Your father lived in Dordogne for fifteen years, owned a stone house with a mortgage still running, owed arrears of taxe fonci\u00e8re<\/i> (the French local property tax) and left three bank accounts, two of them overdrawn. You live in Manchester, you hold a British passport, and the French notaire<\/i> (the public officer who settles estates in France) has just written to tell you that you are an heir. The first question is not who gets the house. It is whether the whole estate is worth accepting at all, because under French law the person who accepts an estate can end up paying its debts out of their own pocket. This guide explains the three choices French law gives you, the deadlines that frame them, the paperwork you can complete from Britain, and the traps that catch heirs who deal with a French estate from across the Channel: touching the assets too soon, hiding an account, or simply doing nothing for too long.<\/p>\nI. Accept, limit or walk away: the three options open to the British heir<\/h2>\n
A. What outright acceptance, acceptance up to the net assets and renunciation really mean<\/h3>\n
French law gives every heir the same three-way choice, familiarly called the option successorale<\/i> (the heir’s right to choose). The Civil Code states that “L\u2019h\u00e9ritier peut accepter la succession purement et simplement ou y renoncer. Il peut \u00e9galement accepter la succession \u00e0 concurrence de l\u2019actif net lorsqu\u2019il a une vocation universelle ou \u00e0 titre universel. Est nulle l\u2019option conditionnelle ou \u00e0 terme.” (Article 768 of the Civil Code<\/a>). In plain English: you may accept outright, renounce, or \u2014 where you are a general heir rather than the recipient of a single defined legacy \u2014 accept \u00e0 concurrence de l\u2019actif net<\/i> (up to the amount of the net assets, meaning your liability for debts is capped at what the estate contains). No conditional or time-limited choice is valid, so you cannot accept for the house while refusing the loans. Each option below carries a different price, and the right one depends entirely on whether the estate is solvent.<\/p>\n Outright acceptance (acceptation pure et simple<\/i>) makes you the full continuator of the deceased. You take the assets, and you take the debts with them, without limit. The Code provides that “L\u2019h\u00e9ritier universel ou \u00e0 titre universel qui accepte purement et simplement la succession r\u00e9pond ind\u00e9finiment des dettes et charges qui en d\u00e9pendent. Il n\u2019est tenu des legs de sommes d\u2019argent qu\u2019\u00e0 concurrence de l\u2019actif successoral net des dettes.” (Article 785 of the Civil Code<\/a>). The word to retain is ind\u00e9finiment<\/i> (without limit): if the mortgage, the overdrafts, the unpaid income tax and the care-home arrears exceed the value of the house and the accounts, the creditors can pursue your own money in Britain \u2014 your salary, your savings, your own house \u2014 for the balance. Only cash legacies left by the deceased are capped at the net estate. Outright acceptance suits a clearly solvent estate, typically where a French house owned free of mortgage outweighs modest debts. It is dangerous wherever the deceased borrowed late in life, guaranteed someone else’s loan, ran a business with professional debts, or simply stopped opening letters. Once made, the choice is locked: “L\u2019h\u00e9ritier acceptant purement et simplement ne peut plus renoncer \u00e0 la succession ni l\u2019accepter \u00e0 concurrence de l\u2019actif net.” (Article 786 of the Civil Code<\/a>). There is only a narrow judicial escape where a debt surfaces later: the same article continues, “Toutefois, il peut demander \u00e0 \u00eatre d\u00e9charg\u00e9 en tout ou partie de son obligation \u00e0 une dette successorale qu\u2019il avait des motifs l\u00e9gitimes d\u2019ignorer au moment de l\u2019acceptation, lorsque l\u2019acquittement de cette dette aurait pour effet d\u2019ob\u00e9rer gravement son patrimoine personnel.” In other words, a court can partly release you from a debt you had legitimate reasons not to know about when you accepted, if paying it would seriously damage your personal wealth \u2014 but you must act within five months of discovering it, you must prove your ignorance was legitimate, and judges apply this relief strictly. Never accept outright while a material debt remains unverified.<\/p>\n Acceptance up to the net assets (acceptation \u00e0 concurrence de l\u2019actif net<\/i>) is the middle path, and very often the sensible default for a British heir who cannot see the full picture from Manchester or London. The mechanism allows you to ring-fence your own wealth: creditors of the estate are paid only out of the estate’s assets, and what they cannot recover there, they cannot take from you. The declaration is simple in form \u2014 “Un h\u00e9ritier peut d\u00e9clarer qu\u2019il n\u2019entend prendre cette qualit\u00e9 qu\u2019\u00e0 concurrence de l\u2019actif net.” (Article 787 of the Civil Code<\/a>) \u2014 but it triggers real duties. Your declaration must be followed by an inventaire<\/i> (a formal inventory valuing every asset and every debt, item by item): “La d\u00e9claration est accompagn\u00e9e ou suivie de l\u2019inventaire de la succession qui comporte une estimation, article par article, des \u00e9l\u00e9ments de l\u2019actif et du passif. L\u2019inventaire est \u00e9tabli par un commissaire-priseur judiciaire, un huissier ou un notaire, selon les lois et r\u00e8glements applicables \u00e0 ces professions.” (Article 789 of the Civil Code<\/a>). In practice the French notaire<\/i> settling the estate organises this inventory with a commissaire de justice<\/i> (the officer formerly known as huissier<\/i>, combining bailiff and auctioneer functions) or a valuer, and you pay the costs out of the estate. From that point you administer the assets you have received under court-grade duties: “L\u2019h\u00e9ritier est charg\u00e9 d\u2019administrer les biens qu\u2019il recueille dans la succession. Il tient le compte de son administration, des cr\u00e9ances qu\u2019il paye et des actes qui engagent les biens recueillis ou qui affectent leur valeur.” (Article 800 of the Civil Code<\/a>). You must keep accounts, pay creditors in the proper order, and answer any creditor who formally demands to know where the estate’s property is, within two months. Sell a car below value, pay one creditor out of turn, or mix estate money with your own, and you can be held personally liable for serious faults of administration. The English-language page of the French notaires<\/i> summarises the trade-off accurately: acceptance up to the net assets limits payment of the estate debts to what the heir collects through the estate, while heirs remain bound by management duties (Notaires de France, French probate guide<\/a>). Choose this route whenever the estate might be insolvent but could contain something worth saving \u2014 a house with equity, a life policy outside the estate, a claim for damages \u2014 because it preserves the upside while capping the downside.<\/p>\n Renunciation (renonciation<\/i>) is the clean break: you take nothing and you owe nothing. “L\u2019h\u00e9ritier qui renonce est cens\u00e9 n\u2019avoir jamais \u00e9t\u00e9 h\u00e9ritier.” (Article 805 of the Civil Code<\/a>). You are deemed never to have been an heir: your share passes to your own children by representation or, failing that, swells the shares of your co-heirs or goes to the next degree, and creditors of the estate cannot touch you. One limit survives even renunciation, and British families divided between two countries should note it: “Le renon\u00e7ant n\u2019est pas tenu au paiement des dettes et charges de la succession. Toutefois, il est tenu \u00e0 proportion de ses moyens au paiement des frais fun\u00e9raires de l\u2019ascendant ou du descendant \u00e0 la succession duquel il renonce.” (Article 806 of the Civil Code<\/a>). If you renounce your father’s or your child’s estate, you can still be asked to contribute to the funeral costs in proportion to your means. Renunciation is never presumed \u2014 silence alone is not a renunciation \u2014 and to bind third parties it must be formally filed: “La renonciation \u00e0 une succession ne se pr\u00e9sume pas. Pour \u00eatre opposable aux tiers, la renonciation op\u00e9r\u00e9e par l\u2019h\u00e9ritier universel ou \u00e0 titre universel doit \u00eatre adress\u00e9e ou d\u00e9pos\u00e9e au tribunal dans le ressort duquel la succession s\u2019est ouverte ou faite devant notaire.” (Article 804 of the Civil Code<\/a>). A letter to the notaire<\/i> saying you “don’t want anything to do with it” is not a renunciation. The English service-public.fr page confirms the same three-way structure in plain terms: you may accept outright, accept up to the net assets, or relinquish, with different debt consequences and steps for each choice (service-public.fr, Accept or renounce the succession<\/a>). The same page adds the practical consequences: under acceptance up to the net assets you do not pay debts beyond the value of the deceased\u2019s property, while after the long-stop deadline you are treated as having renounced. Renunciation suits deeply insolvent estates, estates whose debts would cost more to administer than they are worth, and cases where your own children are better placed to take your share by representation \u2014 but think before you sign, because although a renunciation can be revoked while the ten-year period still runs and nobody else has taken the share, unwinding it is litigation, not paperwork.<\/p>\n French law protects the heir who needs time to investigate, then punishes the heir who sleeps indefinitely. The starting point is a four-month breathing space: “L\u2019h\u00e9ritier ne peut \u00eatre contraint \u00e0 opter avant l\u2019expiration d\u2019un d\u00e9lai de quatre mois \u00e0 compter de l\u2019ouverture de la succession. A l\u2019expiration de ce d\u00e9lai, il peut \u00eatre somm\u00e9, par acte extrajudiciaire, de prendre parti \u00e0 l\u2019initiative d\u2019un cr\u00e9ancier de la succession, d\u2019un coh\u00e9ritier, d\u2019un h\u00e9ritier de rang subs\u00e9quent ou de l\u2019Etat.” (Article 771 of the Civil Code<\/a>). The ouverture de la succession<\/i> (the opening of the estate) is the date of death, so for four months no creditor, no sibling and no French state office can force you to choose. Use these months actively from Britain: instruct the notaire<\/i> to list the accounts, ask the bank for statements, have the house valued, check the mortgage balance and the taxe fonci\u00e8re<\/i> arrears with the local tax office, and ask whether the deceased stood as caution<\/i> (guarantor) for anyone’s loan \u2014 guarantees are the classic hidden debt in French estates. If you are the next in line behind someone who renounces, your own four months run from the day you learn of that renunciation: the Code provides that the summons machinery applies to “l\u2019h\u00e9ritier de rang subs\u00e9quent appel\u00e9 \u00e0 succ\u00e9der lorsque l\u2019h\u00e9ritier de premier rang renonce \u00e0 la succession”, with time running “\u00e0 compter du jour o\u00f9 l\u2019h\u00e9ritier subs\u00e9quent a eu connaissance de la renonciation ou de l\u2019indignit\u00e9” (Article 774 of the Civil Code<\/a>). A British grandchild who inherits because their parent renounced therefore gets a fresh clock, not the leftover of the parent’s.<\/p>\n After the four months, anyone with an interest \u2014 a bank owed money, a co-heir wanting to move on, the French state \u2014 can serve you with a sommation<\/i> (a formal extrajudicial demand to take your option). From service you have two months to decide or to ask a judge for more time while you finish an inventory you have started or for other serious and legitimate reasons, and your request suspends the clock until the judge rules: “Dans les deux mois qui suivent la sommation, l\u2019h\u00e9ritier doit prendre parti ou solliciter un d\u00e9lai suppl\u00e9mentaire aupr\u00e8s du juge lorsqu\u2019il n\u2019a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 en mesure de cl\u00f4turer l\u2019inventaire commenc\u00e9 ou lorsqu\u2019il justifie d\u2019autres motifs s\u00e9rieux et l\u00e9gitimes.” Miss that window and the sanction is brutal: “A d\u00e9faut d\u2019avoir pris parti \u00e0 l\u2019expiration du d\u00e9lai de deux mois ou du d\u00e9lai suppl\u00e9mentaire accord\u00e9, l\u2019h\u00e9ritier est r\u00e9put\u00e9 acceptant pur et simple.” (Article 772 of the Civil Code<\/a>). You become an outright acceptor by default, with unlimited liability for the debts, simply because you did not answer. For a British heir this is the single most dangerous rule in the chapter: a sommation<\/i> sent by a French creditor to your last known French address, or served while you were between two homes, can mature into unlimited liability before you even understood what the document was. If you receive any French legal paper mentioning sommation d\u2019opter<\/i> or prendre parti<\/i>, treat it as urgent, have it translated immediately, and instruct a lawyer before the two months expire. Conversely, where nobody serves you with anything and you have done nothing that counts as acceptance, your freedom lasts: “A d\u00e9faut de sommation, l\u2019h\u00e9ritier conserve la facult\u00e9 d\u2019opter” (Article 773 of the Civil Code<\/a>). Without a summons, you keep your freedom to choose, provided you have done nothing counting as an heir\u2019s act and you are not already deemed an outright acceptor under the concealment and administration rules. Doing nothing is therefore safe only on two conditions: nobody summons you, and you yourself do nothing that the law reads as acceptance \u2014 which leads directly to the traps below.<\/p>\n The absolute long-stop is ten years. “La facult\u00e9 d\u2019option se prescrit par dix ans \u00e0 compter de l\u2019ouverture de la succession. L\u2019h\u00e9ritier qui n\u2019a pas pris parti dans ce d\u00e9lai est r\u00e9put\u00e9 renon\u00e7ant.” (Article 780 of the Civil Code<\/a>). After ten years of silence you are deemed to have renounced, and the estate passes to those next entitled. Whatever you finally choose operates backwards: “L\u2019option exerc\u00e9e a un effet r\u00e9troactif au jour de l\u2019ouverture de la succession.” (Article 776 of the Civil Code<\/a>). Renounce in year three and you are deemed never to have been heir since the death; accept up to the net assets in year two and your capped liability covers debts from day one. And if you renounced too hastily \u2014 because a sibling assured you the estate was drowning, then a forgotten life policy surfaced \u2014 the law offers a way back while time remains: “Tant que la prescription du droit d\u2019accepter n\u2019est pas acquise contre lui, l\u2019h\u00e9ritier peut r\u00e9voquer sa renonciation en acceptant la succession purement et simplement, si elle n\u2019a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9j\u00e0 accept\u00e9e par un autre h\u00e9ritier ou si l\u2019Etat n\u2019a pas d\u00e9j\u00e0 \u00e9t\u00e9 envoy\u00e9 en possession.” (Article 807 of the Civil Code<\/a>). The revocation acts retroactively to the death, but it fails if another heir or the state has already taken the share \u2014 first come, first served.<\/p>\n Two traps convert an undecided British heir into an outright acceptor without any signature. The first is the acte d\u2019h\u00e9ritier<\/i> (an act only an acceptor would have the right to do). The Code defines it precisely: “L\u2019acceptation pure et simple peut \u00eatre expresse ou tacite. Elle est expresse quand le successible prend le titre ou la qualit\u00e9 d\u2019h\u00e9ritier acceptant dans un acte authentique ou sous seing priv\u00e9. Elle est tacite quand le successible saisi fait un acte qui suppose n\u00e9cessairement son intention d\u2019accepter et qu\u2019il n\u2019aurait droit de faire qu\u2019en qualit\u00e9 d\u2019h\u00e9ritier acceptant.” (Article 782 of the Civil Code<\/a>). Selling the deceased’s car, cashing in an investment and spending the proceeds, granting a lease over the French house in your own name, or describing yourself as h\u00e9ritier acceptant<\/i> in a private deed are textbook tacit acceptances. Ordinary protective steps are safe: “Les actes purement conservatoires ou de surveillance et les actes d\u2019administration provisoire peuvent \u00eatre accomplis sans emporter acceptation de la succession, si le successible n\u2019y a pas pris le titre ou la qualit\u00e9 d\u2019h\u00e9ritier.” (Article 784 of the Civil Code<\/a>). Paying the buildings insurance, changing the locks, arranging urgent roof repairs, or asking the notaire<\/i> for information do not accept the estate \u2014 provided you never call yourself heir in writing. The Cour de cassation polices this boundary in both directions. In one case it recalled that acceptance is never presumed and that it is for the estate’s creditor to prove every condition allowing it to claim payment from the heir: “l\u2019acceptation d\u2019une succession ne se pr\u00e9sumant pas, c\u2019est au cr\u00e9ancier h\u00e9r\u00e9ditaire d\u2019\u00e9tablir que l\u2019ensemble des conditions de nature \u00e0 lui permettre de r\u00e9clamer paiement \u00e0 l\u2019h\u00e9ritier sont r\u00e9unies” (Cour de cassation, First Civil Chamber, 19 September 2019, appeal no. 18-18.433, official decision<\/a>). In the same ruling it quashed an appeal court that had let a creditor pursue a man simply because he was saisi<\/i> (automatically vested) with the estate: the heir, the Court held, “saisi de plein droit des biens, droits et actions de Q… X…, pouvait \u00eatre poursuivi par les cr\u00e9anciers de la succession, sauf \u00e0 lui \u00e0 renoncer \u00e0 celle-ci”. Being automatically vested with the estate’s property at death \u2014 which Article 724 organises by stating “Les h\u00e9ritiers d\u00e9sign\u00e9s par la loi sont saisis de plein droit des biens, droits et actions du d\u00e9funt.” (Article 724 of the Civil Code<\/a>) \u2014 does not stop you from renouncing afterwards. Creditors know this, which is why they serve a sommation<\/i>: it forces you off the fence.<\/p>\n The second trap is concealment, and it is punished with exceptional severity. The heir “qui a recel\u00e9 des biens ou des droits d\u2019une succession ou dissimul\u00e9 l\u2019existence d\u2019un coh\u00e9ritier est r\u00e9put\u00e9 accepter purement et simplement la succession, nonobstant toute renonciation ou acceptation \u00e0 concurrence de l\u2019actif net” (Article 778 of the Civil Code<\/a>). Empty the French current account into your own before the inventory, “forget” a securities portfolio when the notaire<\/i> asks for a full picture, or hide a half-sibling’s existence, and the law deems you an outright acceptor despite any renunciation you filed \u2014 with unlimited liability and no share in what you hid. The Cour de cassation confirmed the full logic under the older wording, still the governing principle: “les h\u00e9ritiers qui auraient diverti ou recel\u00e9 des effets d\u2019une succession sont d\u00e9chus de la facult\u00e9 d\u2019y renoncer ; ils demeurent h\u00e9ritiers purs et simples, nonobstant leur renonciation, sans pouvoir pr\u00e9tendre aucune part dans les objets divertis ou recel\u00e9s.” (Cour de cassation, First Civil Chamber, 2 September 2020, appeal no. 19-15.955, official decision<\/a>). For heirs administering from Britain the warning is practical: never move funds “to keep them safe”, never instruct a French bank to close an account and transfer the balance to you personally before your option is formally recorded, and copy the notaire<\/i> on everything. Transparency is not courtesy here; it is the condition of keeping your choice.<\/p>\n Brexit changed nothing about the doors you must walk through; it only made the corridor longer. Since 1 January 2021 British citizens are third-country nationals in France, so you will likely need a visa to spend time there sorting the estate, your British passport no longer gives you a right to remain while the notaire<\/i> works, and every document you sign from London must cross the Channel in a form the French greffe<\/i> (the court registry) accepts. Start by organising your status in France itself: the arrival formalities \u2014 which long-stay visa leads to which carte de s\u00e9jour<\/i> (residence permit), and how to challenge a refusal \u2014 are set out in the British newcomer’s pillar guide (British newcomer visa and residence permit guide<\/a>). Once you can travel and stay lawfully, the succession itself follows French procedural rails that apply identically to French and British heirs.<\/p>\n Renunciation is filed, not posted casually. As seen above, it must be addressed or lodged at the court of the place where the estate opened, or made before a notaire<\/i>, and the notaire<\/i> who receives it forwards a copy to the court within the month (Article 804 of the Civil Code<\/a>). In practice a British heir has two workable routes. The first is to see a French notaire<\/i> \u2014 ideally the one already settling the estate, who holds the file \u2014 and sign the renunciation there during a trip to France; the notaire<\/i> handles registration and national publication. The second is to sign before an English solicitor or notary public and have the deed legalised for use in France, then sent to the competent greffe<\/i> or to the French notaire<\/i> for deposit. Since Brexit, the United Kingdom is no longer covered by the EU instruments that once simplified cross-border legalisation, so check with the notaire<\/i> in advance whether an apostille<\/i> (the Hague Convention authentication stamp) on your English deed will satisfy the greffe<\/i>, and have every English document translated by a traducteur asserment\u00e9<\/i> (a sworn translator registered with a French court of appeal). Keep proof of filing: the declaration is registered and nationally published, and only that registration makes your renunciation binding on creditors who were not parties to your family arrangements.<\/p>\n Acceptance up to the net assets follows a parallel track with heavier follow-through. The declaration “doit \u00eatre faite au greffe du tribunal judiciaire dans le ressort duquel la succession est ouverte ou devant notaire”, it must elect a single address for service, and “Le domicile doit \u00eatre situ\u00e9 en France.” (Article 788 of the Civil Code<\/a>). Read that last sentence twice if you live in Britain: your elected domicile \u2014 where creditors must serve every demand \u2014 must be in France, typically the office of the notaire<\/i> settling the estate or your French lawyer’s chambers. Electing your Manchester address is void, and creditors who cannot serve you properly can later dispute your whole procedure. Once declared, commission the inventory without delay, because the item-by-item valuation of assets and liabilities frames everything that follows: the price at which the house enters the accounts, the balance of each loan, the arrears of tax, the value of the furniture. The service-public.fr guide describes the sequence for non-lawyers: file the declaration on plain paper or the official form, send it to the court or the notaire<\/i>, then have a commissioner of justice or a notary draw up the inventory valuing the assets and debts of the deceased (service-public.fr, Accept or renounce the succession<\/a>). From London, give the notaire<\/i> a complete documentary pack early \u2014 property titles, bank statements, savings books, loan agreements, tax notices, invoices, and a list of gifts, sales or company moves the deceased made in recent years \u2014 because the notaires<\/i>\u2019 own guide asks heirs to send every supporting document, from property titles and bank statements to savings books and invoices, so the assets and liabilities can be assessed (Notaires de France, French probate guide<\/a>). An inventory built on half a file undervalues debts, and undervalued debts become your personal problem if your procedure later fails.<\/p>\n Two related files often run alongside the debts question and deserve early attention. First, the English-law dimension: many British owners of French houses made an English will choosing English law under the EU Succession Regulation, and the interaction of that choice with French forced-heirship rules decides who the heirs even are before anyone discusses debts \u2014 the mechanics are explained in the guide to choosing English law for a French house (British will and French house guide<\/a>). Second, the executor dimension: where an English grant of probate exists, getting it recognised by the French notaire<\/i> through a European Certificate of Succession or equivalent proof conditions the whole timetable. Neither file changes the three options described here, but both change who exercises them and on what share \u2014 so align the will, the probate and the debts advice before anyone signs anything.<\/p>\nB. How long you have to decide, and the summons that forces your hand<\/h3>\n
II. Debts, paperwork and challenges for the heir dealing from Britain<\/h2>\n
A. Filing your choice from London: declarations, inventory and the notaire<\/h3>\n
B. Who pays the mortgage, the taxes and the hidden debts, and how to challenge the bill<\/h3>\n