Your father moved to the Dordogne twelve years ago, kept his British passport, bought a house near Sarlat, and never got round to making a will. Your sister lives in Manchester, you live in London, and the French notaire — the state-appointed lawyer who settles estates in France — has just written to say that French intestacy law will decide who gets what. You assumed English rules would apply because he was English, or that as his children you would simply split everything. Neither assumption is safe. Since Brexit, British nationals living in France die as third-country nationals under European succession rules applied by French courts, and when there is no will there is no choice of law to protect English testamentary freedom. French law then imposes its own order of heirs, its own forced shares for children, and its own strict tax declaration deadlines. This article explains, step by step, which law governs when a Briton dies intestate in France, exactly who inherits which share, how the French notaire procedure works alongside English probate for any UK assets, which tax allowances and filing deadlines the family faces, and how to challenge an outcome that looks wrong — with the legal texts and court decisions that prove each point.
I. Which law applies and who inherits when a Briton dies with no will in France
A. Why French law usually governs the whole estate of a British resident
The starting point is not English law and not a free choice between the two systems. It is a European regulation that French courts still apply to British estates after Brexit: Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 on jurisdiction and applicable law in matters of succession. Its general rule makes the law of the country where the deceased had his or her habitual residence at the time of death govern the succession as a whole. Habitual residence means real life, not paperwork: where the deceased actually lived day to day, paid local bills, saw a doctor, and kept the centre of family life. A Briton who lived in France for years therefore dies under French succession law for the estate as a whole, even for a bank account or cottage left behind in England. The same rule carries one narrow escape hatch for cases where, by way of exception, it is clear from all the circumstances that the deceased was manifestly more closely connected at death with a different country, whose law then applies instead. A newly arrived retiree who spent six weeks in France before dying might fall under this exception, but a settled resident will not.
Many families ask whether the deceased could have chosen English law instead. The Regulation does allow a person to choose the law of his or her nationality to govern the whole succession, and that route is open to British passport holders despite Brexit, because the test is nationality rather than European Union membership. But the choice has to be made expressly in a will or equivalent disposition of property on death, or at least clearly demonstrated by the terms of such a document. In plain terms, it has to be in a will or equivalent document. A person who dies with no will at all has made no choice, so the default habitual-residence rule fills the gap. That is the cruel logic of intestacy for British expatriates: the one tool that could have preserved English testamentary freedom — a written choice of English law — is precisely the document the deceased never signed.
French case law confirms how seriously courts take these connecting factors. In a 2018 ruling on a Franco-Spanish estate with property in two countries, the First Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation opened its reasoning as follows: “Vu les articles 44 et 45 du code de procédure civile, ensemble l’article 3, alinéa 2, du code civil”, before holding that “lorsqu’une succession comporte des immeubles situés dans l’un et l’autre de deux pays dont le défunt a la nationalité, le renvoi opéré par la loi du lieu de situation de l’immeuble impose que le critère de rattachement à la loi nationale du défunt soit apprécié selon les règles de conflit de lois prévues par la loi du pays renvoyant” (Cass. civ. 1ère, 15 May 2018, appeal No 17-11.571, Court of Cassation decision of 15 May 2018). The court quashed the appeal judgment and sent the case to the Paris Court of Appeal. For British families the lesson is direct: dual nationals and cross-border property owners cannot assume one simple law governs everything, and historic ties to a second country can send the court back to foreign conflict rules.
A second, very recent decision shows what happens when a foreign law does govern. On 20 May 2026 the same chamber dealt with an estate in which the appeal judges had applied foreign law “désignée par l’article 21 du règlement (UE) n° 650/2012 du Parlement européen et du Conseil du 4 juillet 2012 relatif à la compétence, la loi applicable, la reconnaissance et l’exécution des décisions, et l’acceptation et l’exécution des actes authentiques en matière de successions et à la création d’un certificat successoral européen, applicable au litige”, namely Argentine law, and had thrown out a claim to annul a will by applying that law without saying which provisions they relied on (Cass. civ. 1ère, 20 May 2026, appeal No 24-19.925, Court of Cassation decision of 20 May 2026). The Court of Cassation recalled the controlling principle: “Il résulte de ce texte qu’il incombe au juge français, qui reconnaît applicable un droit étranger, d’en rechercher, soit d’office, soit à la demande d’une partie qui l’invoque, la teneur, avec le concours des parties et personnellement s’il y a lieu, et de donner à la question litigieuse une solution conforme au droit positif étranger.” Because the appeal judges had ruled “sans préciser les dispositions du droit argentin sur lesquelles elle se fondait”, the court held that “la cour d’appel n’a pas donné de base légale à sa décision” and quashed it. British heirs should understand both sides of this ruling. If French law governs, it governs properly. If in some corner of the estate English law governs — for example the formal validity of an English will covering English assets — the French judge must establish the actual content of English law with the parties, not guess at it.
One practical consequence follows for families split between the two countries. The French notaire settles the French side and applies the law described here. Anything owned in England and Wales — a flat in Leeds, a premium bond, a British bank account — will in practice also need an English grant of representation before banks and registries release it, applied for through the official GOV.UK probate service. The two procedures run in parallel and must tell a consistent story about who the heirs are, which is why getting the applicable-law analysis right at the start saves months of contradiction later.
B. The French intestacy shares, translated for an English family
Once French law governs, freedom evaporates and fixed shares take over. The first shock for English families is that children come first and cannot be disinherited. Article 734 of the Civil Code sets the order of heirs: “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.” Read the official text on Article 734 of the Civil Code on Légifrance. Each category shuts out the next: if there are children, parents and siblings take nothing from that order.
The second shock concerns the surviving spouse. In England, a surviving spouse of an intestate with children takes generous fixed sums plus a life interest or absolute share depending on the date. In France, the surviving husband or wife — and only a husband or wife counts, since Article 732 provides that “Est conjoint successible le conjoint survivant non divorcé” (Article 732 of the Civil Code on Légifrance), so divorced and unmarried partners are not intestate heirs — faces 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.” The official text is at Article 757 of the Civil Code on Légifrance. Two terms need translation. Usufruit, usually rendered as a life interest or usufruct, means the right to live in the house and take the income from all the property for life, while the children hold the bare ownership underneath. The alternative is outright ownership of one quarter. Where all the children are children of both spouses, the survivor chooses freely between lifelong use of everything and ownership of a quarter. Where any child comes from another relationship, the choice disappears and the survivor takes ownership of a quarter only. Take a concrete case: a British widower in France dies intestate leaving a wife and their two joint children plus a house worth 400,000 euros. The wife may either enjoy the whole house for life with the children owning the underlying bricks, or take 100,000 euros of value outright with the children sharing the rest.
If there are no children, the picture changes. Article 738 of the Civil Code provides: “Lorsque les père et mère survivent au défunt et que celui-ci n’a pas de postérité, mais des frères et soeurs ou des descendants de ces derniers, la succession est dévolue, pour un quart, à chacun des père et mère et, pour la moitié restante, aux frères et soeurs ou à leurs descendants. Lorsqu’un seul des père et mère survit, la succession est dévolue pour un quart à celui-ci et pour trois quarts aux frères et soeurs ou à leurs descendants.” See Article 738 of the Civil Code on Légifrance. A British bachelor who retired to France and dies intestate survived by his mother and two brothers therefore leaves one quarter to his mother and three quarters to the brothers. Only when no spouse, no children, no parents and no siblings survive do remoter relatives inherit.
Behind these shares sits the doctrine English families find hardest to accept: the réserve héréditaire, or forced heirship. 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.” The text is at Article 912 of the Civil Code on Légifrance. Children are the protected heirs, and Article 913 fixes the maths: “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.” Read it at Article 913 of the Civil Code on Légifrance. With one child, half the estate is untouchable; with two children, two thirds; with three or more, three quarters. In a pure intestacy there are no gifts or wills to reduce, so the reserve simply confirms the children’s shares. But the same article contains a provision that matters enormously to British families whose deceased did leave lifetime gifts or an English will covering French property: where the deceased or at least one child was, at death, a national of a European Union Member State or habitually resident there, and the foreign law governing the succession offers children no forced-share protection, each child may take compensatory value from property situated in France. A British child habitually resident in France can therefore invoke this top-up against an English-law arrangement that leaves children with nothing. Families who assumed an English will had settled a French house should have that assumption tested against this article before distributing anything.
Two final mechanics complete the picture. First, heirs do not wait to be put in possession. Article 724 of the Civil Code states: “Les héritiers désignés par la loi sont saisis de plein droit des biens, droits et actions du défunt.” See Article 724 of the Civil Code on Légifrance. Ownership passes by operation of law at the instant of death, which is why insurers, banks and buyers all ask who the heirs are rather than who has been appointed. Second, proving heirship is deliberately flexible: Article 730 provides that “La preuve de la qualité d’héritier s’établit par tous moyens.” The text is at Article 730 of the Civil Code on Légifrance. In practice the notaire draws up the certificate of heirship — the acte de notoriété — from birth, marriage and death certificates, but the family is not trapped if one paper is missing; any reliable evidence can establish status.
A short Paris note is worthwhile because so many British estates touch the capital. Where the deceased owned a Paris flat, Paris notaires handle the conveyancing entries and the land registry formalities for the Paris property, while succession disputes for Paris-based parties go before the Paris judicial court — the tribunal judiciaire de Paris — as the ordinary civil court for the ressort. Nothing in the intestacy shares changes because the property sits in the 7th arrondissement rather than the Lot, but valuations, co-ownership issues in Paris apartment blocks, and court delays in the capital make early organisation especially valuable there.
II. The practical road: notaire file, tax deadlines and how to challenge the outcome
A. The notaire procedure alongside English probate for UK assets
The notaire is not the family’s solicitor and not a judge. The notaire is a public officer who establishes objectively who inherits, values the estate, computes the tax, and draws up the deeds that transfer French property. The family instructs a notaire — usually one near the French property or the last French home — and supplies the raw material: the death certificate, the livret de famille or English birth and marriage certificates with sworn translations, any English grant of representation if one has already issued, property deeds, bank statements, and details of lifetime gifts. The notaire then issues the acte de notoriété identifying the heirs, prepares the detailed valuation, files the tax declaration discussed below, and publishes the property transfer. The official service-public guide to settling an estate in France walks through these stages in English-friendly terms, and the companion page on accepting or refusing an inheritance explains the option every heir holds: accept outright, accept under benefit of inventory where debts look worrying, or renounce entirely. An heir who suspects the Dordogne house comes with crushing debts should therefore ask the notaire about the forms of acceptance at the very first meeting, before signing anything that looks like unconditional acceptance, because each option carries strict time limits and the notaire will date every step.
English assets need parallel treatment. A French acte de notoriété does not by itself unlock an English bank account or transfer English land. Whoever administers the English side — usually one of the intestate heirs under English intestacy rules for the English assets — applies for a grant through the GOV.UK probate service, and English institutions will insist on that grant. The two systems can also disagree in edge cases: if the deceased was habitually resident in France, France claims the whole succession, while England applies its own conflict rules to English land. In practice the family aligns both files on the same heir list and the same valuations, and any contradiction between the French and English positions is resolved by negotiation between the practitioners or, failing that, by the courts. Readers planning ahead rather than mourning will find the mirror-image planning explained in our guide to choosing English law in a French will and protecting children against a blocked succession, which shows how a written choice of law avoids exactly the intestacy trap described here.
Three practical warnings round off this stage. First, freeze nothing and sign nothing in a hurry: heirs are owners from death under Article 724 quoted above, so there is no legal vacuum forcing a rushed signature. Second, list lifetime gifts honestly, including English ones, because the reserve calculations and the French tax computation both look back at gifts, and concealment destroys credibility if a sibling later challenges. Third, keep every valuation document — estate agent appraisals, bank statements at date of death, mortgage redemption figures — because the tax declaration and any later dispute both turn on values at a single date, and reconstructing them a year later is expensive.
B. French death tax, declaration deadlines and challenging an unfair outcome
French inheritance tax — droits de mutation à titre gratuit, literally transfer duties on gratuitous transfers — is computed per heir on that heir’s share, after personal allowances. The figures below come from the tax code itself and the English-language service-public pages, and the family should read them as starting points for the notaire’s computation, not as a final bill. Each child deducts a personal allowance from the share received: Article 779 of the General Tax Code provides 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”, with the allowance split among representatives where a child predeceased leaving grandchildren. The official text is at Article 779 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. Brothers and sisters are treated less generously: the same article grants “un abattement de 15 932 € sur la part de chacun des frères ou sœurs vivants ou représentés par suite de prédécès ou de renonciation”. The surviving spouse, by contrast, pays nothing: the official English-language page states plainly that “You are exempt from inheritance tax” where “You are the spouse of the deceased” — see when an heir is exempt from succession duties in English. The detailed mechanics of valuation and computation are set out on the official pages for declaring the estate and valuing the estate and calculating the duties, and the impots.gouv.fr portal hosts the declaration forms the notaire files.
The filing deadline is the one date no family may miss. Article 641 of the General Tax Code fixes it in these terms: “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 official text is at Article 641 of the General Tax Code on Légifrance. A Briton who dies at home in France therefore leaves the heirs six months from the day of death to file the déclaration de succession; if death occurred in England — a hospital in Manchester during a visit, for example — the heirs have one year. Late filing draws interest and penalties through the standard recovery machinery, so the family should instruct the notaire within weeks, not months, and should calendar the six-month or twelve-month date at the first meeting. Note that the deadline runs from death even where the heir list is still being argued about; administrative delay in the family does not stop the tax clock.
Challenges come in three main forms, and each has its own route. The first is the action en réduction, the claim by a protected child that lifetime gifts or a will have eaten into the forced share. Its time limit is stated in Article 921 of the Civil Code: “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.” See Article 921 of the Civil Code on Légifrance. Five years from death is the headline, shortened in effect to two years from discovery of the damage, with an absolute ten-year long stop from death. The same article adds a practical safeguard families should know: “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.” A notaire who spots the problem must therefore warn the affected heir individually, if possible before any division — and a family that received no such warning despite an obvious imbalance should ask why.
The second route is disputing the division itself: one sibling occupies the house rent-free, another says the valuation was rigged, the notaire cannot get signatures. French courts can order a judicial division and appoint a notaire to carry it out, and the Paris judicial court regularly does so in contested family estates. The third route is jurisdictional or applicable-law challenge: arguing that habitual residence lay in England, that the manifestly-closer-connection exception points to English law, or that a foreign law’s content was misunderstood — the exact ground on which the Court of Cassation quashed the 2026 decision discussed above for failing to state the Argentine provisions relied upon. Each of these routes needs evidence gathered early: proof of daily life for residence, the paper trail of gifts for the reserve, dated valuations for the division. Heirs who organise these three bundles in the first month keep every option open; heirs who wait until the tax deadline has passed find several doors already closed.
Conclusion
A British death with no will in France is governed, in the ordinary settled-resident case, by French law through the habitual-residence rule of the 2012 European Succession Regulation, because intestacy means no choice of English law was ever made. French intestacy then gives children the first rank, offers the surviving spouse lifelong use of everything or ownership of a quarter, divides the estate between parents and siblings where there are no children, and backs the children’s shares with forced heirship that can even reach back into lifetime gifts through compensatory claims on French property. Ownership passes at death, heirship can be proved by any reliable means, and the notaire converts those principles into certificates, valuations and deeds while the English side proceeds through a separate grant of representation. Tax follows its own calendar: six months to declare where death occurred in metropolitan France, one year where it occurred elsewhere, with a 100,000 euro allowance per child, a smaller allowance for siblings, and full exemption for the surviving spouse — and challenges to gifts or wills run on a five-year, two-year-from-discovery, ten-year-long-stop prescription. Families who map the applicable law first, instruct the notaire within weeks, calendar the declaration deadline at the first meeting, and preserve evidence on residence, gifts and values protect both the distribution and the right to contest it.