Your husband owned a house in Dordogne, you lived there together for six years after Brexit, and he has just died without ever making an English will or a French will. The bank has frozen the joint account, the French notaire (the state-appointed lawyer who settles every estate with French property in it) tells you that the children inherit first, and someone in the family says that, as the widow, you get everything because that is what English law would do. None of that is quite right, and acting on the wrong assumption can cost you your home, your tax position and your right to challenge. This guide explains, for a British family after Brexit, what happens when a British owner dies with no will covering a French house: which country’s intestacy law applies, who actually inherits and in what order, what share the surviving spouse really gets, how forced heirship protects children, what French death tax you pay and which papers and deadlines matter, and how you challenge a refusal, an unfair division or an excessive tax bill.

In France, dying with no will is called dying intestate, and the estate is divided according to the fixed legal order in the Civil Code rather than according to anyone’s wishes. The surviving spouse, known as the conjoint survivant, never inherits everything when there are children: the children come first and the spouse takes a defined share alongside them. Children are also héritiers réservataires, meaning forced heirs who cannot be disinherited and who must each receive a minimum slice called the réserve héréditaire. The rest is the quotité disponible, the freely disposable share. Because Brexit made every British citizen a third-country national, the question of whether French or English intestacy rules govern your house is decided by habitual residence, not by nationality or by where the passport was issued. The European Succession Regulation still applies in France to British deaths, and for a Briton living in France it normally points to French law for the whole estate, including the French house. Understanding that starting point changes every calculation that follows, from the spouse’s usufruct to the children’s forced shares and the French tax return.

I. My British partner died with no will for a French house: which law applies and who inherits?

A. Habitual residence, the EU Succession Regulation and why a British death in France usually means French intestacy law

When a British person dies owning a house in France, the first question the notaire asks is not what English intestacy law would say. It is where the deceased was habitually resident. Habitual residence means the country where the person actually lived day to day, had the centre of family life and intended to remain. For a British couple who moved to France after Brexit, took a Withdrawal Agreement residence card, registered with the health system, paid French income tax and lived year-round in their French home, the answer is France. Short winter trips back to see grandchildren in Kent do not move habitual residence back to England.

This matters because France applies Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on succession to everyone who dies on its territory, including British nationals. The United Kingdom never opted into that Regulation, but that opt-out only means British courts do not apply it. French courts and French notaires do apply it to British deaths, and the Regulation then designates one single law for the whole estate. The basic rule is habitual residence: the courts of the Member State where the deceased was habitually resident at death deal with the entire succession. In the words of the Court of Cassation, First Civil Chamber, 29 May 2019, appeal No 18-13.383, “sont compétentes pour statuer sur l’ensemble d’une succession les juridictions de l’État membre dans lequel le défunt avait sa résidence habituelle au moment de son décès”. That single decision determines which court divides the estate and, in most cases, which substantive law divides it.

How does the authority decide where habitual residence was? The same judgment explains the method, quoting recitals 23 and 24 of the Regulation: “l’autorité chargée de la succession doit procéder à une évaluation d’ensemble des circonstances de la vie du défunt au cours des années précédant son décès et au moment de son décès, prenant en compte tous les éléments de fait pertinents, notamment la durée et la régularité de la présence du défunt dans l’État concerné ainsi que les conditions et les raisons de cette présence”. In that case the deceased split his time between New York and Paris, and the court weighed nationality, the place of business life, tax domicile, the family home, medical care and burial wishes before concluding on habitual residence. For your family the same overall assessment applies: length and regularity of presence in France, Withdrawal Agreement card, French tax returns, French health cover, location of the main home, school and social ties, and the reasons for being in France all count. A British owner who merely visits a holiday home for a few weeks a year is habitually resident in England, and English intestacy law may then govern the movable assets while French law still governs the French house through its own conflicts rules. A British owner who lives in France full time is habitually resident in France, and French intestacy law normally governs everything, including bank accounts in both countries. The full text of the Regulation is published on EUR-Lex at Regulation (EU) No 650/2012.

Could an English will have avoided this? Yes, in one narrow way. Article 22 of the Regulation lets a person choose the law of their nationality to govern the succession, which for a British person means English law. But that choice must be made in a valid will or equivalent disposition. Dying with no will means no choice was made, so the default habitual-residence rule fills the gap. That is why the present guide deals with the no-will situation: there is no professio juris to rescue the family, and French intestacy provisions apply by default to the French house. The practical lesson for surviving relatives reading this after a death is different from the planning lesson for readers whose parents are still alive. After a death with no will, you must work within French intestacy law and use its own remedies. Before a death, a properly drafted will choosing English law, combined with French advice on forced heirship limits, can change the outcome, but it cannot be created retrospectively.

Brexit adds one procedural layer without changing the intestacy substance. Since 1 January 2021 British citizens are third-country nationals. A surviving British spouse proves lawful residence with a Withdrawal Agreement card rather than an EU right, and a British heir who lives in the UK and inherits a French house enters France as a visitor, within the 90 days in any 180-day Schengen limit. Neither fact alters who inherits. The notaire still opens a French succession file because there is a French immovable in the estate, still asks for the death certificate, the family record and the property title, and still applies the law designated by the Regulation. Where Brexit bites is on proof and timing: English documents need sworn translation, English grants of representation are not automatically effective over French land, and heirs living in Britain must organise signatures, powers of attorney and travel within French deadlines. None of that changes the shares, but all of it affects how quickly you secure them.

One more boundary to keep clear. If the deceased left an English will that simply was never updated for France, that will still exists and must be produced to the notaire, even if everyone assumes it covers only England. An English will can be effective in France for assets it mentions, subject to French forced heirship and formal validity. The no-will analysis in this guide applies where there is genuinely no will at all, or where the only will is so narrow or so invalid that the French house falls outside it. If a will surfaces later, the whole distribution must be re-examined. Tell the notaire immediately about any English will, any letter of wishes, any joint-ownership declaration and any trust document, because each can interact with the intestacy shares described below.

B. Children first, spouse second: how the French intestacy order works when there is no will

French intestacy law divides relatives into orders, and each order excludes the next. The statute states the order plainly: “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.” In plain English: when there is no surviving spouse entitled to inherit, children and their descendants come first, then parents and siblings, then other ascendants, then other collaterals. Each of those four groups forms an order that shuts out the later ones. When there is a surviving spouse, the spouse inherits alongside the highest-ranking order present rather than instead of it.

For the typical British family with children, that means the children inherit first and the spouse inherits with them. All children count equally. The Code provides that “Les enfants ou leurs descendants succèdent à leurs père et mère ou autres ascendants, sans distinction de sexe, ni de primogéniture, même s’ils sont issus d’unions différentes.” Sons and daughters share equally, there is no eldest-child preference as under old English primogeniture, and children from an earlier relationship count exactly like children of the current marriage. Grandchildren step into a predeceased parent’s shoes by representation. Adopted children with full adoption count as children. A child who has formally renounced the succession in advance through the specific French procedure is treated differently, but a mere family quarrel or years of estrangement does not remove a child’s intestacy right.

The surviving spouse’s intestacy share alongside children is fixed by Article 757 of the Civil Code: “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.” Unpack that sentence carefully, because it decides whether the widow can stay in the house. Usufruit, usually translated as a life interest or usufruct, is the right to use the property and take its income for life without owning the bricks. Nue-propriété, or bare ownership, is ownership without the present right to use. Pleine propriété is full ownership. When all the children are the couple’s joint children, the surviving spouse chooses between the usufruct of everything and outright ownership of one quarter. When at least one child is from another relationship, there is no choice: the spouse takes outright ownership of one quarter, and the children share the other three quarters.

The Court of Cassation confirmed how strict that second branch is on 5 March 2025, appeal No 23-11.430. A widower had left a daughter from a previous union and a wife, and after litigation the courts had to decide what the wife had actually taken. The First Civil Chamber restated the rule in these terms: “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.” No usufruct over the whole estate in that configuration, only the quarter in full ownership. For a British second marriage with stepchildren, that sentence is decisive. The surviving spouse becomes a quarter-owner in indivision (joint ownership shared between heirs, called indivision successorale) with the children, not the sole occupant with a life interest.

When there are no children, the spouse’s position strengthens but still follows fixed shares. If the deceased leaves parents as well as a spouse, the spouse takes half and each parent line takes a quarter, with adjustments if only one parent survives. If the deceased leaves no children and no parents, the spouse takes everything except that siblings may recover personal gifts in limited cases. If there is no spouse either, because the couple were never married or the spouse predeceased, the orders quoted above apply on their own: children take all, failing children the parents and siblings, and so on. Unmarried partners, however long the cohabitation, inherit nothing under intestacy. A British couple who lived together in France for twenty years without marrying must understand this bluntly: the survivor is not an heir at all without a will or a marriage. A PACS civil partnership gives limited rights but not the spouse’s intestacy share. Only marriage creates the conjoint successible, the spouse entitled to inherit.

Proving who is an heir is the next practical hurdle, especially across the Channel. French law is pragmatic here: “La preuve de la qualité d’héritier s’établit par tous moyens.” Any means of proof can establish heirship. In practice the notaire draws up an acte de notoriété, a formal deed listing the heirs, based on birth and marriage certificates, the family record book, the death certificate and witness evidence. For a British family that means producing English birth, marriage and divorce certificates with sworn French translations, plus the deceased’s Withdrawal Agreement card, French tax notices and property deeds to anchor habitual residence in France. The English side has its own vocabulary: in England and Wales a death with no will leads to an application for letters of administration and the statutory trusts on intestacy under the Administration of Estates Act 1925, explained on GOV.UK: If someone dies without a will. That English grant does not transfer a French house by itself. The French acte de notoriété and the land-registry publication, discussed in Part II, are what make the heirs owners in France. Keep both chains moving in parallel: the English administrator deals with English bank accounts, the French notaire deals with the French house, and each needs the other’s papers.

II. How much does each heir get, what tax is due and how do you challenge an unfair split?

A. Spouse share, forced heirship and the compensatory levy: calculating who gets what

Knowing the order of heirs is only half the calculation. French law then protects children with forced heirship and measures the spouse’s exact slice on a recomposed estate. Forced heirship starts from a simple definition: “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.” The forced share passes free of charges to the protected heirs if they accept the succession. Only children, and failing children the surviving spouse in narrow cases, are protected. Parents, siblings and unmarried partners are not forced heirs. With no will there are no gifts to reduce, so the intestacy shares described above normally satisfy the forced shares automatically. Forced heirship still matters in no-will cases for three reasons: lifetime gifts the deceased made before death can eat into it, a later-discovered will can infringe it, and the compensatory levy created in 2021 can top it up against a foreign law.

The size of the forced share depends on the number of children. Article 913 provides that “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.” Turn that ceiling around and you get the forced shares: one child means half the estate is reserved, two children mean two thirds, three or more children mean three quarters. The balance is the disposable share. Take a British couple in the Gard with a French house worth 400,000 euros, French bank balances of 60,000 euros and no debts: a 460,000-euro estate. With two joint children and no will, the forced share is two thirds, about 306,667 euros, or about 153,333 euros per child as a minimum floor. The intestacy division gives the spouse either the life interest over everything or a quarter in full ownership (115,000 euros), with the children sharing the rest. Both routes respect the forced floor because the children together receive at least three quarters in the usufruct scenario in bare ownership plus reversionary value, or three quarters outright in the quarter-ownership scenario.

Lifetime gifts complicate that arithmetic, and British families often have them: a deposit gifted to a child for a London flat, school fees routed through a trust, a French plot given years ago. The spouse’s share is not measured on the bare assets left at death. Article 758-5 of the Civil Code directs that “Le calcul du droit en toute propriété du conjoint prévu aux articles 757 et 757-1 sera opéré sur une masse faite de tous les biens existant au décès de son époux auxquels seront réunis fictivement ceux dont il aurait disposé, soit par acte entre vifs, soit par acte testamentaire, au profit de successibles, sans dispense de rapport.” Gifts to heirs are fictitiously reunited with the existing assets to form the calculation mass, and the spouse’s quarter is then taken on that enlarged mass but can only be enforced against assets actually left. A child who received a large advance may therefore have to bring it back into account through rapport, the equalisation mechanism, or face a reduction claim. The reduction action itself is reserved to the protected people: “La réduction des dispositions entre vifs ne pourra être demandée que par ceux au profit desquels la loi fait la réserve, par leurs héritiers ou ayants cause”. Donors’ creditors, legatees and other heirs cannot bring it. Time is limited: “Le délai de prescription de l’action en réduction est fixé à cinq ans à compter de l’ouverture de la succession, ou à deux ans à compter du jour où les héritiers ont eu connaissance de l’atteinte portée à leur réserve, sans jamais pouvoir excéder dix ans à compter du décès.” Five years from opening, or two years from learning of the infringement, capped at ten years from death. The notaire has a statutory warning duty when a forced share looks threatened at settlement, but do not wait for that warning. If you suspect a sibling received an undeclared gift, instruct the notaire in writing and seek independent advice before signing any partition.

The 2021 compensatory levy is the provision most British families have never heard of and most need to understand. Since the Law of 24 August 2021, Article 913 ends with a cross-border safety net: “chaque enfant ou ses héritiers ou ses ayants cause peuvent effectuer un prélèvement compensatoire sur les biens existants situés en France au jour du décès, de façon à être rétablis dans les droits réservataires que leur octroie la loi française, dans la limite de ceux-ci.” Each child may take a compensatory levy on assets situated in France at death so as to be restored to the French forced rights, within their limit. The known use case is the reverse of ours: a foreign applicable law with no forced heirship lets one child take everything abroad, and the disadvantaged child claws back the equivalent from French assets. In a pure French-intestacy case the levy adds nothing because French law already grants the forced shares. It becomes relevant the moment someone argues that English law governs instead, whether through habitual residence in England or a choice-of-law clause in a newly found will. English intestacy and testamentary freedom give children no forced share, so a British child left with nothing under English law could invoke the levy against the French house to recover the French minimum. Conversely, a British parent habitually resident in France cannot use English freedom to disinherit a child from the French house: French intestacy, or French forced heirship against a will, prevails. Service-public.fr summarises the heir order and shares for deaths with children at Service-public.fr: inheritance rules where the deceased had children and the general order of heirs at Service-public.fr: order and rights of heirs.

Two worked examples make the spouse choice concrete. Example one: Brian dies habitually resident in France, leaving his wife Susan and their two joint children, a French house worth 360,000 euros and 40,000 euros in accounts. Susan chooses either the usufruct of the whole 400,000 euros, meaning she lives in the house for life and the children hold the bare ownership, or outright ownership of 100,000 euros, usually taken as a quarter share of the house plus a balancing payment. Most surviving spouses who want to stay in the home choose the usufruct, but the usufruct has costs: major repairs fall on the bare owners, the annual property taxes are divided by rule and agreement, and selling later requires everyone’s consent. Example two: Brian dies leaving Susan and one child from his first marriage plus one joint child. Susan takes a quarter in full ownership, 100,000 euros, and each child takes 150,000 euros. Susan cannot demand the whole-life usufruct, and the stepchild cannot be voted out. If the house cannot be divided in kind, the heirs remain in indivision until they agree a buyout, a sale or a court-ordered partition. Occupation compensation, called indemnité d’occupation, may be due to the co-heirs if one heir lives alone in the undivided house. These are the points where British expectations of a sole surviving owner collide with French co-ownership, and where early valuation and written agreements save later litigation.

B. French death taxes, notary papers and deadlines: declaring, paying and contesting after Brexit

French death tax, called droits de succession, is charged on what each heir receives, not on the estate as a whole, and the French house is always in the French net. The territorial rule is Article 750 ter of the General Tax Code. Where the deceased was not fiscally domiciled in France, the provision taxes French-sited assets directly: “Les biens meubles et immeubles, que ces derniers soient possédés directement ou indirectement, situés en France” fall within French transfer duties. For a Briton habitually resident in France, the wider worldwide limb also applies. Either way the French house is taxable in France. There is no France-United Kingdom estate double-tax treaty of the kind that exists for income tax, so relief depends on each country’s unilateral rules and on careful credit claims rather than a treaty article. The UK side may levy inheritance tax on the same house under its own rules, and the French side levies its duties, which is why the declaration must identify every asset and every prior gift precisely.

Rates and allowances then differentiate sharply between heirs. The surviving spouse is fully exempt from French succession duties on what the spouse receives. Children each benefit from a personal allowance before the progressive scale bites: “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.” Each living child, or each predeceased child’s branch by representation, deducts 100,000 euros, then pays 5 to 45 per cent on the remainder. Siblings, nephews and distant relatives face far smaller allowances and higher rates, which is why the intestacy order matters financially as well as legally. The tax administration explains the scale and simulation tools at Economie.gouv.fr: what succession duties you pay on your share and the impots.gouv.fr professionals’ pages for declaration forms.

Prior gifts must be disclosed and can push the current share into a higher bracket. The Code requires that “Les parties sont tenues de faire connaître, dans tout acte constatant une transmission entre vifs à titre gratuit et dans toute déclaration de succession, s’il existe ou non des donations antérieures consenties à un titre et sous une forme quelconque par le donateur ou le défunt aux donataires, héritiers ou légataires”. Every prior gift to the same heir within the last fifteen years is added back for rate purposes under the rappel fiscal mechanism. British families often overlook English lifetime transfers that France counts: cash gifts for a UK deposit, school-fee payments from a grandparent, or an English potentially-exempt transfer that HMRC treats differently. List them all to the notaire with dates and amounts. Concealment risks reassessment, interest and penalties, while voluntary disclosure keeps the file clean and preserves the right to argue valuation or allowance points later. The declaration itself is filed by the heirs through the notaire with form 2705 and annexes, and the tax is normally paid at filing unless a payment facility is granted.

Deadlines are short and Brexit travel makes them tighter. Article 641 of the General Tax Code sets the filing periods: “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.” Six months from death when the deceased died in metropolitan France, one year in all other cases. A British owner who dies at home in France leaves six months. A British owner who dies on a visit to England leaves twelve months for the French declaration, but the French land-registry publication should still move quickly to protect the heirs against third parties. Late filing triggers interest from day one and penalties that grow with delay, so diary the date of death plus six months immediately and work backwards to the valuation, translation and signature steps. Interest and penalties can themselves be challenged where the delay has a legitimate excuse, but prevention through a complete file is far stronger than cure through a grace request.

The paper chain has four links, and a missing link stalls everything. First, the acte de notoriété names the heirs. Second, the inventaire lists assets and debts. Third, the déclaration de succession computes the tax. Fourth, the attestation immobilière, the deed transferring the land-registry entry, publishes the new ownership at the service de publicité foncière. Each needs supporting documents: death certificate with sworn translation and apostille where required, marriage certificate and any divorce decree absolute, birth certificates for each child, the property title deed, the latest property tax notices, bank statements at date of death, insurance policies, loan statements and the deceased’s last French income-tax notice. Heirs in Britain sign before a local notary with apostille or give a French-law power of attorney, and every signature must match the identity papers exactly. The impots.gouv.fr portal and the notaire‘s office each have their own checklist, and the two lists do not always match, so reconcile them in week one rather than month five.

Challenging works on three separate tracks, and mixing them up loses time. Track one is the civil division: contesting the applicable law, the habitual-residence finding, the heir list, the valuation, the equalisation for gifts or the occupation of the house. Those claims go to the tribunal judiciaire (the ordinary civil court), starting with a formal demand to the notaire and, if deadlock persists, a summons for partition, appointment of an expert or provisional measures. The 2019 Cassation judgment above shows how courts handle habitual-residence disputes: through a global factual assessment, not a single document. Bring the full bundle: residence cards, tax notices, health affiliation, utility bills, travel records and witness statements. Track two is the tax dispute: challenging the valuation of the French house, the allowance, the treatment of a prior gift or the penalties. That runs through a written claim to the tax office, then departmental conciliation and, if needed, the administrative or judicial court depending on the duty. Track three is urgency: where an heir is locked out, the house is deteriorating or funds are being dissipated, the summary judge can order access, an inventory under supervision or a provisional payment. Keep limitation periods separate: the reduction action has its own five, two and ten-year framework quoted above, partition is imprescriptible in the sense that it can always be demanded, and tax claims have their own two and six-year windows. Write every objection down, send it by tracked letter as well as by email, and never sign a partition or a declaration you believe is wrong just to get the file moving. A signature given to speed things up becomes the document you must then overturn.

Conclusion

When a British owner dies with no will for a French house and was living in France, French intestacy law normally governs, the children inherit first, the surviving spouse takes a defined share alongside them, and the French house is taxed and transferred in France under French papers and deadlines. The spouse of joint children chooses between a life interest over everything and a quarter in full ownership. The spouse facing stepchildren takes the quarter outright. Children share the rest equally and each enjoys a 100,000-euro tax allowance, while the spouse pays no succession duty. Lifetime gifts are reunited for calculation and disclosed for tax, the declaration is due within six months of a death in France, and each challenge has its own court and clock. Families who grasp those five points in the first weeks protect the home, the allowances and the right to contest. Families who assume English rules apply discover the error at the worst moment, when the notaire asks for a signature on a division they never expected.

If you are facing this situation now, gather the death certificate, the marriage and birth certificates, the property deed and the last tax notices, ask the notaire in writing which habitual-residence analysis the file relies on, and do not sign a partition or a tax declaration you do not fully understand. Where a sibling asserts an English-only reading, where a valuation looks inflated, where a prior gift was hidden or where the surviving spouse is told to leave the house, early advice sets the correct track before positions harden. French intestacy is rigid on shares but generous on proof and remedies, and Brexit changed none of its substance for the house itself. The remedy for a no-will death is not to rewrite history but to apply the French order correctly, compute the spouse’s share on the proper mass, claim every allowance and contest each error in its proper forum and time.

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For a telephone consultation within 48 hours with an advocate of the chambers, call +33 6 46 60 58 22. You can also reach us through the contact page with the death certificate, the property deed and the names of the heirs. We act across Paris and Île-de-France and throughout France for British families settling succession after Brexit.