Inheriting property in France: heirs, deadlines, notary

Who inherits the property?

The estate opens on death and the law passes it to the relatives and the surviving spouse entitled to inherit. Where there is no spouse, the heirs fall into four orders, each excluding those that follow: children and their descendants; father and mother, brothers and sisters and their descendants; other ascendants; other collateral relatives (code civil, art. 734).

The surviving spouse always inherits. Where there are children, they choose between the usufruit (usufruct, a life interest) of all the assets or outright ownership of a quarter when all the children are from the marriage; they receive ownership of a quarter if there are children from another relationship (art. 757). With no children, they receive half the assets if both of the deceased’s parents are alive (art. 757-1), and the whole estate where there are no descendants and no father or mother (art. 757-2). Service-public.gouv.fr specifies that, if no written choice is made within three months of a request from an heir, the usufruct of the whole estate is allocated to them.

A spouse who occupied the home as their main residence has, as of right, free use of it for one year; this right is a matter of public policy and cannot be overridden (art. 763). A partenaire de Pacs (civil partner) and a concubin (unmarried partner), on the other hand, do not inherit without a will (service-public.gouv.fr).

The reserved share: what a will cannot take away

The réserve is “the share of the estate’s assets and rights whose passing, free of charges, the law guarantees to certain heirs known as reserved heirs”; the quotité disponible (disposable portion) is the remainder, which the deceased was free to dispose of (art. 912).

Source: code civil, art. 913. A will leaving the house to a third party can therefore be reduced if it encroaches on the reserved share. Since 1 November 2021, if the applicable foreign law does not protect children, each child may make a prélèvement compensatoire (compensatory levy) on assets located in France, under the conditions of article 913.

The notary’s property certificate

Any transfer on death of real property rights “must be recorded by a notarial certificate” stating whether the heirs or legatees have accepted (décret no. 55-22, art. 29). This is what puts the property in the heirs’ names in the land register.

The time limits are set by article 33 of the same decree:

• publication of the certificate within four months from the day the notaire was instructed;
• the heirs are liable if the notaire is instructed more than six months after the death.

Exception: no certificate is drawn up if an acte de partage (deed of partition) covering all the real property is drawn up and published within ten months of the death (art. 29). The notaire is also required for the acte de notoriété (affidavit of heirship) when the estate reaches €5,965, and where there is a will or a gift between spouses (service-public.gouv.fr).

Inheritance tax return: deadlines, exemptions and penalties

The deadline is six months from the death where the deceased died in metropolitan France (CGI, art. 641) or, overseas, in the département where they were domiciled (CGI, art. 642), and as a general rule one year in other cases; it can be two years for a deceased domiciled in La Réunion or Mayotte, depending on where the death occurred (art. 642). Service-public.gouv.fr specifies that the duties are paid at the same time as the return is filed and that co-heirs are jointly liable for payment.

Exempt from filing are children, the spouse, the civil partner and other heirs in the direct line where the gross estate is less than €50,000, provided they have received no unregistered or undeclared gift from the deceased; for other beneficiaries, the threshold is €3,000 (CGI, art. 800). With a property, the estate often exceeds these thresholds.

If the return is late, late-payment interest is 0.20% per month (CGI, art. 1727; the rate is unchanged in the version in force from 1 January 2027). A 10% surcharge applies from the first day of the seventh month after the six-month deadline expires, i.e. from the thirteenth month after the death; it rises to 40% if the return is not filed within 90 days of a formal notice (CGI, art. 1728).

For the calculation, each child receives an allowance of €100,000 (CGI, art. 779). The surviving spouse and the civil partner are exempt from inheritance tax (CGI, art. 796-0 bis).

Which professional to consult

The notaire is indispensable: property certificate, affidavit of heirship, inheritance tax return and partition. To sell the inherited property, the agent immobilier (estate agent) provides the valuation, which is also useful for the declared value; the diagnostiqueur (property surveyor) carries out the mandatory surveys before the sale. On the split of ownership between a spouse holding the usufruct and the children, see our guide de l’usufruit et de la nue-propriété (guide to usufruct and bare ownership).