Your father died in England leaving a French holiday home in the Dordogne. You obtained the grant of probate from the London Probate Service, had it translated, and sent it to the French notaire handling the succession. Then came the letter every British family dreads: the notaire \u2014 the French public officer who alone can transfer the house into the heirs’ names \u2014 refuses to act on your English documents and asks for an apostille, a sworn translation, proof that the English will was registered for tax, and possibly a European Certificate of Succession. Is this obstruction, or is it the law? Since Brexit, British grants sit outside the European system that once smoothed cross-border successions, and French notaires have become stricter, not looser, about foreign papers. This guide explains, in plain English, what a grant of probate is worth in France, what document can replace or reinforce it, how to make your English papers formally acceptable \u2014 apostille (the international stamp that authenticates a public document), sworn translation, registration \u2014 and how to challenge a refusal that goes too far, without losing months or paying tax twice. Every French term is explained as it appears, and every decisive legal point is tied to the official text or judgment that proves it.<\/p>\n
A grant of probate \u2014 in full, a grant of probate of the High Court of Justice \u2014 is the English court order that confirms the executor named in a will and authorises that person to collect the assets, pay the debts and distribute the estate. Where there is no will, the equivalent paper is called a grant of letters of administration. The application is made through the Probate Service of His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service, and the official guidance is published on gov.uk: applying for probate<\/a>. For an English bank, an English share registrar or the Land Registry, the grant is conclusive. For a French notaire, it is only a starting point, and there are three reasons for that, each rooted in a different branch of the law.<\/p>\n First, a succession in France opens under French rules of status, not under the English order. Article 720 of the Civil Code<\/a> provides: “Les successions s’ouvrent par la mort, au dernier domicile du d\u00e9funt.” The estate opens by death, at the last domicile of the deceased. And article 724 of the Civil Code<\/a> adds: “Les h\u00e9ritiers d\u00e9sign\u00e9s par la loi sont saisis de plein droit des biens, droits et actions du d\u00e9funt.” The heirs designated by law take the property, rights and claims of the deceased automatically. The notaire’s task is therefore not to enforce the English court order but to establish, under the law applicable to the succession, who the heirs are and in what shares they take the French house. An English grant proves that an English court appointed someone; it does not by itself prove heirship under French conflicts rules.<\/p>\n Second, since Brexit the United Kingdom stands outside the European succession system. The European Succession Regulation \u2014 Regulation (EU) No 650\/2012 of 4 July 2012 \u2014 designates in principle one single law for the whole succession, usually the law of the deceased’s habitual residence, with a right to choose the law of one’s nationality instead. France applies that regulation to every succession, including those of British nationals, because the regulation claims universal application. But the United Kingdom never accepted it. The French Court of Cassation says so expressly: in its judgment of 18 November 2020, the First Civil Chamber describes the instrument as the “r\u00e8glement (UE) n\u00b0 650\/2012 du Parlement europ\u00e9en et du Conseil du 4 juillet 2012, relatif \u00e0 la comp\u00e9tence, la loi applicable, la reconnaissance et l’ex\u00e9cution des d\u00e9cisions, et l’acceptation et l’ex\u00e9cution des actes authentiques en mati\u00e8re de successions et \u00e0 la cr\u00e9ation d’un certificat successoral europ\u00e9en, auquel le Royaume-Uni n’est pas partie” \u2014 the regulation to which the United Kingdom is not a party (Cass. civ. 1, 18 Nov. 2020, No 19-15.438<\/a>). That single fact explains most refusals: no European rule obliges a French notaire to treat an English grant the way he would treat a German or Spanish succession paper.<\/p>\n Third, foreign judgments and foreign official acts are enforceable in France only through the channels French law provides. For court decisions from a non-European Union state \u2014 which the United Kingdom now is \u2014 the gateway is exequatur (the court procedure that declares a foreign judgment enforceable in France) under article 509 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The Court of Cassation restated the rule on 17 June 2026: “Aux termes de l’article 509 du code de proc\u00e9dure civile, les jugements rendus par les tribunaux \u00e9trangers et les actes re\u00e7us par les officiers \u00e9trangers sont ex\u00e9cutoires sur le territoire de la R\u00e9publique de la mani\u00e8re et dans les cas pr\u00e9vus par la loi.” Foreign judgments and acts received by foreign officers are enforceable on the territory of the Republic in the manner and in the cases provided by law (Cass. civ. 1, 17 June 2026, No 24-16.004<\/a>). Where no treaty applies, the same judgment continues: “Pour accorder l’exequatur, le juge fran\u00e7ais doit, en l’absence de toute convention internationale, s’assurer que trois conditions sont remplies, \u00e0 savoir la comp\u00e9tence indirecte du juge \u00e9tranger, fond\u00e9e sur le rattachement du litige au juge saisi, la conformit\u00e9 \u00e0 l’ordre public international de fond et de proc\u00e9dure ainsi que l’absence de fraude. Il lui est interdit de r\u00e9viser au fond le jugement.” Three checks \u2014 indirect jurisdiction of the foreign court, compatibility with substantive and procedural international public policy, absence of fraud \u2014 and no review of the merits. A grant of probate is a non-contentious court order rather than a hostile judgment, so in practice nobody asks you to obtain exequatur of the grant itself; but the passage shows the general principle the notaire works under. An English paper has in France only the effects that French law, a treaty, or a European instrument gives it, and the notaire who demands more than a bare grant is not inventing obstacles \u2014 he is applying that principle.<\/p>\n Practical consequences follow. The notaire will normally ask, first, for the English will itself and the death certificate, each with an apostille and a sworn translation; second, for proof of the capacity of the person instructing him \u2014 executor or administrator \u2014 which the grant does supply; and third, for the fiscal registration of the foreign will, discussed below. Where the deceased chose English law in the will \u2014 the professio juris, the choice-of-law clause permitted by the regulation \u2014 the notaire will examine whether that choice is valid and what it displaces. Where children are left out by an English-law will, the notaire will also consider the compensatory levy of article 913 of the Civil Code<\/a>: “chaque enfant ou ses h\u00e9ritiers ou ses ayants cause peuvent effectuer un pr\u00e9l\u00e8vement compensatoire sur les biens existants situ\u00e9s en France au jour du d\u00e9c\u00e8s, de fa\u00e7on \u00e0 \u00eatre r\u00e9tablis dans les droits r\u00e9servataires que leur octroie la loi fran\u00e7aise, dans la limite de ceux-ci.” Each child may take a compensatory share from the assets located in France so as to recover the reserved rights French law grants. A grant of probate says nothing about any of this, which is why it never closes the file on its own.<\/p>\n The European Certificate of Succession \u2014 in French, certificat successoral europ\u00e9en \u2014 is the document many British families hear about from internet forums and hope will solve everything. Created by the Succession Regulation, it is a standard-form certificate issued in one Member State that proves heirship, the shares, and the powers of the executor throughout the Union, without any exequatur. Banks, land registries and notaires in other Member States must accept its probative effect. The obvious question after Brexit is whether a British estate can benefit from it at all, and the answer is nuanced: yes, but only from the French side, and with limits the leading judgment spells out.<\/p>\n The United Kingdom does not issue European Certificates of Succession, because it is not bound by the regulation. No English authority will deliver one. But the French notaire settling a succession with French assets can request one from the French court system, and French courts accept jurisdiction over the succession of a person who died resident in the United Kingdom where the regulation’s subsidiary jurisdiction rules point to France. The Court of Cassation examined exactly that mechanism in the judgment cited above: “Selon l’article 10, point 1a), du r\u00e8glement (UE) n\u00b0 650\/2012 du Parlement europ\u00e9en et du Conseil du 4 juillet 2012, relatif \u00e0 la comp\u00e9tence, la loi applicable, la reconnaissance et l’ex\u00e9cution des d\u00e9cisions, et l’acceptation et l’ex\u00e9cution des actes authentiques en mati\u00e8re de successions et \u00e0 la cr\u00e9ation d’un certificat successoral europ\u00e9en, auquel le Royaume-Uni n’est pas partie, lorsque la r\u00e9sidence habituelle du d\u00e9funt au moment du d\u00e9c\u00e8s n’est pas situ\u00e9e dans un Etat membre, les juridictions de l’Etat membre dans lequel sont situ\u00e9s des biens successoraux sont n\u00e9anmoins comp\u00e9tentes pour statuer sur l’ensemble de la succession dans la mesure o\u00f9 le d\u00e9funt poss\u00e9dait la nationalit\u00e9 de cet Etat membre au moment du d\u00e9c\u00e8s.” Where habitual residence at death is outside the Union, the courts of the Member State where estate assets lie may rule on the whole succession if the deceased held that State’s nationality (Cass. civ. 1, 18 Nov. 2020, No 19-15.438<\/a>). The mirror situation \u2014 a British national who died resident in England leaving a house in France \u2014 falls to the French courts for the French assets, and commonly for the whole file where the family agrees. In practice, the French notaire prepares the succession and, where a certificate is needed for use in another Member State or to satisfy a bank, applies to the president of the judicial court for its issue. Ask your notaire expressly whether he intends to request one: many files move faster once the question is put in writing.<\/p>\n But the certificate is not a skeleton key, and the leading case on its limits deserves close reading because banks and notaires rely on it daily. On 13 April 2022 the First Civil Chamber ruled on a German European Certificate presented to a French bank for the release of funds: “La cour d’appel a justement retenu que, conform\u00e9ment au consid\u00e9rant 71 du r\u00e8glement UE n\u00b0 650\/2012 du 4 juillet 2012, le certificat successoral europ\u00e9en avait une efficacit\u00e9 probatoire mais ne constituait pas un titre ex\u00e9cutoire, de sorte que, s’il attestait de la qualit\u00e9 et des droits d’h\u00e9ritier, il n’\u00e9puisait pas n\u00e9cessairement les formalit\u00e9s \u00e0 mettre en oeuvre pour obtenir l’ex\u00e9cution de ces droits.” The certificate has probative effect but is not an enforceable title: it proves heirship without exhausting the formalities needed to enforce the rights (Cass. civ. 1, 13 Apr. 2022, No 20-23.530<\/a>). The Court went on to approve the bank’s demand for prior registration of the foreign will: “Apr\u00e8s avoir relev\u00e9 que le r\u00e8glement excluait de son domaine mat\u00e9riel les questions fiscales et administratives, son consid\u00e9rant 10 disposant qu’il appartenait au droit national de d\u00e9terminer, par exemple, comment \u00e9taient calcul\u00e9s et pay\u00e9s les imp\u00f4ts et autres taxes, qu’il s’ag\u00eet d’imp\u00f4ts dus par la personne d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9e au moment de son d\u00e9c\u00e8s ou de tout autre type d’imp\u00f4t li\u00e9 \u00e0 la succession dont devaient s’acquitter la succession ou les b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaire, elle a retenu \u00e0 bon droit que les dispositions des articles 1000 du code civil et 655 du code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts pr\u00e9voyant l’enregistrement des testaments faits en pays \u00e9trangers, constituaient une formalit\u00e9 fiscale d\u00e8s lors que celle-ci relevait de l’administration fiscale et donnait lieu au paiement d’un droit fixe de 125 euros.” Fiscal and administrative matters are outside the regulation; registration of foreign wills with the tax administration, for a fixed duty of 125 euros, is a fiscal formality the certificate does not replace. The conclusion follows: “Elle en exactement d\u00e9duit que l’exigence d’enregistrement de tout testament \u00e9tabli \u00e0 l’\u00e9tranger, qui ne remettait pas en cause l’efficacit\u00e9 probatoire du certificat successoral europ\u00e9en et ne constituait pas une condition d’ex\u00e9cution des testaments prohib\u00e9e par le R\u00e8glement, ne portait pas atteinte au principe d’application directe du r\u00e8glement ni ne le privait de son effet utile.” Requiring registration of every foreign will neither denies the certificate’s probative effect nor breaches the regulation.<\/p>\n Three lessons for a British family follow directly. First, even with a European Certificate in hand, the English will must be registered with the French tax administration \u2014 the enregistrement \u2014 before banks release funds, and the notaire who insists on it is supported by the Court of Cassation, not obstructing your file. Second, the certificate proves heirship; it does not transfer the French house by itself. The transfer at the land registry still passes through the notaire’s attestation immobili\u00e8re (the notarial deed that publishes the change of ownership in the land register). Third, because the United Kingdom neither issues nor receives the certificate under the regulation, the certificate route runs entirely through France: it helps you prove your rights in France and in the Union, never in England. Where the estate is purely Anglo-French \u2014 English assets plus a French house \u2014 combine the two instruments: the English grant to administer the English side, the French notarial settlement, with or without a European Certificate, to administer the French side. Families who grasp this division stop asking one document to do the work of the other, and their files move.<\/p>\n Once the applicable law is identified, the battle becomes formal: the notaire can only use documents whose origin is authenticated and whose content he can read in French. English grants, wills, death certificates and powers of attorney must therefore pass three gates \u2014 legalisation by apostille, translation by a sworn translator, and, for the house itself, publication at the land registry. Each gate has its own authority and its own delay, so start all three in parallel.<\/p>\n The apostille is the stamp, fixed to the document itself, that certifies the signature, the capacity of the signatory and the seal, under the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961 abolishing legalisation. For English documents it is issued in the United Kingdom by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, on application with the original grant, will copy or certificate. For French documents to be used abroad, the mirror procedure runs through the French courts, and the official procedure is described on service-public.fr: legalisation or apostille of a public act<\/a>. Two practical warnings matter. First, the apostille authenticates the signature, not the content: an apostilled grant proves the Probate Service issued it, not that English law governs the French house. Families who pay for an urgent apostille expecting the notaire to capitulate are disappointed; the stamp is necessary but never sufficient. Second, order apostilles on every English original you may need \u2014 grant, death certificate, affidavit of law if any \u2014 because each round trip to the United Kingdom costs weeks, and an incomplete bundle is the commonest cause of a stalled file.<\/p>\n Translation must be by a traducteur asserment\u00e9 \u2014 a sworn translator listed by a French cour d’appel (court of appeal) \u2014 whose stamp and certification make the translation itself an admissible document. A translation by a bilingual relative, an English solicitor’s office, or an online service will be rejected, however accurate. Have translated the grant, the will with its choice-of-law clause, and any deed of variation or deed of appointment that changes the devolution. Ask the translator to reproduce the apostille certificates as well, so the chain of authentication reads continuously from English original to French use. Keep the originals and the bound translations together; the notaire annexes them to his deeds, and the land registry will want to see the chain.<\/p>\n The French house itself changes hands only through the notaire’s deeds. After establishing heirship \u2014 by acte de notori\u00e9t\u00e9 (the notarial deed that lists the heirs and their shares) \u2014 the notaire draws up the attestation immobili\u00e8re and publishes it at the service de publicit\u00e9 fonci\u00e8re (the land registration service) for the area where the property lies. Registration duties on that publication are separate from inheritance tax and are calculated on the property’s value. Where the English will disposes of the French house in a way the notaire considers incompatible with the applicable law \u2014 for instance, disinheriting a child where French reserved heirship applies, or giving the whole house to a surviving spouse where siblings claim rights \u2014 he may decline to draw the deed until a French court rules or the family agrees. That refusal must be reasoned in writing: ask for the precise legal ground, the text relied on, and the missing document. A vague oral refusal is not a position; a reasoned letter is the basis for everything that follows.<\/p>\n Do not overlook the search for other wills. France keeps a central wills register \u2014 the fichier central des dispositions de derni\u00e8res volont\u00e9s \u2014 which any interested person can query to learn whether the deceased left a French will or entrusted papers to a French notaire (see service-public.fr: searching the central register of wills<\/a>). Where the deceased lived part-time in France, a French holographic will or a will deposited with a French notaire may exist alongside the English one, and the English grant never reveals it. A negative search certificate also reassures the notaire and shortens his checks.<\/p>\n When the notaire’s demands seem excessive, verify them against the hierarchy above rather than arguing in the abstract. Registration of the foreign will for the fixed 125-euro duty: lawful, as the Court of Cassation confirmed. Apostille and sworn translation: lawful in principle, since a French public officer must verify what he publishes. A European Certificate to prove heirship to a bank: legitimate. But a demand for English exequatur of the grant as a precondition to any step, a refusal to examine a valid choice of English law, or months of silence without a list of missing items: those are challengeable. The first step is always a formal letter \u2014 lettre recommand\u00e9e avec accus\u00e9 de r\u00e9ception (registered letter with proof of receipt) \u2014 setting out the documents supplied, the regulation and judgments above, and a deadline. The second is a complaint to the chambre des notaires (the departmental disciplinary body) or to the procureur de la R\u00e9publique (public prosecutor) who supervises notaries, for denial of service. The third, where ownership itself is disputed, is a petition to the tribunal judiciaire (the ordinary civil court) for a declaration of heirship or for appointment of a mandataire successoral (an administrator appointed by the court to settle a blocked estate). Our connected guide on choosing English law for a French house and protecting children \u2014 British Will, French House After Brexit: Choosing English Law, Keeping Your Children Protected, and Challenging a Blocked Succession<\/a> \u2014 sets out the choice-of-law and reserved-share arguments to raise in that correspondence.<\/p>\n Inheritance tax \u2014 droits de succession \u2014 is the point on which delay costs real money, because interest and penalties run while families argue about papers. The Franco-British position is straightforward in structure and treacherous in detail: France taxes the French house in almost every configuration, and may tax more besides, with a credit for British inheritance tax under the 1963 Franco-British succession convention. Three questions determine the bill: where was the deceased domiciled for tax, what is the deadline for the return, and what reliefs reduce the charge.<\/p>\n Domicile for tax follows article 4 B of the General Tax Code<\/a>, whose first test is: “Les personnes qui ont en France leur foyer ou le lieu de leur s\u00e9jour principal” \u2014 persons whose home or principal place of residence is in France. A British national who lived year-round in the Dordogne home will generally be treated as domiciled in France for tax, so that worldwide movable and immovable assets fall within French succession duty. Conversely, where the deceased remained domiciled in England and the heir lives in France, article 750 ter of the General Tax Code<\/a> still catches the French house: “Les biens meubles et immeubles, que ces derniers soient poss\u00e9d\u00e9s directement ou indirectement, situ\u00e9s en France” held by a person not domiciled in France are subject to French transfer duty. In either case the French house is taxed in France; only the treatment of the English assets changes, and the treaty credit then avoids double taxation on the same property. Declare the English assets honestly in the French return \u2014 the notaire and the tax office compare notes with increasing ease \u2014 and claim the credit with proof of the British payment.<\/p>\n Deadlines are strict and explained on service-public.fr: declaration of succession<\/a>. Article 641 of the General Tax Code<\/a> states: “Les d\u00e9lais pour l’enregistrement des d\u00e9clarations que les h\u00e9ritiers, donataires ou l\u00e9gataires ont \u00e0 souscrire des biens \u00e0 eux \u00e9chus ou transmis par d\u00e9c\u00e8s sont : De six mois, \u00e0 compter du jour du d\u00e9c\u00e8s, lorsque celui dont on recueille la succession est d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 en France m\u00e9tropolitaine; D’une ann\u00e9e, dans tous les autres cas.” Six months where the deceased died in metropolitan France, one year in all other cases \u2014 including death in England. The return \u2014 d\u00e9claration de succession, form 2705 with schedules 2705-S and 2706 \u2014 is filed at the tax office of the deceased’s last French domicile, or, for a non-resident, at the specialised non-resident office, with payment of the duty. Late filing draws interest for late payment plus surcharges that rise with the length of delay, so file within the year even if valuations are provisional, and correct afterwards. Do not let a blocked notarial file make you miss the fiscal deadline: the return can be filed by the heirs directly with the help of a lawyer where the notaire’s deeds are not ready.<\/p>\n Two further duties condition the final transfer. First, article 784 of the General Tax Code<\/a> requires: “Les parties sont tenues de faire conna\u00eetre, dans tout acte constatant une transmission entre vifs \u00e0 titre gratuit et dans toute d\u00e9claration de succession, s’il existe ou non des donations ant\u00e9rieures consenties \u00e0 un titre et sous une forme quelconque par le donateur ou le d\u00e9funt aux donataires, h\u00e9ritiers ou l\u00e9gataires et, dans l’affirmative, le montant de ces donations ainsi que, le cas \u00e9ch\u00e9ant, les noms, qualit\u00e9s et r\u00e9sidences des officiers minist\u00e9riels qui ont re\u00e7u les actes de donation, et la date de l’enregistrement de ces actes.” Every prior gift must be disclosed, because the 15-year recall rule aggregates earlier gifts with the inheritance for the allowances and the progressive scale. English lifetime gifts \u2014 potentially exempt transfers under British rules \u2014 must therefore be listed where French law requires it, with dates, amounts and the solicitor’s details. Second, where the will favours one heir over the children, the compensatory levy of article 913, quoted above, may redirect value from the French house to the disadvantaged child, changing who pays duty on what. Model the two scenarios \u2014 will applied as written, then corrected by the levy \u2014 before signing any partition deed (acte de partage, the deed dividing the estate), because a signed partition is difficult to reopen.<\/p>\n Against an excessive assessment, the remedies are the ordinary ones, and they work. Start with a r\u00e9clamation contentieuse (formal claim to the tax office) within the statutory time, attaching the grant, the valuations, the proof of British tax paid and the treaty computation. If the office maintains the assessment, appeal to the tribunal administratif (administrative court) for the duty or to the tribunal judiciaire for registration-duty disputes, and ask for suspension of enforced recovery in the meantime. Where the dispute turns on domicile, assemble the evidence early \u2014 leases, utility bills, travel records, NHS and CPAM records, school enrolments \u2014 because domicile for tax is a question of fact, and the administration’s presumptions yield to a coherent bundle of proof. Penalties for wilful omission are heavy; penalties for an honestly filed provisional return, corrected promptly, are routinely mitigated on request.<\/p>\n A French notaire who refuses a bare UK grant of probate is, in most cases, doing his job: since Brexit the grant stands outside the European succession system, it proves the English appointment without establishing heirship under the applicable law, and the Court of Cassation expressly allows banks and officers to require the fiscal registration of the foreign will on top of any European Certificate. The refusal becomes actionable only when it demands what the law does not require, ignores a valid choice of English law, or stalls without reasons. The method that unblocks files is therefore always the same: identify the law governing the succession, put the English grant, will and death certificate in due form with apostille and sworn translation, register the will for the fixed duty, file the French succession return within the one-year deadline for deaths in England, and set every request and every refusal down in registered letters that cite the texts above. Families who proceed in that order rarely need a judge; those who meet a truly unjustified refusal arrive before the court with a file that speaks for itself. The English grant opens the succession in England; the French settlement, properly documented, opens the French house. Neither replaces the other, and together they complete the estate.<\/p>\n You can obtain an initial analysis of your situation in a telephone consultation: 80 EUR incl. VAT. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> (Ma\u00eetre Reda Kohen) or write through our contact page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Your French notaire refuses your UK grant of probate. Apostille, sworn translation, European Certificate of Succession, tax deadlines and how to challenge an unjustified refusal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":4179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kj_source_type":"","_kj_official_id":"","_kj_official_url":"","_kj_judilibre_id":"","_kj_jur":"","_kj_lieu":"","_kj_chambre":"","_kj_rg":"","_kj_date":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[80312,80314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2128359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british-desk","category-decryptage"],"yoast_head":"\nB. Can a European Certificate of Succession unblock the file when the deceased was British?<\/h3>\n
II. How do you get the French house transferred and the tax paid without losing months?<\/h2>\n
A. How do you make your English documents acceptable in France: apostille, sworn translation and land registration?<\/h3>\n
B. What inheritance tax and deadlines apply when a British estate includes a French house?<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case.<\/h2>\n