Your mother kept her stone house in the Dordogne long after she moved back to Kent. When she dies, the house is yours on paper — and so is everything attached to it: the mortgage she never quite cleared, two years of unpaid charges de copropriété if the property is a flat, the French tax bill that will follow, and a series of deadlines that start running whether you are ready or not. Since Brexit, British heirs are third-country nationals in France, and every step is examined more closely: the notaire, the public official who settles French successions, the greffe, the court registry where formal declarations are filed, and the tax office each expect you to act in the right form, in the right place and on time. The single most expensive mistake is also the most common: doing nothing, or handling the house as if it were already yours — clearing it out, selling furniture, collecting rent — before you have chosen, formally, what your legal position is. French law gives you three doors: accept the succession outright, accept it only up to the value of the net assets, or walk away by disclaiming. Each door has different consequences for the debts. This guide explains, in plain English with UK spelling throughout, how to choose between the three options, how to file the choice safely with an inventory of assets and debts, how the French succession declaration and its six and twelve-month deadlines work, how the tax on your share is calculated with a worked example, and how to challenge penalties and reassessments you believe are wrong. Every decisive rule is linked to its official French source so your adviser can verify each point. If you are still at the stage of the funeral, the death certificate and securing the property, read first our companion guide on the first steps after a British death in France; if you want the full calculation of allowances, rates and the 1963 treaty against double taxation, see our guide on who pays French inheritance tax and what relief applies.

I. Should You Accept the French Succession Outright, Limit Your Liability or Walk Away?

A. What accepting outright, accepting up to the net assets and disclaiming really mean for the debts

French successions open with a choice, called the option successorale, and the Civil Code states it in one sentence: Article 768 of the Civil Code provides that “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.” In ordinary language, an heir with a general claim to the estate — a child, for example — has three possibilities: accept purely and simply, disclaim entirely, or accept only up to the net assets. A conditional or time-limited choice is void, so you cannot accept only if the debts turn out to be modest. You must pick one door and walk through it properly. The right door depends almost entirely on one question: is the French estate solvent? A house worth 380,000 euros with a 120,000 euro mortgage and modest tax arrears is a very different inheritance from the same house with a 350,000 euro mortgage, major structural work ordered by the municipality and two siblings already arguing about who pays. Until you know the full picture of assets and liabilities, treat the choice as open and act accordingly — which means, above all, signing nothing that presents you as the owner.

Accepting outright, the acceptation pure et simple, makes you the continuation of the deceased for the estate’s debts: creditors can pursue you personally, beyond the value of what you inherited. That is the right choice where the estate is clearly solvent and you want the simplest, fastest settlement — one declaration, no inventory procedure, no court registry filing. But it is a dangerous default where doubts exist, because acceptance can happen without any paperwork at all. Article 782 of the Civil Code provides that “L’acceptation pure et simple peut être expresse ou tacite. Elle est expresse quand le successible prend le titre ou la qualité d’héritier acceptant dans un acte authentique ou sous seing privé. Elle est tacite quand le successible saisi fait un acte qui suppose nécessairement son intention d’accepter et qu’il n’aurait droit de faire qu’en qualité d’héritier acceptant.” Selling the deceased’s furniture, pocketing the rent paid by the holiday tenants, or granting a lease over the French house are classic examples of acts that only an accepting heir has the right to perform. Purely protective or supervisory steps — changing the locks, paying the buildings insurance to keep cover alive, asking the notaire for an inventory — do not count as acceptance, but anything that disposes of estate property or takes its income does. British heirs who fly over for a week and “sort things out” by selling contents at the local vide-grenier or banking the season’s rental income have, in the eyes of French law, potentially accepted the whole succession with all its debts.

The middle door, acceptance à concurrence de l’actif net — acceptance up to the net assets, formerly called acceptance under benefit of inventory — is the protective helmet of French succession law. Article 787 of the Civil Code provides, in a single line, that “Un héritier peut déclarer qu’il n’entend prendre cette qualité qu’à concurrence de l’actif net.” You still become heir, you still receive the house, but the estate’s creditors can only be paid out of the estate’s assets, never out of your own pocket. If the mortgage and the debts turn out to exceed the value of the house, you lose the inheritance but keep your savings, your English home and your salary. The price of this protection is procedure: a formal declaration, an official inventory drawn up article by article, publication so that creditors are warned, and administration of the estate under the supervision the Code organises. For a British heir who cannot be sure what the deceased owed — an undisclosed loan, a guarantee given for a friend, arrears of French income tax or taxe foncière, the local property tax — this middle door is very often the sensible choice, and it costs far less than discovering a 90,000 euro debt after an outright acceptance. The Cour de cassation, France’s highest civil court, confirmed in a published ruling of 12 October 2022, appeal number 20-21.016, how this protection works for creditors in return: “lorsque la succession a été acceptée par un héritier à concurrence de l’actif net, les créanciers de la succession doivent déclarer leurs créances en notifiant leur titre au domicile élu de la succession”, and unsecured claims not declared within fifteen months of the national publication of the declaration are extinguished as against the estate. In other words, the inventory procedure forces hidden creditors into the open, and those who stay silent in time lose their claim against the estate assets.

The third door is disclaimer, the renonciation: you refuse the succession altogether. Two features make it powerful and strict at the same time. First, it is never presumed. Article 804 of the Civil Code provides that “La renonciation à une succession ne se présume pas. Pour être opposable aux tiers, la renonciation opérée par l’héritier universel ou à titre universel doit être adressée ou déposée au tribunal dans le ressort duquel la succession s’est ouverte ou faite devant notaire.” Silence, absence or living in Manchester is not a disclaimer; only a declaration filed at the court registry of the place where the succession opened, or made before a notaire who forwards a copy to that court within the month, counts against third parties. Second, a valid disclaimer wipes the slate clean retroactively: Article 805 of the Civil Code provides that “L’héritier qui renonce est censé n’avoir jamais été héritier.” Your share passes to your own children by representation or, failing that, accrues to your co-heirs. Disclaimer is the right answer where the estate is plainly insolvent, or where accepting would drag you into litigation with co-heirs or creditors that the house is not worth. Note the interaction with the ten-year backstop: Article 780 of the Civil Code provides that “La faculté d’option se prescrit par dix ans à compter de l’ouverture de la succession. L’héritier qui n’a pas pris parti dans ce délai est réputé renonçant.” Ten years of complete inaction therefore ends in deemed disclaimer — but no British heir should ever rely on that backstop, because creditors will force the issue years earlier through the summons procedure described below, and because an heir who has meddled with the assets may already have tacitly accepted.

B. How to make your choice official without accidentally becoming liable: declarations, inventory and the two-month trap

French law protects heirs from being rushed, then punishes those who sleep after being formally warned. The protection comes first: Article 771 of the Civil Code provides that “L’héritier ne peut être contraint à opter avant l’expiration d’un délai de quatre mois à compter de l’ouverture de la succession. A l’expiration de ce délai, il peut être sommé, par acte extrajudiciaire, de prendre parti à l’initiative d’un créancier de la succession, d’un cohéritier, d’un héritier de rang subséquent ou de l’Etat.” For the first four months after the death, nobody — not the bank holding the mortgage, not the syndicat des copropriétaires, the co-owners’ association owed service charges, not even a co-heir — can force you to choose. After that period, any of them can serve you with a formal demand to take your position, a sommation d’opter, by extrajudicial act, which for a British heir usually means a commissaire de justice, the reformed title of the former huissier or bailiff, serving papers that must then be translated and reach you in England. The trap is the two-month clock that starts on service: Article 772 of the Civil Code provides that “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. Ce délai est suspendu à compter de la demande de prorogation jusqu’à la décision du juge saisi. A défaut d’avoir pris parti à l’expiration du délai de deux mois ou du délai supplémentaire accordé, l’héritier est réputé acceptant pur et simple.” An heir who receives the demand, puts it in a drawer and does nothing for two months becomes a deemed outright acceptor — personally liable for all the debts — without signing anything.

A recent published ruling shows how brutally this mechanism bites, including for heirs living abroad. On 5 February 2025, in appeal number 22-22.618, the First Civil Chamber of the Cour de cassation upheld the condemnation of three children, resident in the United Arab Emirates and Belgium, to pay 91,545.25 euros of their late father’s co-ownership charges: served with demands to take position in July 2019 under Article 771, they had let the two-month period expire, and the court held that they had lost the right to disclaim from September 2019, so that their later disclaimers were inoperative and the creditor association could pursue them as heirs. The Court approved the appeal judges’ finding that, the two months having run without any choice being made, “ceux-ci avaient perdu le droit de renoncer à la succession respectivement à compter des 18, 19 et 20 septembre 2019, de sorte que les actes de renonciation établis par eux postérieurement à ces dates étaient inopérants”, so that the creditor association could pursue them as heirs for the debt. The practical effect is final: once the demand period expires without action, the heir can no longer switch to a disclaimer or to capped acceptance. For British heirs, the practical lesson is absolute: diary every demand the day it arrives, instruct a French adviser immediately, and if the inventory is under way but unfinished, apply to the judge for extra time before the two months expire rather than after. The suspension runs from the application, so filing early is itself the protection.

The filing formalities differ for each door and must be followed exactly. Acceptance up to the net assets requires a declaration at the greffe of the tribunal judiciaire, the ordinary civil court, for the place where the succession opened, or before a notaire: Article 788 of the Civil Code provides that “La déclaration doit être faite au greffe du tribunal judiciaire dans le ressort duquel la succession est ouverte ou devant notaire. Elle comporte élection d’un domicile unique, qui peut être le domicile de l’un des acceptants à concurrence de l’actif net, ou celui de la personne chargée du règlement de la succession. Le domicile doit être situé en France.” A British heir therefore elects an address for service in France — typically the notaire’s office — at which creditors must notify their claims. The declaration is registered and given national publicity, and the official service-public.fr guide on the option successorale confirms the sequence in practice: publication in the Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official civil and commercial announcements bulletin, a legal notice in a journal d’annonces légales within one month of filing at the registry, and an inventory to be lodged at the registry within two months of the declaration, with the possibility of an extension granted by the judge (service-public.fr, accepting or disclaiming a succession). The inventory itself is a regulated document: Article 789 of the Civil Code provides that “La déclaration est accompagnée ou suivie de l’inventaire de la succession qui comporte une estimation, article par article, des éléments de l’actif et du passif. L’inventaire est établi par un commissaire-priseur judiciaire, un huissier ou un notaire, selon les lois et règlements applicables à ces professions.” For the Dordogne house this means a professional valuation of the property, an item-by-item schedule of bank balances, vehicles and valuables on the asset side, and the mortgage statement, tax notices, invoices and guarantees on the liability side. Disclaimer follows the mirror route through the registry or the notaire under Article 804, and only that filing makes the refusal effective against creditors. In all three cases, keep proof of every filing, every publication and every translation: a British heir who must later prove, from England, that a declaration was lodged in Bergerac on a given date will be grateful for a complete paper trail.

II. How Do You File the French Succession Declaration on Time, Pay Only What You Owe and Challenge an Unfair Bill?

A. Which declaration to file, by when, and how the tax is worked out on a French house

Alongside the civil choice of accepting or disclaiming runs a separate tax obligation: the déclaration de succession, the detailed return the heirs must file with the French tax administration, prepared in practice by the notaire from the inventory and the valuations. Article 800 of the General Tax Code provides that “I. – Les héritiers, légataires ou donataires, leurs tuteurs ou curateurs, sont tenus de souscrire une déclaration détaillée”, with only narrow exemptions — direct-line heirs are dispensed only where the gross estate is under 50,000 euros and no prior unregistered gift from the deceased exists, and other beneficiaries only under 3,000 euros — so virtually every British heir of a French house must file. The deadlines are strict and depend on where the deceased died: Article 641 of the General Tax Code provides that “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 mother who died in her Kent home leaves her children twelve months; a father who died in the Dordogne farmhouse leaves them six. These periods run fast when a British family must also obtain an English grant of probate for the UK assets — the gov.uk guide to dealing with the estate of someone who has died explains the separate English procedure — have French documents translated, agree a valuation of the house and coordinate between siblings in two countries. Ask the notaire at the first meeting for a timetable working backwards from the six or twelve-month date, and treat that date as immovable: late filing attracts the surcharges described below automatically.

The tax itself is computed per heir, per share, and children are the best-treated beneficiaries in the French scale. Each child deducts a personal allowance before any rate applies: Article 779 of the General Tax Code provides that “Pour la perception des droits de mutation à titre gratuit, 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”. The rates then apply in slices to the net taxable share: Article 777 of the General Tax Code sets, for the direct line, 5 per cent up to 8,072 euros, 10 per cent from 8,072 to 12,109 euros, 15 per cent from 12,109 to 15,932 euros, 20 per cent from 15,932 to 552,324 euros, then 30, 40 and 45 per cent for the higher slices. Take a concrete and very typical British case: a Dordogne house valued at 380,000 euros, a remaining mortgage of 120,000 euros, two children inheriting equally. The net estate is 260,000 euros, each child’s share 130,000 euros. After the 100,000 euro allowance, each child has 30,000 euros taxable. The slices give 5 per cent of 8,072 euros (403.60 euros), 10 per cent of the 4,037 euros between 8,072 and 12,109 euros (403.70 euros), 15 per cent of the 3,823 euros between 12,109 and 15,932 euros (573.45 euros), and 20 per cent of the 14,068 euros between 15,932 and 30,000 euros (2,813.60 euros) — a total of about 4,194 euros per child. Debts proved at the death genuinely reduce the bill, which is a second reason, beyond liability protection, to inventory the mortgage, the arrears and the professional fees carefully. Where the deceased chose English law for the succession in an English will — the limited choice the EU Succession Regulation (No 650/2012) allows in favour of the law of one’s nationality, whose current text is on the EU Succession Regulation (No 650/2012) as published in the Official Journal of the European Union — that choice governs who inherits, not whether France taxes the French house: the tax analysis above applies regardless, and the treaty position is examined in our companion guide on inheritance tax, allowances and the treaty. The deceased’s English will should still be shown to the notaire at once, since it may affect the shares — on wills, choice of law and the forced share of children, see our guide to English wills and French houses.

B. How to deal with the mortgage and the creditors, then challenge penalties and reassessments

Debts do not wait for the family to agree, and French law organises a strict order of operations around them. Where you accepted up to the net assets, creditors must come to you, not the reverse: Article 792 of the Civil Code provides that “Les créanciers de la succession déclarent leurs créances en notifiant leur titre au domicile élu de la succession.” Creditors whose claims are not yet fixed in amount declare provisionally on the basis of an estimate, and unsecured creditors who have still not declared fifteen months after the national publication of the acceptance lose their claims against the estate. The fifteen-month guillotine is the heir’s best friend in this procedure: every unsecured creditor warned by the national publication — the bank’s consumer-credit arm, the builder owed for the roof, the co-owners’ association — must declare within fifteen months or lose the claim against the estate, and the 2022 ruling quoted above confirms that even creditors paid under a provisionally enforceable judgment must reckon with these rules. Secured creditors are different: the mortgage lender holding a hypothèque, the registered mortgage over the French house, keeps its security over the property regardless of declarations, so the practical discussion with the bank is about who continues the monthly payments, whether the loan’s death cover (assurance emprunteur) pays out, and whether the house must be sold. Keep paying the insurance and the essential charges from estate funds in the meantime, keep every receipt, and never pay a disputed creditor personally: payment from your own account is exactly the kind of act that can be read as tacit acceptance of the whole succession.

On the tax side, two kinds of bad news must be distinguished: penalties for lateness, and reassessments of the substance. Penalties apply mechanically once the Article 641 deadline is missed: Article 1728 of the General Tax Code provides that “Le défaut de production dans les délais prescrits d’une déclaration ou d’un acte comportant l’indication d’éléments à retenir pour l’assiette ou la liquidation de l’impôt entraîne 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 ; b. 40 % lorsque la déclaration ou l’acte n’a pas été déposé dans les trente jours suivant la réception d’une mise en demeure d’avoir à le produire dans ce délai”, with a specific timing rule for succession declarations. A British heir who files three months late without any reminder therefore pays 10 per cent on top of the duties; one who ignores a formal demand for over thirty days pays 40 per cent. If a demand arrives, file within the thirty days even if the valuation is provisional, and correct it afterwards through the notaire — the surcharge is computed on delay, and stopping the clock is the priority. Reassessments of substance — the tax office values the Dordogne house above your estimate, disallows a debt, or queries the allowance — follow the general tax litigation path: Article L190 of the Tax Procedure Book provides that “Les réclamations relatives aux impôts, contributions, droits, taxes, redevances, soultes et pénalités de toute nature, établis ou recouvrés par les agents de l’administration, relèvent de la juridiction contentieuse lorsqu’elles tendent à obtenir soit la réparation d’erreurs commises dans l’assiette ou le calcul des impositions, soit le bénéfice d’un droit résultant d’une disposition législative ou réglementaire”, and Article R*190-1 of the same Book requires that “Le contribuable qui désire contester tout ou partie d’un impôt qui le concerne doit d’abord adresser une réclamation au service territorial, selon le cas, de la direction générale des finances publiques ou de la direction générale des douanes et droits indirects dont dépend le lieu de l’imposition.” In practice: first, a written claim to the local tax office for the place of taxation, attaching the inventory, the valuation evidence, the mortgage statements and the death certificate; then, if the administration maintains the assessment, an appeal to the court. Valuation disputes are won with evidence, so commission an independent French valuation early, keep comparable sales for similar village houses, and photograph any defect that depresses the price. Interest and penalties can be the subject of a separate request for leniency (demande gracieuse) based on the heir’s good faith, the cross-border difficulties and the speed of regularisation — requests that succeed most often when the principal duties have already been paid or secured.

Conclusion

A French house inherited from England is never just a house: it is a three-way choice about debts, a formal procedure at the court registry with a professional inventory, and a tax declaration with six and twelve-month deadlines and automatic surcharges. The order of operations that protects a British heir is simple to state and must be followed exactly: secure the property without disposing of anything, take advice on solvency before the four-month shelter expires, choose the middle door of acceptance up to the net assets wherever the debts are uncertain, file the declaration at the greffe or before the notaire with election of a French address for service, publish and inventory on time, lodge the succession declaration within the Article 641 period, and answer every demand — from creditors, the notaire or the tax office — inside its stated days. The two published rulings of the Cour de cassation quoted in this guide carry the same warning from opposite directions: creditors who sleep for fifteen months lose their claims, and heirs who sleep for two months after a demand become personally liable for everything. Between those two clocks, the heir who files early, inventories carefully and challenges promptly keeps every remedy open. Keep this guide with the death certificate, the will, the mortgage statements and the notaire’s timetable in a single file, share it with every sibling wherever they live, and act while all three doors are still open.

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