A British family settles in the Dordogne, opens a French bank account, buys a village house, keeps a current account and an ISA in Leeds, and never gets round to writing a French will. Then one spouse dies suddenly. The surviving partner assumes that, as in England, everything passes to them, that the children will wait, and that the house can be sold when the time feels right. French intestacy law — the succession légale, meaning the devolution imposed by statute when there is no valid will — says otherwise. Children are protected heirs from the first euro, the surviving spouse shares with them, the notaire (the French public officer who alone settles estates involving French immovable property) blocks any sale until every heir agrees, and the tax office applies French inheritance tax to French assets even where the deceased remained British. Since Brexit, the question of which country’s law governs, which court decides, and how United Kingdom assets are gathered in has become harder, not easier, because British citizens are now third-country nationals under European Union private international law.
This guide explains, for a British reader living in France or owning property there, what happens when a British person dies in France without a will: which law applies and which court is competent, who inherits what between spouse, children, parents and wider family, how the forced share known as the réserve héréditaire works even without a will, how French inheritance tax and the 1963 France–United Kingdom estates treaty divide the bill between Paris and London, and what practical steps — the acte de notoriété (the notarial certificate proving who the heirs are), the attestation immobilière (the notarial certificate transferring title to French land), the European Certificate of Succession, probate in England and Wales — unlock bank funds and allow a sale. It closes with how to challenge a blocked file: refusal by a bank, disagreement between heirs, or an excessive tax assessment. Every French term is explained at first use. United Kingdom spelling is used throughout.
The starting point of French law is stark. Article 720 of the Civil Code provides that “Les successions s’ouvrent par la mort, au dernier domicile du défunt.” The estate opens at death, at the last domicile of the deceased. From that moment an undivided ownership — the indivision successorale, meaning joint ownership by all heirs until partition — arises by operation of law. Article 731 adds that “La succession est dévolue par la loi aux parents et au conjoint successibles du défunt dans les conditions définies ci-après.” Intestacy is therefore not a vacuum: the statute names the heirs and their shares. A companion guide on this site explains how a British testator can choose English law in a French house succession and protect children while challenging a blocked file; the present article covers the opposite situation, where no choice was ever made and the default rules decide everything.
I. Which Law Governs a British Intestacy in France and Which Court Decides After Brexit
A. How Habitual Residence Decides the Law for a Briton Who Dies in France Without a Will
Since 17 August 2015 the European Succession Regulation No 650/2012, often called Brussels IV, governs in France. Its core rule is that, in the absence of a choice of law in a will, the whole succession is governed by the law of the State where the deceased had their habitual residence at death. Habitual residence — the résidence habituelle, meaning the place of the closest and most stable centre of life — is a question of fact, not nationality. A British citizen who lived year-round in Bordeaux, was registered with the French health system, filed French tax returns and kept their daily life there will normally be habitually resident in France, so French intestacy law governs the entire estate, including the Leeds account and the London flat, at least as seen from Paris. Conversely a British second-home owner who spent three months a year in the Lot and lived the rest of the year in Kent will normally remain habitually resident in England, so English intestacy law governs in principle, subject to French public policy and tax.
Brexit did not remove this Regulation from French cases. The United Kingdom never opted in, but Denmark and Ireland aside the Regulation is applied by French courts as part of French law to every succession within its scope, including where the deceased was British. What Brexit changed is practical: British citizens no longer benefit from free movement, from automatic recognition of United Kingdom probate, or from European enforcement shortcuts for court orders. The French notaire will still ask whether English law claims to govern, will still require proof of English law by a certificat de coutume (a certificate of foreign law drawn up by a qualified lawyer), and will still hesitate where the two systems point in different directions. That is why dying without a will is far riskier for a British family than for a French family: the factual argument over where the deceased really lived becomes the whole case.
The Cour de cassation, the French supreme court for civil matters, applies a demanding factual test. In a leading international succession decision, First Civil Chamber, 29 May 2019, appeal No 18-13.383, available at https://www.courdecassation.fr/decision/5fca6e7dbfe59759b59c4713, the Court recalled that jurisdiction over the whole estate belongs to the courts of the Member State where the deceased had their habitual residence, and that the authority must carry out an overall assessment of the circumstances of the life of the deceased. The judgment states, word for word: “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, la résidence habituelle ainsi déterminée devant révéler un lien étroit et stable avec l’État concerné, compte tenu des objectifs spécifiques du règlement”. Duration and regularity of presence, conditions and reasons for presence, close and stable link: those four markers decide the case. Nationality and the location of the main assets are only subsidiary criteria where the deceased divided life between several States, for example living alternately in New York and Paris, as in that case, where the Court approved a finding of habitual residence in New York based on American nationality, a forty-year fixed address, professional life, burial wishes, tax domicile and absence of French health cover.
For a British family the lesson is concrete. Keep and organise the evidence of daily life now: the carte de séjour (the residence permit issued to British beneficiaries of the Withdrawal Agreement, commonly called the WARP card), French tax notices (avis d’imposition), registration with the Caisse primaire d’assurance maladie (the local health fund, abbreviated CPAM), electricity and telephone bills, school certificates, medical records showing a French treating doctor (médecin traitant), electoral registration where applicable, and proof of where personal possessions are kept. A bailiff’s report (constat d’huissier, now called a constat de commissaire de justice) showing a Paris flat decorated with the most personal possessions and full of everyday objects was argued in the 2019 case but did not prevail against decades of New York anchoring. One strong document never outweighs a lifetime pattern. Where habitual residence is genuinely balanced between France and England, expect the notaire to proceed cautiously, to request both French and English legal opinions, and to refuse to release funds until the applicable law is agreed or a court has ruled.
Two further boundaries matter. First, the Regulation allows a testator to choose the law of their nationality in a will; without a will there is no choice, so the habitual-residence default applies in full. Relatives cannot reconstruct a choice after death. Second, even where English intestacy law governs, French courts retain jurisdiction over French immovable property in certain configurations, and French tax always applies to French immovable property regardless of the governing civil law. Civil law and tax law therefore diverge: you can win the argument that English law governs the shares yet still pay French inheritance tax on the Dordogne house. Families should analyse both tracks in parallel from the first meeting with the notaire.
B. Which French Court and Which Officer Handles the Estate When There Is No Will
French estates are settled primarily out of court by the notaire, not by a judge. The heirs jointly instruct a notaire, who verifies the death, identifies the heirs, draws up the acte de notoriété proving heirship, collects bank and insurance information through the FICOBA and FICOVIE files (the national registers of bank accounts and life assurance), publishes the attestation immobilière at the land registry (service de publicité foncière) to transfer French land, files the inheritance tax return (déclaration de succession), and proposes partition. The court — the tribunal judiciaire (the ordinary civil court with jurisdiction over successions) — intervenes only on dispute: disagreement on heirship, on the applicable law, on the valuation, or on whether to order a judicial partition (partage judiciaire). For British families based in Paris and the Île-de-France, the competent court is normally the tribunal judiciaire de Paris, and Paris notaires are accustomed to requesting English grants of probate and sworn translations. Practical Paris points include longer appointment lead times, systematic requests for apostilled English civil status documents with sworn French translations, and direct liaison with the Paris land registry where delays of several months after publication are common. Build those timelines into any plan to sell.
Jurisdiction follows habitual residence for the whole estate under Article 4 of the Regulation, with subsidiary jurisdiction under Article 10 where the deceased lived outside the European Union but left assets inside it. The distinction between movable and immovable succession, familiar from older French private international law, survives only for deaths before 17 August 2015. For those older files the Cour de cassation still recalls the classic rule. In First Civil Chamber, 14 April 2021, appeal No 19-24.773, available at https://www.courdecassation.fr/decision/607a4837118b6b21e20751eb, the Court stated: “Selon ces principes, 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 are competent for movable succession where the deceased was domiciled in France, and for immovable succession as to buildings situated in France. The same judgment adds that “la détermination de la juridiction compétente ne dépendait pas de la loi applicable au litige, mais de la nature de l’action successorale” — jurisdiction does not depend on the applicable law but on the nature of the succession claim — and that “l’action en réduction exercée par les héritiers réservataires contre le donataire d’un immeuble” is assessed under the law of the place where the building lies. Even in a modern post-2015 file, that reasoning reminds practitioners to characterise each claim correctly: an action to reduce an excessive lifetime gift of a French house (action en réduction, meaning the claim by protected heirs to claw back gifts exceeding the free portion) remains anchored to France.
Cross-border proof is where British intestacies stall. To unblock a French bank, the acte de notoriété normally suffices. To unblock an English bank or sell an English flat where the deceased died habitually resident in France, the family needs English recognition: either a grant of probate or letters of administration from the Probate Service in England and Wales, supported by the French acte de notoriété, the death certificate with apostille, and where useful a European Certificate of Succession (certificat successoral européen, the multilingual EU form proving heirship, which the United Kingdom does not issue but French notaires do). Since Brexit the European Certificate is not recognised as such in England; treat it as powerful evidence rather than an automatic passport. Mirror-image work is needed in France for English assets: the French notaire will ask for the English grant with a sworn translation and an apostille under the Hague Convention. Allow three to six months for the full loop where both countries are involved, longer where HM Revenue and Customs and the French tax office both require clearance before distribution.
Where heirs disagree on who inherits or on the governing law, any interested party can seise the tribunal judiciaire of the place where the estate opened or where French immovable property lies. The judge can appoint an expert to value property, order provisional measures to preserve funds, and ultimately order partition. The limitation period for partition claims is long, but the tax return deadline is short — six months from death where the deceased died in France, twelve months where death occurred outside France — with interest for late filing. Never let a civil dispute make the family miss the tax deadline; file a provisional return and correct it later rather than filing nothing.
II. Who Inherits What Without a Will and What Tax the British Family Pays in Each Country
A. How French Intestacy Shares the House and Money Between Spouse, Children and Wider Family
French intestacy follows orders of heirs. Article 734 of the Civil Code 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.” Each of the four categories is an order that excludes the next. Children therefore exclude parents, siblings, grandparents and cousins entirely where at least one child survives and accepts. Representation (représentation successorale, meaning grandchildren stepping into the shoes of a predeceased child) preserves the branch. Only where no child or descendant survives do parents and siblings, then wider ascendants, then ordinary collaterals inherit.
The surviving spouse — the conjoint survivant, meaning the married husband or wife at death — is not in those four orders but concurs with them. Unmarried partners, however long the cohabitation, inherit nothing without a will; a partner under a civil solidarity pact (pacte civil de solidarité, abbreviated PACS, the French registered partnership) also inherits nothing without a will, though tax law treats them more favourably than a mere cohabitant. This surprises many British couples who assumed a “common-law spouse” has rights. In France only marriage creates intestate spousal rights. Where the couple married in England and live in France, the matrimonial property regime — the régime matrimonial, meaning the default ownership rules between spouses — must be liquidated before the succession is divided, because only the deceased’s net estate passes to heirs. Do not confuse that prior step with inheritance itself.
Where children survive, the spouse’s intestate share is fixed by statute. Article 757 provides that “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.” In plain terms: if all children are the couple’s joint children, the survivor chooses between a life interest (usufruit, meaning the right to use the property and take income for life while the bare ownership belongs to the children) over everything, or outright ownership (pleine propriété) of one quarter, the children sharing the rest. If any child is from another relationship, the survivor has no choice and takes one quarter in full ownership only. The usufruit option is powerful where the survivor needs to stay in the family home for life, but it creates a split ownership — the survivor as usufruitier and the children as nus-propriétaires (bare owners) — so nothing can later be sold or mortgaged without everyone’s agreement, and the children’s consent is needed for major works. Families should model both options with the notaire before the three-month option window hardens into a deemed choice through conduct.
Even without a will, children are protected by the réserve héréditaire. Article 912 defines it exactly: “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.” The reserved share is the portion the law secures free of charges to certain heirs called reserved heirs; the disposable portion (quotité disponible) is what remains freely disposable by gift or will. In intestacy there are by definition no gifts to reduce, so the reserve simply confirms that children divide everything equally after the spouse’s share, but it still matters because lifetime gifts — an English cash gift to one child, a French house given to a new partner, school fees characterised as an advance on inheritance — are notionally brought back into the calculation (rapport and réduction) to check equality. Article 913 quantifies the limit: “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.” Gifts and legacies may not exceed one half with one child, one third with two children, one quarter with three or more. The same article adds a compensatory levy for children of a European Union national or habitual resident where the foreign law applicable to the succession provides no reserved-share mechanism, allowing each child to take from assets situated in France to restore their French reserved rights; British nationals habitually resident in France fall squarely within the personal scope of that corrective, which often surprises families who assumed English testamentary freedom would govern French land.
Where no child survives, the picture changes. If both parents survive alongside the spouse, each parent takes one quarter and the spouse one half. If only one parent survives, that parent takes one quarter and the spouse three quarters. If no parent survives but siblings survive, siblings take one half in total and the spouse the other half. If neither parents, siblings, nor wider family in the relevant order survive, the spouse takes everything. Ascendants other than parents who are in need can claim maintenance from the estate even where the spouse takes all or three quarters, under the conditions of Article 758 of the Civil Code, within one year of death. These cascades explain why the notaire demands full family civil status going back two generations: a missing brother’s children, a predeceased parent, or an undisclosed child from an earlier relationship reorders the entire devolution. British birth, marriage and divorce certificates must be produced with apostilles and sworn translations; a decree absolute from England proves the end of a prior marriage and therefore that the current spouse is truly the surviving spouse.
Acceptance itself is a decision. An heir can accept purely and simply (acceptation pure et simple), accept up to the net assets (acceptation à concurrence de l’actif net, the former benefit of inventory, protecting against unknown debts), or renounce (renonciation) before the court registry. In a British-French file with a mortgaged French house, a deteriorating leaseback, or unknown English debts, the limited-acceptance option deserves systematic advice. Renunciation by a child increases the shares of the others and can have tax consequences, so it should never be signed hastily at the bank counter to “speed things up”. The notaire records the option; the court registry records renunciations. Once exercised, reversal is narrowly confined.
B. What French Inheritance Tax Applies to British Heirs and How the Treaty Prevents Double Taxation
French inheritance tax — the droits de mutation à titre gratuit par décès, meaning transfer duties on gratuitous transfers at death — applies independently of the civil law governing shares. Three territorial triggers are set by statute. Article 750 ter of the General Tax Code provides that “Sont soumis aux droits de mutation à titre gratuit : 1° Les biens meubles et immeubles situés en France ou hors de France, et notamment les fonds publics, parts d’intérêts, biens ou droits composant un trust défini à l’article 792-0 bis et produits qui y sont capitalisés, créances et généralement toutes les valeurs mobilières françaises ou étrangères de quelque nature qu’elles soient, lorsque le donateur ou le défunt a son domicile fiscal en France au sens de l’article 4 B”, then extends tax to French-situated movables and immovables where the deceased was not fiscally domiciled in France, and to worldwide assets received by an heir fiscally domiciled in France who was so domiciled for at least six of the previous ten years. Fiscal domicile (domicile fiscal) is itself defined by factual criteria. Article 4 B treats as fiscally domiciled in France persons who have in France their home or principal place of stay: “Les personnes qui ont en France leur foyer ou le lieu de leur séjour principal”, those who carry on a professional activity there unless merely ancillary, and those whose centre of economic interests lies there, subject to tax treaties. A British retiree living year-round in France with a French home, French bank centre and French daily life is fiscally domiciled in France, so worldwide assets fall into French tax, with treaty credit for United Kingdom tax. A British non-resident who merely owns a French holiday home is taxed in France only on French assets, but that still includes the house, its furniture, and French bank balances.
Rates and allowances then decide the bill. Between parents and children, Article 777 sets progressive rates from 5% to 45% by slice of net share, and Article 779 grants that “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 child therefore deducts 100,000 euros before rates apply; disabled heirs deduct a further 159,325 euros under the same article. Siblings deduct 15,932 euros each and pay 35% then 45%; nephews and nieces deduct 7,967 euros; unrelated persons pay 60% after a 1,594-euro allowance. Life assurance (assurance-vie, the French savings contract often used for estate planning) follows its own ceiling rules and is not detailed here, but every British family should ask the notaire and the insurer whether a contract names beneficiaries outside the estate and whether premiums were paid after age seventy, because those facts move the contract in or out of succession tax.
The surviving spouse is fully exempt. Article 796-0 bis of the General Tax Code states: “Sont exonérés de droits de mutation par décès le conjoint survivant et le partenaire lié au défunt par un pacte civil de solidarité.” No inheritance tax between married spouses or PACS partners. Cohabitants without marriage or PACS pay 60%. That single line explains why, for an older British couple in France, marrying or concluding a PACS before a health crisis can save tens of thousands of euros, even though only marriage creates intestate inheritance rights. Do not confuse the two advantages: PACS gives the tax exemption without giving intestate heirship.
The 1963 France–United Kingdom convention for the avoidance of double taxation with respect to duties on the estates of deceased persons then allocates taxing rights over the Channel. In broad terms France taxes French immovable property and certain French business assets, the United Kingdom taxes United Kingdom immovable property and certain business assets, and movable property follows the domicile of the deceased under the treaty, with each State granting credit for the other’s tax up to its own claim. The treaty does not harmonise rates or allowances; it prevents the same euro being taxed twice in full. Practically, the French notaire files the French return and pays French tax within the deadline, the English personal representatives file the inheritance tax account (form IHT400) with HM Revenue and Customs and obtain clearance, and each side claims foreign tax credit with proof of payment abroad. Keep both assessments, both receipts, and both valuations: the French tax office routinely asks for the English probate valuation of United Kingdom assets to verify the worldwide disclosure, and HM Revenue and Customs asks for the French attestation immobilière valuation for the same reason. Divergent valuation dates — French tax values at death, with its own discounts for usufruit by age band — must be reconciled line by line rather than by applying one country’s figure in the other country’s return.
United Kingdom assets need separate handling. English bank accounts in the sole name of the deceased freeze at death; the bank requires a grant of representation before releasing more than a small threshold. Joint accounts pass by survivorship outside succession, but French tax may still deem half the balance taxable where the survivor is not exempt. ISAs lose their income tax shelter at death subject to narrow spousal provisions; that is an income tax point, not a succession point, but families discover it at the same meeting. A London flat owned outright needs an English grant, estate agent valuation at death, and where relevant a clearance certificate before sale; a leasehold flat needs the freeholder’s notice and licence to assign. None of this is done by the French notaire alone: instruct an English solicitor in parallel and agree who values what, in which currency, at which date, and with which discount for occupation or tenancy.
Challenging the outcome follows three distinct routes. Against a French tax assessment (proposition de rectification or avis de mise en recouvrement), file a written claim (réclamation contentieuse) to the tax office that issued the notice, within the statutory deadline, with valuation evidence, treaty calculation and proof of United Kingdom tax paid; on express or implied rejection, appeal to the administrative court (tribunal administratif). Against a bank that freezes funds despite an acte de notoriété and complete identity evidence, send a recorded formal notice citing the file reference, then complain to the banking mediator and, if needed, seise the civil court for release under penalty (astreinte). Against co-heirs who block sale or refuse partition, any heir can demand partition at any time — no one can be forced to remain in undivided ownership — and the court can order sale by auction (licitation) with distribution of proceeds where partition in kind is impossible. For Paris-based families, service of English documents, sworn translations, and coordination between a Paris notaire and a London solicitor add cost but remove the most common ground for refusal: incomplete proof of capacity. Document every refusal in writing; an oral “we need another paper” repeated for months is not a decision that can be appealed.
Conclusion
Dying without a will in France as a British family does not leave the estate ownerless; it hands the pen to the statute. Habitual residence at death chooses between French and English intestacy law, the French notaire and where necessary the French court apply that law to name the heirs, children divide the estate equally after the surviving spouse’s share, and French tax reaches French assets in every case and worldwide assets where the deceased or a long-resident heir was fiscally domiciled in France, with the 1963 treaty softening double taxation. The price of intestacy is loss of control: no choice of law, no executor of choice, no tailored protection for a vulnerable child or a surviving partner, no tax optimisation, and months of dual-track proof in two languages. The remedy is immediate and practical: secure the death certificate and family papers, instruct a notaire without delay, preserve evidence of habitual residence, file the French inheritance tax return within six or twelve months, open probate in England where United Kingdom assets exist, and challenge refusals and assessments through the proper channel rather than by waiting. A will drafted today under English or French law, coordinated with marriage, PACS, life assurance and property ownership, remains the only reliable way to replace default intestacy with a chosen plan.