You are British, you own a house in France, and you made an English will that leaves everything to your husband, your wife or your partner. It felt settled. Then a French notaire — the public officer who alone can transfer French land after a death — tells your family that the will cannot do what you wrote, that your children each own a fixed share of the house whatever the will says, and that the surviving spouse may end up sharing the roof with your children from a first marriage. For many British owners, that conversation happens too late, in a notaire’s office, months after the funeral, when every option costs money. This guide explains the three questions that decide everything: which country’s law governs your French house now that Britain has left the European Union, how an express choice of English law in your will works and where it stops, and how your children can challenge a will that disinherits them — including the compensatory levy created in 2021 that takes a slice of French property to restore their French reserved share. It is written for the owner, not the academic: each French term is explained, each rule is followed by its practical consequence, and the final section gives you the procedure, the court and the time limits to challenge or to defend.

I. Does your English will really govern your French house after Brexit?

A. Why your English will does not automatically control your French house

England and France start from opposite ideas about what a will can do. In England and Wales, you enjoy almost complete freedom of testation: subject to a court claim by certain dependants for reasonable provision, you may leave your estate to whom you please, including disinheriting an adult child. In France, freedom stops where the family starts. The Civil Code reserves a fixed fraction of every estate for the children, and no will, however clearly drafted, can take that fraction away. The collision between these two philosophies is the daily reality of every British-owned house in France, and Brexit did not remove it — it confirmed that the European rulebook still decides the conflict from the French side.

That rulebook is Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, the EU Succession Regulation, which France applies to every cross-border death. Its default rule is habitual residence, not nationality. Article 21(1) lays down the habitual-residence rule: Failing any other provision of the Regulation, the whole succession is governed by the law of the State where the deceased was habitually resident at death. If you are a British national who settled in France — the Dordogne farmhouse that became your main home, your tax residence, your doctor, your daily life — French courts treat you as habitually resident in France, and French succession law governs your whole estate, including your English bank accounts. The applicable law then decides, in particular, as Article 23(2)(b) of the Regulation confirms, since the applicable law determines the beneficiaries, their respective shares and the succession rights of the surviving spouse or partner. In plain terms: French law decides who gets what, and the French reserved share for children applies in full.

If instead you stayed domiciled in England and kept the French property as a second home, the default rule points the other way: at death, your habitual residence is England, so English law governs the succession as a whole — including, in principle, the French house. That sounds like victory for your English will, but three qualifications matter enormously in practice. First, the English-law outcome only helps if your will actually covers the French asset and is recognised as valid in form; an English will that says “my estate” generally does cover foreign land, but ambiguity about foreign property is one of the commonest sources of litigation, and a will made before you bought the French house may never have contemplated it. Second, the French notaire remains unavoidable: only a French notarial deed transfers French land in the land register, so your English executors — the personal representatives appointed by the will to administer the estate — must still instruct a notaire, prove the will under English law with a grant of probate, arrange sworn translations, and obtain an acte de notoriété, the notarial certificate that identifies the heirs and unlocks the estate. Our guide for executors walks through that probate-to-notaire handover step by step: British Executor Locked Out of a French House and Bank Account After Brexit. Third, choosing or receiving English law does not neutralise the French protection of children, because the 2021 compensatory levy follows the French land itself, as Part II explains.

Brexit changed the geometry without changing the French starting point. Before 17 August 2015, French courts split successions in two: French land followed French law come what may, while movables followed the law of domicile. The Succession Regulation replaced that split with a single law for the whole estate, and it kept applying in France after Brexit because the Regulation designates law universally. Article 20 gives the Regulation universal application: a law it designates applies whether or not it is the law of a Member State. So a French notaire or a French court can still designate English law after Brexit — the United Kingdom is simply treated as a third state whose law may govern — and symmetrically, an English court dealing with a French house applies its own English conflict rules, which for land traditionally point to the law of the place where the land sits, the lex situs. The result is a pragmatic asymmetry you must plan for: from the French side, habitual residence or your express choice decides; from the English side, the French house often answers to French law anyway. Anyone who assumes that “my English will sorts everything” without checking both ends is planning with half a map.

The unmarried deserve a special warning here, because the English will is sometimes their only shield. If you bought the French house with a partner to whom you are not married, neither English intestacy nor French intestacy gives the survivor an automatic share, and the children of either partner can force a sale. French couples in that position use the PACS — the pacte civil de solidarité, France’s registered civil partnership — or purchase structures such as tontine or indivision with a carefully drafted agreement, each explained in our guide for unmarried buyers: Unmarried and Buying a French House Together After Brexit. A will alone, even a good one, cannot replicate those lifetime structures, and for unmarried owners the choice-of-law clause discussed below is necessary but never sufficient.

B. How to choose English law for your French estate before it is too late

The Regulation gives every British owner a powerful tool: the professio juris, the choice of the law of your nationality written into your will. Article 22(1) allows a person to choose, for the whole succession, the law of the State whose nationality they hold when making the choice or at death, and a person with several nationalities may choose any of those laws. For a British-only national, that means English law (or Scots law for a Scot — specify which British legal system you mean, because England, Scotland and Northern Ireland have different succession rules). For a dual French-British national, it means you may choose either, which is precisely why the choice must be written down: without it, habitual residence decides, and a Franco-British family living in Lyon will fall under French law by default.

Form matters as much as substance. Article 22(2) requires the choice to be express, in a declaration made in the form of a disposition of property upon death, or at least clearly demonstrated by the terms of such a disposition. In practice, that means a clear sentence in the will itself, for example a clause stating that the law of England and Wales is to govern the succession to the whole estate. A vague reference to “my English will” or the mere fact that the will was drafted by an English solicitor is not enough to be safe, and a choice hidden in a letter of wishes or a side note fails the test. The choice can be made or revoked at any time before death, in the form required for a will, and it is assessed at the nationalities held when you sign or when you die — so acquiring French nationality later does not destroy an earlier choice of English law, though reviewing the will at that moment is plainly wise.

If your will predates Brexit, or predates the French purchase, assume it says nothing useful about French law and have it reviewed now. Wills drafted when Britain was an EU Member State sometimes contain no choice-of-law clause at all, because while freedom of movement lasted, many advisers assumed residence would sort itself out. Check three things: does the will expressly cover foreign immovable property; does it contain an Article 22 declaration naming the law of England and Wales (or Scotland); and does any later document accidentally revoke it — because under both English and French principles, a later will generally revokes an earlier one, and the classic blunder is a new English will that silently wipes out a French will made in the meantime. Many cross-Channel practitioners recommend two coordinated wills — an English will for the English estate and a French will for the French assets — each expressly limited to its territory and each declaring it does not revoke the other. If you go that route, the French will can be an olographe will, entirely handwritten, dated and signed, or an authentique will dictated before two notaires or a notaire with witnesses. The French public service points lay readers to the same starting point: putting last wishes in writing in a will in its guide Faire un testament (service-public.fr). Whatever form you choose, register both wills: in France, the notaire records the existence of the will in the FCDDV, the fichier central des dispositions de dernières volontés, the central file of last wishes that every notaire consults when a death is reported, so that a will locked in a drawer in Kent is not overlooked in Périgueux.

Appoint the right people on each side of the Channel. Your English executors administer the English estate and prove the will, but they have no automatic standing before the French land register; the French notaire conducts the devolution of the French assets, and you may additionally name an exécuteur testamentaire, a testamentary executor under French law whose powers are narrower and time-limited compared with an English executor. Tell both sets of appointees about each other, give the notaire the executors’ details and the executors the notaire’s, and leave a certified copy and translation of the English will where it can be found. Finally, understand what the choice of English law cannot do, because this is where expensive misunderstandings cluster: it governs the succession, but it does not exempt French land from French tax, it does not bind the French land register to English forms, and — crucially — it does not prevent your children from reaching into the French property through the compensatory levy when English law gives them no reserved share. The choice of law organises the devolution; the reserve protects the children despite it. That protection is the whole of Part II.

II. When your children can override your will and take a share of your French house

A. The forced heirship reserve and the compensatory levy that protects your children

The réserve héréditaire — the forced heirship reserve — is the non-negotiable core of French succession law. Article 912 of the Civil Code defines it: “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.” In English: the reserve is the share of the estate that the law guarantees, free of charges, to certain heirs called réservataires — in practice, for British families, the children — provided they accept the succession; the quotité disponible, the disposable portion, is what is left for you to give freely by lifetime gift or will. You may favour your spouse, reward one child, or benefit a friend, but only within the disposable portion. Everything above it can be clawed back.

The fractions are fixed by Article 913: “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.” One child reserves half the estate; two children reserve two-thirds; three or more reserve three-quarters. The same article adds a subtle rule for the child who renounces: such a child counts towards the number of children left by the deceased only if represented by their own descendants or if they must account for a gift under the reporting rules. A deliberate renunciation to inflate the siblings’ shares generally fails unless that child is represented by their own descendants or must account for a gift — a favourite tactic in family strategies that the Code anticipates and blocks.

The Cour de cassation — France’s supreme court for civil matters — enforces the reserve strictly, including against gifts of usufruit, the French right to use a property and take its fruits for life, which British testators constantly use to protect a surviving spouse or partner. In a judgment of 22 June 2022 (First Civil Chamber, appeal no. 20-23.215, Cour de cassation, 22 June 2022, no. 20-23.215), a father had left his partner the usufruit of his house by holographic will, and his daughter sought reduction of the gift. The Court restated the principle: “Il résulte du premier de ces textes qu’aucune disposition testamentaire ne peut modifier les droits que les héritiers réservataires tiennent de la loi.” — no testamentary provision can alter the rights that the reserved heirs derive from statute. It added the practical sting: “Il s’en déduit que les libéralités faites en usufruit s’imputent en assiette.” — gifts of usufruit count in the base against the disposable portion. Leaving the house’s usufruit to your spouse while the bare ownership — the nue-propriété, ownership stripped of use — goes to the children works only if the numbers fit inside the quotité disponible; if the usufruit alone exhausts it, the child obtains reduction, and the survivor’s lifelong roof shrinks accordingly. Any British couple relying on a usufruit clause should have the arithmetic checked now, not after the funeral.

The reserve would be easy to evade from England if that were the end of the story: choose English law, which grants no fixed share to children, and the French house passes as the will directs. The statute that took effect on 1 November 2021 closes exactly that exit for French land. Article 913 now continues: “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.” Each child may take a prélèvement compensatoire — a compensatory levy — from the assets situated in France at the death, restoring them up to their French reserved rights. Three conditions must coincide: the deceased or at least one child is, at death, a national of an EU Member State or habitually resident in one — note that British nationality alone no longer satisfies this, but habitual residence of the deceased or a child in France does, which covers the settled British family completely; the applicable foreign law, typically English law under an Article 22 choice, offers children no reserve mechanism; and the levy bites only French-situs assets, capped at the French reserved share. For the classic case — British parents retired to France, English wills leaving everything to the survivor, children in London — the conditions are routinely met: the parents reside in France, English law gives the children no fixed share, and the farmhouse sits in France. The children can levy on the house itself to restore their half, two-thirds or three-quarters. Choosing English law remains useful for everything else — it keeps one coherent law for the whole estate — but it no longer disinherits the children of their French minimum.

Two related rules complete the picture. First, the order of heirs when there is no usable will: Article 734 provides that “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.” Children and their descendants come first and exclude everyone after them — which is why an invalid or revoked will defaults to the children anyway. Second, English law’s own safety net for disappointed family members — a claim for reasonable financial provision before the English courts — is discretionary, needs-based and litigated in England; it is not a fixed share, and it does not stop the French levy from operating on the French house in the meantime. Plan for both systems, not one.

B. How your children challenge an unfair will — and how you protect your wishes now

The challenge procedure is the action en réduction, the action for reduction of excessive gifts, and it belongs exclusively to the protected circle. Article 921 states: “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 : les donataires, les légataires, ni les créanciers du défunt ne pourront demander cette réduction, ni en profiter.” Only the reserved heirs, their heirs or assigns may sue — not the beneficiaries of the will, not the deceased’s creditors. The same article sets a triple time limit that practitioners miss at their peril: “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 the opening of the succession, or two years from discovering the attack on the reserve, capped at ten years from death. And the notaire is now an early-warning system by statute: “Lorsque le notaire constate, lors du règlement de la succession, que les droits réservataires d’un héritier sont susceptibles d’être atteints par les libéralités effectuées par le défunt, il informe chaque héritier concerné et connu, individuellement et, le cas échéant, avant tout partage, de son droit de demander la réduction des libéralités qui excèdent la quotité disponible.” If the notaire settling the estate sees that gifts may breach a child’s reserve, the notaire must warn each known heir individually, before any division, of the right to seek reduction. A child who was never warned, or who signed a partition without understanding it, should treat that warning duty as the first line of attack: demand the notaire’s calculations in writing.

What the child recovers is computed on a reconstructed estate, not merely what is left on the table. Article 922 directs: “La réduction se détermine en formant une masse de tous les biens existant au décès du donateur ou testateur. Les biens dont il a été disposé par donation entre vifs sont fictivement réunis à cette masse, d’après leur état à l’époque de la donation et leur valeur à l’ouverture de la succession, après qu’en ont été déduites les dettes ou les charges les grevant.” Lifetime gifts are fictitiously reunited with the assets existing at death, debts deducted, and the disposable portion is calculated on that total — so the father who gave the villa to one child years ago and left the residue to his partner cannot shrink the reserve by giving early. As for the remedy, French law since 2006 favours money over restitution: Article 924 provides that “Lorsque la libéralité excède la quotité disponible, le gratifié, successible ou non successible, doit indemniser les héritiers réservataires à concurrence de la portion excessive de la libéralité, quel que soit cet excédent.” The over-endowed beneficiary compensates the reserved heirs in money for the excess, however large — the child does not automatically recover the house itself, which often allows the surviving spouse to keep the roof by paying compensation, provided the money exists.

Two recent supreme court decisions shape where and when to sue. On jurisdiction, the First Civil Chamber held on 14 April 2021 (appeal no. 19-24.773, Cour de cassation, 14 April 2021, no. 19-24.773) that “les tribunaux français sont compétents pour statuer sur une succession mobilière lorsque le défunt avait son domicile en France. Ils sont compétents pour statuer sur une succession immobilière pour les immeubles situés en France” — French courts decide movable successions where the deceased was domiciled in France, and immovable successions for buildings in France — and, combining the international succession principles with Article 924, that “l’action en réduction exercée par les héritiers réservataires contre le donataire d’un immeuble, qui ne tend pas à la restitution en nature de l’immeuble mais au paiement d’une indemnité de réduction et présente, dès lors, un caractère mobilier, relève de la compétence des tribunaux du pays où le défunt avait son dernier domicile.” Because reduction now seeks money rather than the building, the action is movable in character and belongs to the courts of the country of the deceased’s last domicile. For a British owner who died domiciled in France, that means the Tribunal judiciaire — the ordinary civil court — of the last French domicile; for one who died domiciled in England leaving a French house, expect a fight about forum, and get advice before filing. On time limits, the First Civil Chamber confirmed on 23 October 2024 (appeal no. 22-19.365, Cour de cassation, 23 October 2024, no. 22-19.365): “L’action en réduction, que l’article 921, alinéa 1er, du code civil reconnaît à ceux au profit desquels la loi fait la réserve et à leurs héritiers ou ayants cause, présente le caractère d’une action personnelle soumise à la prescription quinquennale prévue à l’article 2224 du même code, quand bien même elle aurait pour effet de résoudre la question de l’existence d’un droit réel sur les biens donnés ou légués.” The action is personal, subject to the five-year limitation, even where it incidentally decides a right in the property — and transitional cases for older deaths received no indulgence, the Court computing expiry to the very day. Diarise the deadlines from the death certificate, not from the family meeting.

Practically, a child who believes the English will cheats the reserve should move in this order. First, secure the paperwork: death certificate, the English will with grant of probate, any French will, the notaire’s décompte showing the fictitious reunion and the disposable portion, and valuations of the French property at death. Second, put the notaire on written notice that the reserve is disputed and that no partition should proceed without the calculation, invoking the statutory warning duty. Third, quantify the excess with an independent valuation — the usufruit percentages in the 2022 case show how valuation decides outcomes — and send a formal demand for the indemnity to the over-endowed beneficiary. Fourth, if payment or negotiation fails, issue proceedings before the competent Tribunal judiciaire within the five-year, two-year and ten-year limits, claiming reduction and the compensatory levy on the French assets where English law applies. Conversely, owners who want their wishes to survive should act symmetrically now: insert the Article 22 choice of English law, compute the quotité disponible against today’s values with a margin for growth, keep lifetime gifts inside it, consider a French life-insurance contract — assurance-vie — which passes outside the succession within its own ceilings for the spouse’s protection, and above all talk to the children before death fixes the numbers. A will that respects the reserve is a will nobody needs to challenge, and a family warned in advance rarely litigates. Where lifetime gifts of the house itself are contemplated instead, the gift deed, its allowances and its own challenge routes are examined in our guide to giving the French house to children: British Gift of a French House to Children.

Conclusion

Your English will is necessary but never sufficient for your French house. Without an express choice of English law, habitual residence in France draws your whole estate into French succession law; with the choice, you gain coherence but not immunity, because the compensatory levy lets your children restore their French reserved share from the French property whenever the applicable foreign law gives them none. The fractions are fixed — half, two-thirds, three-quarters — the usufruit counts, the lifetime gifts are reunited, the remedy is money, and the clock runs five years from death, two from discovery, ten at most. Review the will, write the Article 22 declaration in plain terms, register it where the French notaire will find it, compute the disposable portion before you sign anything else, and challenge quickly and in the right court if a will or a partition breaches the reserve. Done early, these steps cost a consultation; done late, they cost a house.