived together in France without marrying or concluding a PACS (the French civil solidarity pact). The spouse referred to in these provisions means the married husband or wife; divorce extinguishes the status of surviving spouse entirely.

Where the deceased leaves both a surviving spouse and children, the spouse does not take everything and does not take a fixed half: the law gives the spouse a choice, but only in one family configuration. Article 757 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. (Article 757 of the Civil Code). Translated into the vocabulary a British reader knows: usufruit (usufruct) means the lifelong right to use the property and take its income, while the nue-propriété (bare ownership) belongs to the children; pleine propriété means full ownership. So where all the children are the couple’s joint children, the surviving spouse chooses between lifelong usufruct over the whole estate and outright ownership of one quarter. Where at least one child comes from another relationship — a common situation in second marriages — there is no choice at all: the spouse takes outright ownership of one quarter, and the children share the rest.

That last point was confirmed with unusual firmness by the Cour de cassation on 5 March 2025 (pourvoi no 23-11.430). A widower had left a daughter born of an earlier union; after his death, his widow claimed rights over the estate and her own daughters continued the proceedings after her death. The Nîmes Court of Appeal had treated the widow as if she had opted for usufruct, which then lapsed when she died. The Cour de cassation quashed that reasoning, holding: en présence d’un enfant non commun, les droits légaux du conjoint survivant ne pouvaient être que de la propriété du quart des biens existants, sans faculté d’option pour l’usufruit de la totalité de ces biens (Cass. 1re civ., 5 March 2025, no 23-11.430). For blended British families in France, the message is direct: the surviving step-parent cannot claim lifelong enjoyment of the whole French house where the deceased leaves a child from another union; that child is entitled to share in outright ownership from day one, and any document suggesting otherwise should be challenged.

The usufruct option itself received a significant clarification on 20 May 2026, in an opinion (avis) given by the First Civil Chamber at the request of the Commercial Chamber (pourvoi no 25-11.757). The question was what happens when the estate includes property over which the deceased held only bare ownership because a third person’s usufruct was still running — for example, a house already burdened with the surviving usufruct of the deceased’s own late parent. The Court answered: lorsqu’une succession comprend un bien grevé d’usufruit, l’option en faveur de l’usufruit de la totalité des biens existants exercée par le conjoint survivant en application de l’article 757 du code civil institue à son profit un second usufruit sur ce bien, qui prendra effet à la cessation du premier. (Cass. 1re civ., avis, 20 May 2026, no 25-11.757). In everyday terms, the surviving spouse who opts for usufruct over everything also secures a deferred second usufruct over such burdened property, exercisable when the existing usufruct ends. Alongside these inheritance rights, the surviving spouse who actually lived in the family home at the date of death enjoys a separate one-year protection: 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. (Article 763 of the Civil Code). This one-year free use operates automatically and is treated as a direct effect of the marriage rather than an inheritance right, which matters for its tax treatment.

Above all of this sits the principle British families find hardest to absorb: the forced heirship reserve (réserve héréditaire). Even without a will, its shadow shapes every intestacy, because it guarantees children a minimum share that no arrangement can defeat. The Code defines it as follows: 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. (Article 912 of the Civil Code). The size of the reserve depends on the number of children, as Article 913 of the Civil Code fixes the disposable portion — the part the deceased could freely give away — at one half with one child, one third with two children, and one quarter with three or more. Since 2021, that same article adds a safety net for children where the applicable foreign law offers them no equivalent protection: where the deceased or at least one child was, at the death, a national of, or habitually resident in, a European Union Member State, and the applicable foreign law provides no reserve mechanism for the children, each child may levy compensatory recovery (prélèvement compensatoire) against assets situated in France. For British families habitually resident in France, French law will normally govern anyway and the children are directly protected; the compensatory levy chiefly matters where English law has been chosen by will — one more reason to read this article together with our guide on choosing English law. The practical upshot of intestacy is simpler and sterner: nobody can promise the surviving spouse the whole house, and nobody can cut out a child, because the statute has already divided the estate.

II. Paying the tax, proving your rights and challenging what goes wrong

A. The six-month declaration, the allowances and the surviving spouse’s exemption

French inheritance tax (droits de succession) is a second procedure running alongside the civil settlement, with its own deadline counted from the day of death. The Tax Code (Code général des impôts) states: 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. (Article 641 of the Code général des impôts). For the British family whose relative died at home in France, that means six months to file the estate return (déclaration de succession) with the tax office; where the deceased died in England — for instance a UK-resident Briton who owned a holiday house in France — the period is twelve months. These periods determine when the return must reach the administration, and the notaire normally prepares and files it, but the heirs remain personally responsible for meeting them.

Missing the deadline is expensive, and the scale of the increase is fixed by statute rather than left to negotiation. Article 1728 of the Tax Code provides that failure to file within the prescribed periods triggers l’application, sur le montant des droits mis à la charge du contribuable ou résultant de la déclaration ou de l’acte déposé tardivement, d’une majoration de : a. 10 % en l’absence de mise en demeure ou en cas de dépôt de la déclaration ou de l’acte dans les trente jours suivant la réception d’une mise en demeure d’avoir à le produire dans ce délai, rising to 40% where the return is still not filed within thirty days of a formal demand (Article 1728 of the Code général des impôts). The same article specifies that for estate returns, la majoration de 10 % est applicable à partir du premier jour du septième mois suivant celui de l’expiration des délais de six mois et de vingt-quatre mois prévus respectivement aux articles 641 et 641 bis. Grieving families who let the file drift therefore pay a surcharge on top of the duty itself, which is why the notaire should be instructed within weeks of the death, not months.

The amount of duty itself depends on the kinship between the deceased and each heir, after personal allowances (abattements) are deducted from each share. Each child currently benefits from an allowance of 100,000 euros on the share received, since 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. (Article 779 of the Code général des impôts). Above the allowance, the progressive scale in the direct line runs from 5% on the first slice up to 45% on the largest estates, as set out in Article 777 of the Code général des impôts, while more distant relatives and unrelated persons face far heavier rates reaching 55% and 60%. The single most valuable relief, however, belongs to the surviving spouse: Sont exonérés de droits de mutation par décès le conjoint survivant et le partenaire lié au défunt par un pacte civil de solidarité. (Article 796-0 bis of the Code général des impôts). A married husband or wife therefore pays no French succession duty on what they inherit, and neither does a surviving PACS partner; the official service-public.fr guidance confirms these exemptions in its page on cases in which an heir is exempt from succession duties. Children, by contrast, pay duty on everything above their allowance, and siblings, nephews and nieces have only small allowances (15,932 euros between brothers and sisters, 7,967 euros for nephews and nieces) before steep rates apply.

Two traps specific to British estates deserve emphasis. First, the surviving spouse’s exemption does not help the children, and families sometimes discover too late that the children owe substantial duty on the French house while the cash sits in an English account frozen pending probate. Planning the liquidity of the estate — which assets will pay the French bill — matters as much as computing it. Second, the English Inheritance Tax position must be checked separately through the English personal representatives, since the UK taxes the worldwide estate of a person domiciled in the UK under its own rules and thresholds; double taxation is then relieved through the applicable treaty and credit mechanisms, applied for with supporting evidence on each side. Neither administration will do this coordination spontaneously: the family or its advisers must present the French assessment to the English side and the English position to the French notaire, keeping both files aligned.

B. Proving heirship on both sides of the Channel and challenging adverse decisions

Once the shares are known and the tax is in hand, each heir must be able to prove their status to every institution holding estate assets: banks, insurers, land registries, and the English probate authorities. In France, the acte de notoriété drawn up by the notaire is the standard proof, and, as noted, the quality of heir may be established by any means under Article 730. In practice the notaire will gather the death certificate, evidence of kinship, the marriage certificate where a spouse claims rights, and the property deeds, and will check whether any English will or grant exists that affects the same estate. British families should supply full English civil-status documents early, with sworn translations, and should warn the notaire about any deed poll name changes, divorces pronounced in England, or children born outside marriage, because each of these can affect the devolution and will need documentary proof. Where the deceased owned land in France, the transfer to the heirs is completed by a further notarial deed (attestation immobilière) published at the land registry (service de publicité foncière); until that publication, the heirs cannot validly sell or mortgage the property.

On the English side, whoever is entitled under the English intestacy rules applies to the Probate Service for a grant — normally letters of administration where there is no will — and, as the official guidance states, If there’s not a will, the closest living relative can apply. That grant is what releases English bank balances, shares and sale proceeds, and allows the English property to be transferred or sold. An important practical point follows: the ranking of relatives under English intestacy law is not identical to the French orders, so the person entitled to administer the English estate is not necessarily the person with the largest share of the French estate. The two procedures therefore need parallel attention from the outset, with consistent valuations: the French return and the English inheritance tax account should describe the same worldwide picture, each claiming the reliefs available on its side.

When something goes wrong, French law offers distinct remedies for civil and tax disputes, and the cases cited in this article illustrate how they work. If co-heirs disagree on the applicable law, the composition of the estate or the division of assets, any heir can bring the matter before the civil court for a judicial partition (partage judiciaire) — exactly as the disinherited daughter did in the 2019 case when she sued her siblings in Paris arguing for her father’s Paris habitual residence. If the dispute concerns the surviving spouse’s share, the 2025 ruling shows that an appellate decision misapplying Article 757 can be quashed: the Cour de cassation annulled the Nîmes judgment in its entirety and sent the case to the Montpellier Court of Appeal, ordering the losing party to pay costs and a fixed sum under Article 700 of the Code of Civil Procedure. If the dispute concerns the usufruct option on burdened property, the 2026 opinion now gives notaires and lower courts the authoritative reading to apply. On the tax side, an heir who considers the assessment excessive can first discuss the file with the tax office and then use the formal avenues of objection and appeal; the 1728 surcharges themselves presuppose a formal demand (mise en demeure) before the higher rate applies, so every letter from the administration should be answered within its stated time limit and kept with proof of posting. Throughout, limitation and appeal periods run strictly, and the only safe course is to have each deadline identified in writing at the first meeting and diarised immediately.

One final warning concerns blended families and unmarried partners, the two profiles most exposed by intestacy. In a blended family, the child of an earlier union should verify the spouse’s claimed share against Article 757 before signing any notarial deed: as the 2025 decision demonstrates, accepting an all-estate usufruct for the step-parent where the law allows only quarter ownership in full title would unlawfully shrink the child’s inheritance. The deed should therefore state expressly on which legal basis the spouse takes — usufruct by choice where all children are joint children, or quarter ownership where any child is not — and any heir asked to sign a document they do not understand should require the notaire to explain it clause by clause. For unmarried partners, intestacy offers no share at all, and the survivor’s only protections are lifetime arrangements made beforehand (joint ownership clauses, insurance designations, a will) or, after death, whatever limited rights arise from contracts concluded during life. Discovering this after the death is painful; readers in this position should treat this article as the starting point for regularising their situation while both partners are alive, through marriage, PACS or a properly drafted will.

Conclusion

Dying without a will in France does not leave the family free to arrange matters as it wishes; it hands the distribution to the statute. For a British citizen habitually resident in France, French intestacy law normally governs: the children take the estate in the statutory order, the surviving spouse takes lifelong usufruct over everything or outright ownership of one quarter where all children are joint — and only outright quarter ownership where any child comes from another union — and the unmarried partner takes nothing. The children’s minimum shares are locked in by the forced heirship reserve, now backed where needed by the compensatory levy on French assets. The estate return must be filed within six months of a death in metropolitan France and within twelve months otherwise, with a 10% surcharge as the price of delay and 40% after an unheeded formal demand; each child deducts a 100,000-euro allowance before the progressive scale applies, while the surviving spouse and PACS partner pay no duty at all. English assets require a parallel English grant applied for by the closest living relative, with English Inheritance Tax assessed separately. Where co-heirs, the notaire or the tax office take a position the family considers wrong — on habitual residence, on the spouse’s option, on the composition of the estate or on the bill — the courts have shown, from the 2019 jurisdiction ruling through the 2025 quashing of a misapplied Article 757 to the 2026 opinion on deferred usufruct, that reasoned challenges succeed. The intestate estate is therefore manageable, but only for families who identify the applicable law early, instruct the notaire within weeks, keep the English and French files consistent, and check every signature against the articles that actually govern their case.