OH & I have been brought face to face with our own mortality over this last couple of years and (British) friends staying with me have strongly advised that we had power of attorney for each other, as they do in the UK, but from what I’ve read, I’m not sure it works the same way here (France) and I wondered if someone could explain please?
In the UK, our friends have the paperwork, but it remains dormant until it needs to kick in, which (hopefully for them) will not be for some considerable time.
Here, I get the sense PofA kicks in immediately, in a specific situation - am I right?
a starting point
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If you are married there is an automatic ability to act for your spouse in terms of basic admin access to money and so on. Generally the french marriage regime is communal which allows for this and I believe extends to DNR orders and switching off life support. Whether a british couple married under the seperation des biens regime would be allowed to do the same i don’t know.
Apart from that there isn’t the same system of advance directives. But a range of options according to circumstances. Most involve a judge but the most useful is habilitation familliale. But i don’t think can be done in advance of a medical need.
After that is curatelle and then tutelle.
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I was allowed to have life support turned off for OH on my say so, never any question of marriage contract involved, same with access to joint accounts. We were termed séparation des biens in the notaire process of sucession. I think if there is no hope for the spouse in the case of no possible recovery, then the surviving conjoint(e) has the final say.
i would ask your notaire what are the options, in an appointment face to face with you both sitting there, if they agree it’s a topic for them. It’s family law and that seems to be the province of notaires here. Though I’m not an expert.
Family law questions, more generally, would probably be more appropriately addressed by a family law specialist avocat (droit de la famille). Where the notaires are supposed to excel is in the application of family law to estate management.
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