Inheritance issues and estate planning for families including remarriage and step children or even step grandchildren can trigger complex issues but the following story including successive lifetime gifts is a reminder that certain options are to be avoided.

Daniel gets his childhood holiday home for Christmas

Daniel always remembered his fantastic holidays as a child to the family holiday residence. Nowadays, he is still going there with his wife and…

Letting your local farmer use your land and receiving the odd envelope, a bale of hay, a slab of meat or vegetables in exchange may put you in a tricky situation.

Ghislaine has retired in a sunny corner of the French countryside for a while now and owns a few acres of agricultural lands next to her property but she is no farmer. Every Tuesday at the local village’s market, she buys local products from a local farmer, Romain, and she mentioned to him that she could use someone to cut…

A French order issued by the government aims to simplify the definition of different surfaces in urban planning, replacing the concepts of “gross floor area” and “net floor area” by a single definition of floor area. 

An order issued on 16^th November 2011 regarding the definition of floor area will come into force on 1^st March 2012. It aims at simplifying the concepts of different surface areas in urban planning, replacing the net floor area and gross…

In a recent Court case, a property had been purchased by two friends: Mr. Logger and Mr. Heads. The completion deed included a clause stating that the first of the co-owners to die would be considered as never having had any right of ownership on the property. As a result, this clause allowed the surviving co-owner to become the sole owner who would be deemed as such since the day of purchase. This clause is known as a tontine clause (or clause d'accroissement).

Over…