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 \u2014 the state-appointed lawyer who settles estates in France \u2014 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 \u2014 with the legal texts and court decisions that prove each point.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 a written choice of English law \u2014 is precisely the document the deceased never signed.<\/p>\n
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 proc\u00e9dure civile, ensemble l’article 3, alin\u00e9a 2, du code civil”, before holding that “lorsqu’une succession comporte des immeubles situ\u00e9s dans l’un et l’autre de deux pays dont le d\u00e9funt a la nationalit\u00e9, le renvoi op\u00e9r\u00e9 par la loi du lieu de situation de l’immeuble impose que le crit\u00e8re de rattachement \u00e0 la loi nationale du d\u00e9funt soit appr\u00e9ci\u00e9 selon les r\u00e8gles de conflit de lois pr\u00e9vues par la loi du pays renvoyant” (Cass. civ. 1\u00e8re, 15 May 2018, appeal No 17-11.571, Court of Cassation decision of 15 May 2018<\/a>). 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.<\/p>\n 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 “d\u00e9sign\u00e9e par l’article 21 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, 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. 1\u00e8re, 20 May 2026, appeal No 24-19.925, Court of Cassation decision of 20 May 2026<\/a>). The Court of Cassation recalled the controlling principle: “Il r\u00e9sulte de ce texte qu’il incombe au juge fran\u00e7ais, qui reconna\u00eet applicable un droit \u00e9tranger, d’en rechercher, soit d’office, soit \u00e0 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 \u00e0 la question litigieuse une solution conforme au droit positif \u00e9tranger.” Because the appeal judges had ruled “sans pr\u00e9ciser les dispositions du droit argentin sur lesquelles elle se fondait”, the court held that “la cour d’appel n’a pas donn\u00e9 de base l\u00e9gale \u00e0 sa d\u00e9cision” 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 \u2014 for example the formal validity of an English will covering English assets \u2014 the French judge must establish the actual content of English law with the parties, not guess at it.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 a flat in Leeds, a premium bond, a British bank account \u2014 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<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n 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 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. Chacune de ces quatre cat\u00e9gories constitue un ordre d’h\u00e9ritiers qui exclut les suivants.” Read the official text on Article 734 of the Civil Code on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. Each category shuts out the next: if there are children, parents and siblings take nothing from that order.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 and only a husband or wife counts, since Article 732 provides that “Est conjoint successible le conjoint survivant non divorc\u00e9” (Article 732 of the Civil Code on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>), so divorced and unmarried partners are not intestate heirs \u2014 faces Article 757 of the Civil Code: “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.” The official text is at Article 757 of the Civil Code on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n If there are no children, the picture changes. Article 738 of the Civil Code provides: “Lorsque les p\u00e8re et m\u00e8re survivent au d\u00e9funt et que celui-ci n’a pas de post\u00e9rit\u00e9, mais des fr\u00e8res et soeurs ou des descendants de ces derniers, la succession est d\u00e9volue, pour un quart, \u00e0 chacun des p\u00e8re et m\u00e8re et, pour la moiti\u00e9 restante, aux fr\u00e8res et soeurs ou \u00e0 leurs descendants. Lorsqu’un seul des p\u00e8re et m\u00e8re survit, la succession est d\u00e9volue pour un quart \u00e0 celui-ci et pour trois quarts aux fr\u00e8res et soeurs ou \u00e0 leurs descendants.” See Article 738 of the Civil Code on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n Behind these shares sits the doctrine English families find hardest to accept: the r\u00e9serve h\u00e9r\u00e9ditaire, or forced heirship. Article 912 of the Civil Code defines it: “La r\u00e9serve h\u00e9r\u00e9ditaire est la part des biens et droits successoraux dont la loi assure la d\u00e9volution libre de charges \u00e0 certains h\u00e9ritiers dits r\u00e9servataires, s’ils sont appel\u00e9s \u00e0 la succession et s’ils l’acceptent. La quotit\u00e9 disponible est la part des biens et droits successoraux qui n’est pas r\u00e9serv\u00e9e par la loi et dont le d\u00e9funt a pu disposer librement par des lib\u00e9ralit\u00e9s.” The text is at Article 912 of the Civil Code on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. Children are the protected heirs, and Article 913 fixes the maths: “Les lib\u00e9ralit\u00e9s, soit par actes entre vifs, soit par testament, 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.” Read it at Article 913 of the Civil Code on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n Two final mechanics complete the picture. First, heirs do not wait to be put in possession. Article 724 of the Civil Code states: “Les h\u00e9ritiers d\u00e9sign\u00e9s par la loi sont saisis de plein droit des biens, droits et actions du d\u00e9funt.” See Article 724 of the Civil Code on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. 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 qualit\u00e9 d’h\u00e9ritier s’\u00e9tablit par tous moyens.” The text is at Article 730 of the Civil Code on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. In practice the notaire draws up the certificate of heirship \u2014 the acte de notori\u00e9t\u00e9 \u2014 from birth, marriage and death certificates, but the family is not trapped if one paper is missing; any reliable evidence can establish status.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 the tribunal judiciaire de Paris \u2014 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 usually one near the French property or the last French home \u2014 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 notori\u00e9t\u00e9 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<\/a> walks through these stages in English-friendly terms, and the companion page on accepting or refusing an inheritance<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n English assets need parallel treatment. A French acte de notori\u00e9t\u00e9 does not by itself unlock an English bank account or transfer English land. Whoever administers the English side \u2014 usually one of the intestate heirs under English intestacy rules for the English assets \u2014 applies for a grant through the GOV.UK probate service<\/a>, 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<\/a>, which shows how a written choice of law avoids exactly the intestacy trap described here.<\/p>\n 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 \u2014 estate agent appraisals, bank statements at date of death, mortgage redemption figures \u2014 because the tax declaration and any later dispute both turn on values at a single date, and reconstructing them a year later is expensive.<\/p>\n French inheritance tax \u2014 droits de mutation \u00e0 titre gratuit, literally transfer duties on gratuitous transfers \u2014 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 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”, 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 L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. Brothers and sisters are treated less generously: the same article grants “un abattement de 15 932 \u20ac sur la part de chacun des fr\u00e8res ou s\u0153urs vivants ou repr\u00e9sent\u00e9s par suite de pr\u00e9d\u00e9c\u00e8s 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” \u2014 see when an heir is exempt from succession duties in English<\/a>. The detailed mechanics of valuation and computation are set out on the official pages for declaring the estate<\/a> and valuing the estate and calculating the duties<\/a>, and the impots.gouv.fr portal hosts the declaration forms the notaire files.<\/p>\n The filing deadline is the one date no family may miss. Article 641 of the General Tax Code fixes it in these terms: “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.” The official text is at Article 641 of the General Tax Code on L\u00e9gifrance<\/a>. A Briton who dies at home in France therefore leaves the heirs six months from the day of death to file the d\u00e9claration de succession; if death occurred in England \u2014 a hospital in Manchester during a visit, for example \u2014 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.<\/p>\nB. The French intestacy shares, translated for an English family<\/h3>\n
II. The practical road: notaire file, tax deadlines and how to challenge the outcome<\/h2>\n
A. The notaire procedure alongside English probate for UK assets<\/h3>\n
B. French death tax, declaration deadlines and challenging an unfair outcome<\/h3>\n