Your father lived in the Dordogne for twelve years. Your mother joined him after she retired from Leeds. Then the telephone rings at two in the morning, and a French voice tells you that your parent has died in hospital in Bergerac, or was found at home in the Lot. You are in Manchester, you do not speak administrative French, and within hours you must decide where the funeral will take place, who signs which paper, and what happens to the French house. After Brexit, nothing about the grief is different, but everything about the paperwork is heavier: your parent was a third-country national in France, the pound and the euro sit in different banks, and two legal systems will each claim a part of the estate.
French law divides the ordeal into two sequences, and this article follows that order. The first forty-eight hours are about the body: the medical certificate, the acte de décès (the French death certificate) at the mairie (the town hall), the funeral in France or repatriation to Britain. The weeks that follow are about the estate: which court has jurisdiction, which law governs the French house, what the notaire (the French succession lawyer with public-officer status) will demand, what tax the French Treasury will claim, and how you challenge a refusal or a bill. Every decisive statement below is anchored to the exact text of the statute or judgment cited beside it.
I. My British parent has just died in France: which papers and which funeral steps in the first days?
A. How do I register the death and arrange the funeral in France?
The first document is medical. A doctor must establish that death has occurred and draw up the certificat de décès (medical death certificate), in two parts: the administrative part, which names the deceased, and the confidential medical part, which states the cause and is sealed for the health authorities. Without this certificate, no funeral operator can move forward and the mairie cannot draw up the civil-status record. If the death occurs in hospital, the hospital handles this step. If it occurs at home, you call the family doctor or, failing that, emergency services, who send a doctor to the house. Where death looks violent, sudden in suspicious circumstances, or follows an accident, the public prosecutor (procureur de la République) is informed, an autopsy can be ordered, and burial or cremation cannot proceed until the prosecutor authorises it. Ask the hospital or the funeral operator, in writing, whether any judicial obstacle (obstacle médico-légal) has been noted, because everything else waits on that answer.
The second document is civil. The death must be declared at the mairie of the place where it occurred, and the officer of civil status draws up the acte de décès. Article 78 of the Code civil states, word for word: “L’acte de décès sera dressé par l’officier de l’état civil de la commune où le décès a eu lieu, sur la déclaration d’un parent du défunt ou sur celle d’une personne possédant sur son état civil les renseignements les plus exacts et les plus complets qu’il sera possible.” In practice the funeral operator (opérateur funéraire) makes this declaration for the family on the day of death or the next working day. Order a dozen full copies (copies intégrales d’acte de décès) at once: banks, insurers, pension funds, the notaire, the British consulate and the airline will each want an original, and returning to the mairie weeks later from Britain is an avoidable expense.
You are free to choose any licensed funeral operator; no hospital, care home or police station can impose one on you. Ask for the itemised written estimate (devis), which operators are required to provide, and compare at least two where time allows. The operator will seek the successive authorisations from the mayor: transfer of the body before coffining where needed, closing of the coffin, then burial (inhumation) or cremation (crémation). On the transfer point, article R. 2213-7 of the Code général des collectivités territoriales provides: “Sans préjudice des dispositions particulières prévues à l’article R. 2223-77 et quel que soit le lieu de dépôt du corps, le transport avant mise en bière du corps d’une personne décédée vers son domicile, la résidence d’un membre de sa famille ou une chambre funéraire ne peut être réalisé sans une déclaration écrite préalable effectuée, par tout moyen, auprès du maire du lieu de dépôt du corps et dans les conditions prévues par les articles R. 2213-8, R. 2213-8-1, R. 2213-9 et R. 2213-11.” Keep the mayor’s authorisations with the death certificate copies: the préfecture will ask for them if the body leaves France.
Burial in France means buying or using a burial plot concession (concession funéraire) in the municipal cemetery; cremation means the ashes are placed in a niche, buried, scattered in a dedicated garden of remembrance, or handed to the family in an urn. Know that French criminal law protects the dead themselves: article 225-17 of the Code pénal states that “Toute atteinte à l’intégrité du cadavre, par quelque moyen que ce soit, est punie d’un an d’emprisonnement et de 15 000 euros d’amende.” The family’s disputes about funeral wishes therefore have a forum, the urgent-applications judge, and not a private solution. Where your parent left written funeral instructions (essentiels in some wills, or a funeral contract contrat obsèques), those wishes prevail over the preferences of individual relatives.
At the same time, notify the British authorities. Tell the British consulate for the consular district, which records the death and guides you toward the British-side paperwork. The UK government’s guidance on what to do after a death abroad sets out the steps from the London side: registering the death in the UK is possible but not compulsory, while insurers, the Department for Work and Pensions for the state pension, private pension schemes and HM Revenue and Customs each need direct notification with a copy of the French death certificate and, where requested, a sworn translation. Stop the UK state pension promptly: overpaid pension after death is reclaimed. If your parent received a French pension (a retraite du régime général through an S1-holder’s career, for example), notify the French pension fund as well, because the same reclaim logic applies on the French side.
B. Can I bring my parent’s body back to Britain, and what does repatriation require?
Yes, repatriation (rapatriement du corps) to the United Kingdom is routine, but it is a second procedure on top of the French funeral formalities, not a substitute for them. You still need the French medical certificate and the French acte de décès before anything crosses the Channel. Then the funeral operator prepares the international file: the mayor’s authorisation for closing the coffin, a certificate that the coffin meets the international standard (a hermetically sealed coffin, cercueil hermétique, is required for air transport), and the mortuary passport (laissez-passer mortuaire) issued by the préfet of the department where the coffin is closed. Airlines have their own cut-off times and packaging rules, and most families use an operator experienced in Anglo-French transfers who books the cargo space and the receiving funeral director in Britain. Confirm in writing who does what on each side of the Channel, because the French operator’s responsibility normally ends where the British undertaker’s begins.
Two practical points decide whether repatriation is worth it. First, cost: international transport, the sealed coffin, administrative fees and the British funeral commonly run to several thousand pounds, and the bill is presented within days while the estate is frozen. The expense is a debt of the estate (a dette successorale), which means it is ultimately shared by the heirs in proportion to their shares, but someone must advance it now; keep every invoice for the notaire. Second, time: the préfecture’s mortuary passport, the mayor’s authorisations and the flight booking take several working days even in a smooth file. Where the prosecutor has ordered examinations, add the judicial timetable, which no operator can shorten. Families who cannot wait sometimes choose cremation in France, which is faster to organise, and then carry or ship the urn to Britain under far simpler paperwork, holding the memorial service at home. There is no rule of French law that forces burial in France; it is a family decision with cost and delay attached.
Where family members disagree — one child wants burial in the French village where the parent lived for fifteen years, another wants repatriation to Yorkshire — the dispute goes before the judge in urgent proceedings (juge des référés) of the place of death, who decides in days, sometimes hours, in light of the deceased’s known wishes and family circumstances. A short written statement from each side, the funeral contract or will extract if one exists, and proof of who is paying are the useful exhibits. Do not let the body wait while relatives argue by telephone: the operator’s cold-room charges accumulate daily and become another estate debt.
If your parent died while visiting France — a second-home owner who spent the winter in the Var, for instance — the same French procedure applies because the death occurred on French soil, and repatriation to Britain is often the natural choice. The estate consequences, however, depend on where your parent habitually lived, not where death struck. A holiday death does not move the succession to France by itself; the habitual residence test described in Part II governs. Keep the French paperwork (death certificate, authorisations, invoices) in one file regardless: the notaire and both tax administrations will ask for it months later.
II. What happens to the French house and the money after a British death in France?
A. Which court, which law and which notaire for a British succession with French property?
French successions open at death and are anchored to the deceased’s last home. Article 720 of the Code civil states: “Les successions s’ouvrent par la mort, au dernier domicile du défunt.” For cross-border estates, the European Succession Regulation (Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, in force for deaths on or after 17 August 2015) adds the two questions that decide everything: which court, and which law. The court of the State where the deceased was habitually resident at death has general jurisdiction over the whole succession, and the applicable law is, as a rule, the law of that habitual residence. The regulation also allows a person to choose, in a will, the law of their nationality to govern the whole estate (the professio juris): a British parent living in France can designate English law, and a British parent living in England with a French second home is in principle governed by English law for the estate as a whole, while French courts keep powers over the French assets. The regulation has applied in France to deaths on or after 17 August 2015. One Brexit asymmetry matters throughout: the United Kingdom never opted into this regulation, so an English court does not apply it, while French courts and notaires do. Expect the French and English sides of the same estate to reason from different starting points.
Where the deceased was habitually resident outside France but left property in France — the classic British second-home case — French courts do not walk away. The Cour de cassation (France’s highest civil court) has held that the subsidiary jurisdiction of the regulation must be raised by the court on its own motion. In Cass. 1st Civil Chamber, 21 September 2022, No. 19-15.438, the court quotes the European text and then draws the consequence: “Selon ce texte, titré « Compétences subsidiaires », lorsque la résidence habituelle du défunt au moment du décès n’est pas située dans un État membre, les juridictions de l’État membre dans lequel sont situés des biens successoraux sont néanmoins compétentes pour statuer sur l’ensemble de la succession dans la mesure où le défunt possédait la nationalité de cet État membre au moment du décès.” The same judgment records the Court of Justice’s answer that such a court “doit relever d’office sa compétence au titre de la règle de compétence subsidiaire prévue à cette disposition lorsque, ayant été saisie sur le fondement de la règle de compétence générale établie à l’article 4 de ce règlement, elle constate qu’elle n’est pas compétente au titre de cette dernière disposition.” And it sanctioned the appeal court which had declined jurisdiction: “En statuant ainsi, alors qu’il résultait de ses constatations que [Y] [H] avait la nationalité française et possédait des biens situés en France, la cour d’appel, qui n’a pas, en conséquence, relevé d’office sa compétence subsidiaire, a violé le texte susvisé.” That case concerned a French national; for a British deceased the mirror provision gives the French courts jurisdiction at least over the French immovable assets. In practice this means a French notaire will settle the French house even where the parent lived in Kent, and a French court can be seised of disputes about it.
The notaire is the pivotal figure. Choose one where the French property sits, or where your parent lived in France; for a first contact, any French notaire can open the file and liaise with colleagues. The notaire draws up the acte de notoriété (the deed proving who the heirs are), obtains the civil-status documents on both sides of the Channel, has the English will translated by a sworn translator where needed, values the estate, computes the tax, and publishes the transfer of the French house at the land registry (service de publicité foncière). For English assets, the mirror step happens in England and Wales: the executor applies for a grant of probate (or letters of administration where there is no will), which the banks and the Land Registry require before releasing anything. The European Certificate of Succession (certificat successoral européen), issued by the French notaire, proves your status as heir to banks and registries across the EU — though not in England, where the grant of probate remains the key. Start both tracks at once; neither administration waits for the other.
The hardest substantive question is usually the children’s reserved share (réserve héréditaire). Where there is no entitled surviving spouse, French intestacy calls the descendants first. Article 734 of the Code civil provides: “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.” And the reserved share itself is defined by article 912 of the Code civil: “La réserve héréditaire est la part des biens et droits successoraux dont la loi assure la dévolution libre de charges à certains héritiers dits réservataires, s’ils sont appelés à la succession et s’ils l’acceptent. La quotité disponible est la part des biens et droits successoraux qui n’est pas réservée par la loi et dont le défunt a pu disposer librement par des libéralités.” English law has no equivalent forced share for adult children, so the applicable law decides whether a will that leaves the French house to one child, to a new partner, or to a charity stands or falls.
For deaths before 17 August 2015, French courts applied the old scission rule — French law for French immovables — as the Cour de cassation recalled in Cass. 1st Civil Chamber, 4 July 2018, Nos. 17-16.515 and 17-16.522: “l’arrêt constate que la succession comprend des biens immobiliers situés en France et retient que ceux-ci sont soumis, par application de la règle de conflit édictée à l’article 3, alinéa 2, du code civil, à la loi française”, from which the appeal court had “exactement déduit, par motifs propres et adoptés, sans méconnaître l’autorité attachée au jugement d’exequatur, que la dévolution successorale desdits immeubles devait tenir compte des règles de la réserve héréditaire, laquelle, d’ordre public interne, ne pouvait être écartée par des dispositions testamentaires établies selon la loi du domicile du défunt et régissant son statut personnel”. For deaths since 17 August 2015, the regulation governs instead, and Parliament added a safety net in 2021: article 913, second paragraph, of the Code civil states that “Lorsque le défunt ou au moins l’un de ses enfants est, au moment du décès, ressortissant d’un Etat membre de l’Union européenne ou y réside habituellement et lorsque la loi étrangère applicable à la succession ne permet aucun mécanisme réservataire protecteur des enfants, 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.” Read that condition carefully after Brexit: where the deceased was British, habitually resident in Britain, and the children live in Britain, the European anchor is missing and the compensatory levy may not be available — the English will then governs the French house, subject only to narrow French public-policy control. Conversely, where the parent lived in France or a child lives in France, the levy can restore the French reserved share out of the French assets. Which side of that line your family falls on is the single most valuable question to put to a lawyer before accepting or contesting the notaire’s distribution.
B. French death taxes, blocked bank accounts and how to challenge the bill?
French death duties (droits de mutation à titre gratuit, literally the taxes on transfers without payment) catch the French house in almost every configuration. Article 750 ter of the Code général des impôts (the French tax code) taxes French-sited property even where the deceased was not fiscally domiciled in France, and taxes worldwide assets where the deceased was domiciled in France for tax purposes. Each child then benefits from a personal allowance before the progressive scale applies: article 779 of the same code states 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.” Brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, and unrelated beneficiaries have far smaller allowances and steeper rates, which is why the same French house can cost one family nearly nothing and another family a third of its value. The surviving spouse or PACS partner is fully exempt from French death duties; adult children are not. Declare UK inheritances honestly to HM Revenue and Customs as well: the UK has its own inheritance tax with its own nil-rate band, and there is no Anglo-French succession treaty that spares you one of the two bills — each State taxes under its own rules, with unilateral relief in some cases.
The return has a clock. Article 641 of the Code général des impôts fixes it in one sentence: “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.” The notaire normally files the déclaration de succession (the estate tax return) within that period and arranges payment of the duties, and late filing attracts surcharges and interest. Where the estate is complex — a house to value, a UK probate awaited, heirs disagreeing — the notaire can file to preserve the deadline and adjust later; what must never happen is silence until the Treasury sends its own assessment with penalties. The practical guide to succession declarations on impots.gouv.fr and the death-and-succession sheets on service-public.fr describe the steps from the administration’s side.
Bank accounts freeze on notification of death, in France and in Britain alike. The French bank releases funds only against the notaire’s file — the acte de notoriété proving heirship — and pays the funeral invoice and the tax directly where the file allows. The British bank or building society requires the English grant of probate or letters of administration before unfreezing anything above its small-balance threshold. Keep both tracks moving: a family that waits for London before instructing the notaire misses the six-month French deadline, and a family that waits for the notaire before applying for probate leaves the British accounts frozen for a year. Debts follow the heirs in proportion to their shares: article 873 of the Code civil states that “Les héritiers sont tenus des dettes et charges de la succession, personnellement pour leur part successorale, et hypothécairement pour le tout ; sauf leur recours soit contre leurs cohéritiers, soit contre les légataires universels, à raison de la part pour laquelle ils doivent y contribuer.” Funeral costs count among those estate debts: the Paris Court of Appeal, listing a notary’s statement of liabilities, recorded “Frais funéraires : 1 500 euros” within the “Passif de succession” (CA Paris, Pôle 6, Chambre 12, 10 March 2023, No. 19/07114). An heir who fears an insolvent estate can accept subject to the net assets (acceptation à concurrence de l’actif net), which caps liability at what the estate contains — a declaration made at the court registry, not a letter to the family.
If you consider the tax bill wrong — wrong valuation of the house, wrong allowance, residence position disputed — the remedy is a written claim (réclamation contentieuse) to the tax office, then the court. Registration duties and wealth tax go to the civil courts, not the administrative courts: article L. 199 of the Livre des procédures fiscales provides that “En matière de droits d’enregistrement, d’impôt sur la fortune immobilière, de taxe de publicité foncière, de droits de timbre, de contributions indirectes et de taxes assimilées à ces droits, taxes ou contributions, le tribunal compétent est le tribunal judiciaire.” File the claim within the statutory period shown on the assessment notice, attach the valuation evidence (estate-agent appraisals at date of death, the notaire’s computation, the death certificate and proof of kinship), and pay what is clearly due while contesting the balance: enforcement runs during the dispute, and a partial payment never weakens the claim. The same discipline applies to a notaire’s distribution you disagree with — a letter reserving your rights, then the court of the place where the French property sits if negotiation fails. Where the dispute turns on English law (validity of the English will, construction of a trust), the French court applies that foreign law with the help of expert evidence (certificat de coutume), so commission an English opinion early rather than asserting English law from memory.
Conclusion
A British death in France unfolds in the order French law imposes. The doctor’s certificate, the acte de décès drawn up under article 78 of the Code civil, the mayor’s authorisations including the transfer declaration of article R. 2213-7, and then either burial or cremation in France or repatriation under the préfet’s mortuary passport: that is the first week. The succession then opens under article 720 at the last domicile, with the European regulation allocating jurisdiction and applicable law, the French courts holding at minimum the French-house part of the file — a subsidiary jurisdiction the Cour de cassation requires judges to raise of their own motion — and the notaire settling the French assets while the English executor proves the will in London. Children inherit first under article 734, the reserved share of article 912 binds wherever French law governs, the 2021 compensatory levy of article 913 protects children only where a European anchor exists, each child deducts 100,000 euros under article 779, the return is due within six months or a year under article 641, heirs answer for debts under article 873, and a wrong tax bill is claimed against and taken to the tribunal judiciaire under article L. 199. Advance the funeral money, keep every paper, instruct the notaire and the English probate solicitor together, and challenge in writing within the deadlines: grief needs no lawyer, but a Franco-British estate does.
Need a quick opinion on your case
If your British parent has died in France and you face the death certificate, the funeral or repatriation, the French house or a tax bill, our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write via our contact page. The firm advises clients in Paris and Île-de-France as well as British families throughout France, in English, from the first papers to the challenge of an unlawful refusal or assessment.