Your father lived in Kent, spent twenty summers in his stone house near Sarlat, and died last winter leaving an English will that names you as executor. The house in the Dordogne is still in his name, the French bank account is frozen, and the notaire in P\u00e9rigueux is asking for papers you have never heard of: an acte de notori\u00e9t\u00e9, an attestation immobili\u00e8re, a sworn translation of the grant of probate with an apostille. Meanwhile your sister, who lives in Lyon, wonders whether the English will can really leave her share of the French house to your father’s second wife. This guide answers both questions in order: first, how to get the English paperwork recognised in France so the estate can move, and second, who inherits what and which death taxes apply when a British person dies owning French property after Brexit. It explains every French legal term the first time it is used, gives the exact statutory texts and court decisions you can rely on, and shows what to do when a bank, a notaire or a co-heir blocks the file.<\/p>\n
A preliminary point shapes everything that follows. Since 1 January 2021 the United Kingdom is a third State vis-\u00e0-vis the European Union. The European Succession Regulation of 4 July 2012 still matters enormously, because it applies universally: it designates the applicable succession law even when that law is the law of a non-member State, and it allowed your parent to choose English law in the will. But the practical instruments of the Regulation, above all the European Certificate of Succession, are no longer available for English grants of probate, and English executors must go through the classic French route: the notaire, the registration of the foreign will, and proof of heirship document by document. Readers who are still at the will-drafting stage should start with our guide on choosing English law for a French house and protecting children under the forced-heirship rules<\/a>; this article takes over where that one stops, on the day the death occurs.<\/p>\n In England and Wales, the grant of representation, usually called the grant of probate when there is a will, is the court order that authorises the executor to collect the assets, pay the debts and distribute the estate. The application is made to the Probate Registry, as explained on the official gov.uk probate pages<\/a>, and banks and the Land Registry will generally not release substantial assets without it. The first surprise for British families is that this grant has no automatic effect in France. There is no exequatur procedure for foreign grants of probate, and the French notaire, the public officer who alone can transfer French land on death, forms his own view of who the heirs are on the basis of the documents you bring him. An English grant is therefore useful evidence, and in practice every notaire dealing with a British estate will ask for it, but it is the starting point of the French file, not the end of it.<\/p>\n The notaire, a French public officer appointed by the Minister of Justice who holds a monopoly on conveyancing and on settling successions involving land, will typically ask for the following: the death certificate with a sworn translation; the English will with a sworn translation; the grant of probate bearing an apostille under the Hague Convention, which authenticates the English court seal for use abroad; the birth and marriage certificates of the heirs; the title deeds of the French house; and details of French bank accounts. The sworn translation must be done by a traducteur asserment\u00e9, a translator sworn before a French court of appeal, because an ordinary translation has no evidential value before a French officer. Families who arrive with a full apostilled and translated bundle regularly save three to six months; families who arrive with only the English papers lose that time while the notaire waits.<\/p>\n On the basis of these documents the notaire draws up two key instruments. The first is the acte de notori\u00e9t\u00e9, the deed by which the notaire records who the heirs are and in what shares, after verifying the devolution under the applicable law. The official notaires de France portal describes this as the first of the four steps of settling an inheritance, followed by the full inventory and valuation of the estate, the filing of the tax return and the partition between heirs, as set out on the notaires.fr probate page<\/a>. The second instrument, specific to land, is the attestation immobili\u00e8re, the deed published at the land registry, the service de la publicit\u00e9 fonci\u00e8re, which transfers legal title of the French house from the deceased to the heirs. Until that publication, the heirs cannot sell or mortgage the house, however clear the English will may be. Where there is no land and the estate is small, the heirs can sometimes prove their status with a simple attestation signed by all of them, described on service-public.fr<\/a>, but with a French house in the estate the notaire is in practice unavoidable, and the general roadmap is summarised on service-public.fr<\/a>.<\/p>\n Two timing rules frame this phase. First, no heir can be forced to decide before four months have passed since the death: “L’h\u00e9ritier ne peut \u00eatre contraint \u00e0 opter avant l’expiration d’un d\u00e9lai de quatre mois \u00e0 compter de l’ouverture de la succession”, in the words of article 771 of the Civil Code<\/a>. Each heir then has three options: accept outright, accept up to the net assets, the acceptation \u00e0 concurrence de l’actif net, which caps liability for the deceased’s debts, or renounce. Second, renunciation is never presumed: “La renonciation \u00e0 une succession ne se pr\u00e9sume pas”, states article 804 of the Civil Code<\/a>, and to be effective against third parties it must be sent to or filed with the court of the place where the succession opened, or made before a notaire who forwards it to that court within a month. An heir who simply does nothing for years remains an heir, with all that implies for taxes and creditors, which is why the notaire presses every heir to opt expressly. Where the succession opened in Paris, for example because the deceased was domiciled there or owned property handled by a Paris practice, the renunciation goes to the tribunal judiciaire de Paris, and Paris and \u00cele-de-France notaires routinely coordinate these filings with the greffe.<\/p>\n The single most overlooked formality is the registration of the foreign will. French law is blunt: “Les testaments faits en pays \u00e9tranger ne pourront \u00eatre ex\u00e9cut\u00e9s sur les biens situ\u00e9s en France qu’apr\u00e8s avoir \u00e9t\u00e9 enregistr\u00e9s au bureau du domicile du testateur, s’il en a conserv\u00e9 un, sinon au bureau de son dernier domicile connu en France ; et, dans le cas o\u00f9 le testament contiendrait des dispositions d’immeubles qui y seraient situ\u00e9s, il devra \u00eatre, en outre, enregistr\u00e9 au bureau de la situation de ces immeubles, sans qu’il puisse \u00eatre exig\u00e9 un double droit.” That is article 1000 of the Civil Code<\/a>, mirrored for tax purposes by article 655 of the General Tax Code<\/a>. In practice the notaire handles the registration and the fixed duty is collected by the tax administration. An English will that has not been registered cannot be acted upon against French assets, and banks are entitled to insist on it before releasing funds.<\/p>\n The Cour de cassation confirmed how seriously France takes this requirement in a decision of 13 April 2022, Civ. 1, no. 20-23.530<\/a>. A widower holding a European Certificate of Succession issued in Germany asked BNP Paribas to release the funds of the estate; the bank refused until the German will was registered with the French tax administration. The Court upheld the bank: “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.” It added that “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.” If even a European Certificate, which has direct effect across the Union, does not dispense with registration, an English will from a third State certainly does not. The lesson for British executors is practical: instruct the notaire to register the will at the outset, keep the receipt, and send a copy to every bank holding French funds, because each institution will ask for it separately.<\/p>\n Delay has a second legal dimension when the English will names someone outside the family, typically a second spouse or a charity, as universal legatee. Under French law the reserved heirs, the h\u00e9ritiers r\u00e9servataires, are seised of the estate by operation of law on death, and the universal legatee must ask them for delivery of the bequest: “Lorsqu’au d\u00e9c\u00e8s du testateur il y a des h\u00e9ritiers auxquels une quotit\u00e9 de ses biens est r\u00e9serv\u00e9e par la loi, ces h\u00e9ritiers sont saisis de plein droit, par sa mort, de tous les biens de la succession ; et le l\u00e9gataire universel est tenu de leur demander la d\u00e9livrance des biens compris dans le testament.” That is article 1004 of the Civil Code<\/a>. The Cour de cassation added a sharp limitation on 30 September 2020, Civ. 1, no. 19-11.543<\/a>: “\u00e0 d\u00e9faut de d\u00e9livrance volontaire, le l\u00e9gataire universel est tenu de demander en justice la d\u00e9livrance des biens compris dans le testament aux h\u00e9ritiers r\u00e9servataires”, and, crucially, “L’action en nullit\u00e9 du testament engag\u00e9e par un h\u00e9ritier r\u00e9servataire, qui n’emp\u00eache pas le l\u00e9gataire universel d’exercer l’action en d\u00e9livrance de son legs au sens du second de ces textes, n’en suspend pas la prescription.” In plain terms, the clock for claiming delivery runs from the death, and a family dispute about the validity of the will does not stop it. A legatee who waits for the family quarrel to settle before asking for delivery can find the claim time-barred, while the reserved heirs who refuse delivery without going to court expose themselves to an action for forced delivery with interest. Executors should therefore calendar the delivery request from day one, even while negotiations continue.<\/p>\n When the file genuinely stalls, the remedies depend on who is blocking. If the notaire will not advance the file, a formal letter setting a timetable is the first step; persistent inertia can be referred to the mediator of the notariat, the M\u00e9diateur du notariat, and ultimately to the chamber of notaries or the courts. If a French bank freezes funds despite a complete file, a complaint to the bank’s mediator followed by an action before the tribunal judiciaire for release of funds, with a claim for interest for late payment, usually concentrates minds, and the 2022 decision above shows judges examine carefully whether the bank’s demands were lawful. If a co-heir refuses to sign the deeds or to opt, any interested party can, after the four-month period of article 771, serve a formal summons to opt, a sommation de prendre parti, by bailiff’s writ, and then ask the court to authorise the sale of the house at auction, the licitation, or to appoint a provisional administrator. Readers facing exactly that sibling stand-off will find the full mechanics in our guide on forcing the sale or keeping the home when British co-heirs disagree over a French house<\/a>.<\/p>\n English law gives an adult almost complete freedom to leave property to whomsoever they wish; disappointed children must apply to the court under the Inheritance Act 1975 and show the will fails to make reasonable provision for them. French law starts from the opposite premise. In the absence of a surviving spouse entitled to inherit, the statute calls relatives in strict orders: “En l’absence de conjoint successible, les parents sont appel\u00e9s \u00e0 succ\u00e9der ainsi qu’il suit : 1\u00b0 Les enfants et leurs descendants ; 2\u00b0 Les p\u00e8re et m\u00e8re ; les fr\u00e8res et soeurs et les descendants de ces derniers ; 3\u00b0 Les ascendants autres que les p\u00e8re et m\u00e8re ; 4\u00b0 Les collat\u00e9raux autres que les fr\u00e8res et soeurs et les descendants de ces derniers”, and “Chacune de ces quatre cat\u00e9gories constitue un ordre d’h\u00e9ritiers qui exclut les suivants”, per article 734 of the Civil Code<\/a>. More importantly, children are reserved heirs: gifts and legacies “ne pourront exc\u00e9der la moiti\u00e9 des biens du disposant, s’il ne laisse \u00e0 son d\u00e9c\u00e8s qu’un enfant ; le tiers, s’il laisse deux enfants ; le quart, s’il en laisse trois ou un plus grand nombre”, in the words of article 913 of the Civil Code<\/a>. With one child, half the estate is untouchable; with two, two thirds; with three or more, three quarters. A surviving spouse is not a reserved heir when there are children, but takes either the whole estate in usufruct or a quarter in full ownership where all the children are common to the couple: “Si l’\u00e9poux pr\u00e9d\u00e9c\u00e9d\u00e9 laisse des enfants ou descendants, le conjoint survivant recueille, \u00e0 son choix, l’usufruit de la totalit\u00e9 des biens existants ou la propri\u00e9t\u00e9 du quart des biens lorsque tous les enfants sont issus des deux \u00e9poux et la propri\u00e9t\u00e9 du quart en pr\u00e9sence d’un ou plusieurs enfants qui ne sont pas issus des deux \u00e9poux”, per article 757 of the Civil Code<\/a>. Usufruct, the usufruit, is the lifelong right to use the house and take its income; the children hold the bare ownership, the nue-propri\u00e9t\u00e9, and recover full ownership when the usufruct ends.<\/p>\n Which system governs a British death with French property depends on the European Succession Regulation, whose default rule in article 21 points to the law of the country of habitual residence at death, while article 22 allows any person to choose the law of their nationality instead, the professio juris. Because the Regulation applies universally, a British national habitually resident in France can validly choose English law, and French courts must apply it, subject to French overriding mandatory rules and public policy. That choice is examined in detail in our guide to choosing English law for a French house<\/a>. But since the Act of 24 August 2021, article 913 contains a sting in its final paragraph for families who rely on English freedom to disinherit: where the deceased or at least one of the children is, at the death, a national of a European Union member State or habitually resident there, and the applicable foreign law provides no reserved-share mechanism protecting children, then “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.”, in the final paragraph of article 913 of the Civil Code<\/a>. In practice, a British father who leaves his Dordogne house entirely to his second wife under English law may find his daughter from a first marriage, if she is French-resident or an Irish as well as British national, taking a compensatory levy directly on the French house to restore her French reserved share. The levy only bites on assets situated in France at the death, it is capped at the French reserved rights, and it requires the foreign law to offer no equivalent protective mechanism, which English law, with its discretionary family provision, arguably does not. Any British will that disinherits or short-changes a child with a French or EU connection must therefore be reviewed against this paragraph before the testator dies, because after death it is the disinherited child who holds the initiative.<\/p>\n A final warning for blended families concerns concealment. Where a sibling hides a bank account, diverts rental income from the French house, or conceals the existence of another heir, French law treats that as recel successoral, succession concealment. The current text provides that “l’h\u00e9ritier qui a recel\u00e9 des biens ou des droits d’une succession ou dissimul\u00e9 l’existence d’un coh\u00e9ritier est r\u00e9put\u00e9 accepter purement et simplement la succession, nonobstant toute renonciation ou acceptation \u00e0 concurrence de l’actif net, sans pouvoir pr\u00e9tendre \u00e0 aucune part dans les biens ou les droits d\u00e9tourn\u00e9s ou recel\u00e9s”, per article 778 of the Civil Code<\/a>: the concealing heir is deemed to accept outright, loses all share in the concealed assets, and remains liable for damages. But the Cour de cassation polices the procedure strictly. On 2 September 2020, Civ. 1, no. 19-15.955<\/a>, it quashed an appeal ruling that had punished concealment outside any partition proceedings, holding that “Les demandes en rapport d’une donation d\u00e9guis\u00e9e dont aurait b\u00e9n\u00e9fici\u00e9 un h\u00e9ritier et en application de la sanction du recel successoral ne peuvent \u00eatre form\u00e9es qu’\u00e0 l’occasion d’une instance en partage successoral.” A British heir who discovers that a brother collected the French rents for two years should therefore frame the claim for return of the disguised gift and for the concealment penalty inside an action for judicial partition, the partage judiciaire, before the tribunal judiciaire, rather than as a free-standing damages claim that the courts will declare inadmissible.<\/p>\n French inheritance tax, the droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit, catches the French house even when both the deceased and the heirs live in England. The territorial rule in article 750 ter of the General Tax Code<\/a> provides that where the deceased was not fiscally domiciled in France, the tax still applies to “Les biens meubles et immeubles, que ces derniers soient poss\u00e9d\u00e9s directement ou indirectement, situ\u00e9s en France”. A Dordogne house owned directly, or indirectly through a British company or a French property company, the soci\u00e9t\u00e9 civile immobili\u00e8re, therefore falls within the French charge on the UK-resident parent’s death. Only the Franco-British succession convention of 21 June 1963, approved by the Act of 17 June 1964, softens the outcome: each State taxes the immovable property situated on its territory, and the State of the heir’s or the deceased’s domicile grants relief against double taxation under the treaty’s allocation rules, with the full text published by the French tax administration on impots.gouv.fr<\/a>. In practice the French notaire files the French return and pays the French tax on the house, while the English personal representatives account for UK inheritance tax on the worldwide estate and claim treaty relief for the French tax attributable to the French property, so the two files must be coordinated rather than run in silos.<\/p>\n The French calculation runs in three steps. First, the taxable share of each heir is valued at the open-market value on the day of death, debts of the deceased being deductible with supporting evidence. Second, each heir deducts a personal allowance, the abattement: “il est effectu\u00e9 un abattement de 100 000 \u20ac sur la part de chacun des ascendants et sur la part de chacun des enfants vivants ou repr\u00e9sent\u00e9s par suite de pr\u00e9d\u00e9c\u00e8s ou de renonciation”, per article 779 of the General Tax Code<\/a>. A surviving spouse or civil partner is fully exempt in direct line succession. Siblings, nephews and unrelated beneficiaries face far smaller allowances and steeper rates, which is why the identity of each beneficiary changes the bill dramatically. Third, the progressive scale in article 777 of the General Tax Code<\/a> applies, running in direct line from 5 per cent on the first slice to 45 per cent above 1,805,677 euros. A worked example makes this concrete: two children inheriting a Dordogne house worth 600,000 euros take 300,000 euros each, deduct 100,000 euros each, and pay the scale on 200,000 euros, roughly 38,000 euros each before any treaty credit on the English side. The same house passing to a nephew, whose allowance is under 8,000 euros with rates starting at 35 per cent, would cost several times more, which is why English wills leaving French houses to non-relatives need a tax review while the testator is alive.<\/p>\nI. Getting the English paperwork recognised in France: probate, will registration and the notaire<\/h2>\n
A. Do you need an English grant of probate to deal with a French house, and what the notaire actually asks for<\/h3>\n
B. Registering the English will in France and unblocking a stalled file<\/h3>\n
II. Who inherits and what tax is due: English freedom, French forced heirship and the death-tax treaty<\/h2>\n
A. How English testamentary freedom meets the French r\u00e9serve h\u00e9r\u00e9ditaire<\/h3>\n
B. French succession tax on the house, the 1963 treaty with Britain and challenging the bill<\/h3>\n