Accepting or renouncing a French estate: deadlines

The three options and their effects

The option is indivisible: you cannot accept part and renounce the rest, unless you are both a statutory heir and a legatee (service-public.gouv.fr). A conditional option, or one subject to a time limit, is void (art. 768).

The deadlines: 4 months, 2 months, 10 years

• Four months from the opening of the estate: the heir cannot be compelled to choose (art. 771).
• After that period, a creditor, a co-heir, an heir next in line or the State may give them formal notice to decide, by acte extrajudiciaire (a document served by a judicial officer) (art. 771).
• They then have two months to choose or to ask the judge for more time; failing that, they are deemed to have accepted outright (art. 772).
• Without formal notice, the right to choose lapses after ten years; an heir who has stayed silent is then deemed to have renounced (art. 780).

The ten-year period does not run as long as the heir has legitimate reasons for not knowing of their rights, in particular that the estate has opened; against an heir who has left the surviving spouse to enjoy the assets, it runs only from the latter’s death (art. 780). This point directly concerns children who leave their surviving parent in the family home.

Outright acceptance: beware of acts that commit you

Acceptance can be express, by acte authentique (notarial deed) or private written document, or tacit: any act that necessarily implies the intention to accept is enough (art. 782). Service-public.gouv.fr gives the example of selling an item from the estate.

Certain acts, on the other hand, do not amount to acceptance: purely protective acts, acts of supervision or of temporary administration, provided you do not act in the capacity of heir (art. 784). The law includes among them paying the funeral costs, taxes owed by the deceased and urgent rent, as well as collecting income from the assets, provided the funds are used for these debts or deposited with a notaire (notary). Service-public.gouv.fr also cites paying the house insurance.

Once the estate has been accepted, the heir can no longer renounce it. They may, however, ask to be released from a debt they had legitimate reasons not to know about and which would seriously burden their own assets, by acting within five months of the day they learned of its existence and size (art. 786).

Acceptance up to the net assets: keeping the house without risk

This option protects the heir’s personal assets: they do not pay debts that exceed the value of the estate’s assets (service-public.gouv.fr). It requires formalities:

• a declaration at the registry of the tribunal judiciaire (court of first instance) for the deceased’s last home, or before a notaire, published in the Bodacc (official bulletin of civil and commercial notices) for €16 charged to the estate (service-public.gouv.fr);
• an inventory drawn up by a notaire or a commissaire de justice (judicial officer) and filed within two months of the declaration; failing that, the heir is deemed to have accepted outright (art. 790);
• creditors declare their claims within fifteen months of publication; after that period, claims not secured on the estate’s assets are extinguished as regards the estate (art. 792).

Within the same period, the heir may declare that they are keeping an asset in kind, for example the family home; they then owe its value as set in the inventory (art. 793). Hence the importance of a sound valuation of the property.

Renouncing: what happens to the property

Renunciation is never presumed. It is sent or filed at the court for the place where the estate opened, or made before a notaire, who sends a copy to the court within the month (art. 804). Service-public.gouv.fr provides a form.

The person renouncing is deemed never to have been an heir: their share passes to those who represent them, failing which it goes to their co-heirs; if they are the only heir, it passes to the next degree (art. 805). Their own children will in turn have to choose (service-public.gouv.fr). They are not liable for the debts, but remain liable, in proportion to their means, for the funeral costs of the ascendant or descendant whose estate they are renouncing (art. 806). A gift already received is kept within the limit of the quotité disponible (disposable portion), unless the deceased expressly provided that it would be brought back into the estate in the event of renunciation: the person renouncing then compensates the other heirs for whatever exceeds their rights (service-public.gouv.fr).

If all the heirs renounce, the Domaine (the State property department) is appointed as curateur (administrator) on application to the tribunal judiciaire; it makes an inventory then sells the assets, including the house, to settle the debts (service-public.gouv.fr).

As long as the ten-year period has not elapsed, a person who has renounced may go back on their decision by accepting outright, if no other heir has accepted and if the State has not been put in possession (art. 807).

Which professional to consult

The notaire (notary) receives the renunciation or the declaration of acceptance up to the net assets, draws up the inventory and, if the estate is accepted, prepares the attestation de propriété immobilière (certificate of inherited property). The agent immobilier (estate agent) values the house: this value helps judge whether the assets cover the debts and sets the price to be paid to keep the property in kind. See also our guide on succession et immobilier (inheritance and property).