Help with advice please.. Husband and I both in mid 70’s, home owners in Dordogne, and fit and healthy so far but you cannot help to start thinking about what would happen if one of us died.. Both of us have said we couldnt manage house and garden on our own and would have to move.. Currently we do not have a Will.. we have two adult children in UK.. I just presumed that when one of us died, the surviving person would be able to just sell the house and either move somewhere else within France or return to UK (reluctantly) to be nearer to family.. This is where I am confused.. (it even made me get out of bed at midnight and dig out our Acte de Vente for the house..) Apparently we do not have the words ‘En Tonine’ on this document.. This is a rather long winded way of me asking briefly ‘what would happen financially with the proceeds of the house’ - I understand that my children would be involved. I appreciate I should probably go down to the Notaire but bearing in mind he never offered us the ‘En Tontine’ option in the first place, which we would have taken, I am not sure that I have much confidence.. Thank you for any help you can give.. Jane
Having been in the position of losing OH I can confirm that you can have a Donation entre Epoux which is similar to en tontine and leaves the property to the survivor and children. In my case, Séparation des Biens came into play as we were married in the UK legally and therefore I received my part (we bought in joint names) plus 50% of the half of the deceased and our two children got 12.5% inheritance from their dad which in real terms meant nothing as I still live. However, as my OH name appeared on the Carte Grise for the family car, I had to get that changed into my ownership and the cost that incurred for a new CG and my children had to give written permission to the Notaire as they did when I sold up in 2022 and moved south. Apart from that I can only suggest any French bank accounts are. held in M et Mme. End of the day, Separation des Biens under UK marriage contract is very legal in France and during our 14 year TGI case, it held me in good stead too!
The children are from this marriage? And you have UK marriage regime of séperation des biens?
Then if one parent dies the children would be entitled to 50% of the 50% owned by that parent. So 25% of house, but they can’t kick you out as you would have the usufruit (use of it) until you die. Pop along to notaire and discuss doing a donation entre époux which makes things clear.
But this is the absolute standard situation so should be no complications just paperwork - but having a simple will would help speed things along. They are basic handwritten documents you can lodge with notaire, or not as you choose.
Thank you both for your response.. yes, children are from our marriage of 53 years!!! I am not sure I understand this ‘Séparation des Biens’….. what is this please….? Sorry for my stupidity here.. This is just something I have never considered before… Again, thanks..
Are you British and married in UK? If so that is 99.99% likely to be your marriage regime.
Whatever your financial situation or intentions, getting wills done for each of you is something I would address as soon as possible.
Yes there are laws in both France and UK about who inherits if someone dies intestate, but it’s so much easier and quicker and less stressful if there is a Will in place for each of you.
It can be a very simple document that you write yourself (my partner is a fan of this approach!) but personally I would get your Wills drafted by a lawyer and properly witnessed, to make sure the language is unambiguous in setting out your wishes and for peace of mind.
Its what the French legal eagles call the UK marriage ceremony whereby you have just the one certificate whereas here you can have different régimes depending on how you want to split your assets should one of you die or you get divorced. This does not exist in the UK, only those pre-nuptial things that rich people get drawn up and is not part of a UK marriage contract.
We did not have a will and this did not cause any problems as Donation entre Epoux was taken out some years after we bought the property in joint names. Wills probably only make things easier for those not tax domiciled in France whereby the French succession laws come into play automatically
I think you meant French bank accounts should be held M ou Mme rather than M et Mme. This was the advise we were given.
I’m glad to hear it!
It’s just a personal opinion, but I feel there are advantages to having your wishes clearly set out in an official document, however straightforward your particular circumstances may be.
YMMV.
I agree with you. We went to see a notaire to do our wills and make sure we got things right. It was quick and didn’t cost much at all. He put copies on the French central registry.
Another reason to love SF. My husband and I will be making our France wills ASAP 
Same here, but beware if you have kids with other previous partners. When my wife died the notaire set about contacting my wife’s children. As far as I know non of them have cooperated so the savings account at our bank in my wife’s name is frozen for up to 10 years. Doesn’t help that that notaire takes his cue from that and refuses to cooperate with me. 
Yes, it’s this Mini Mac predictive text which I have not sussed out to cancel and I don’t check every word as it flips about. Should have read OU
On a Mac running macOS 14.2 Sonoma or later, open System Settings > Keyboard, click Edit under the Text Input header, turn off “Show inline predictive text,” and click Done.
Ta very mutchly for that, still finding my way around something that has a mind of it’s own it seems.
I know what you mean!
PS there are also settings in most web browsers for spellcheck on/off etc.
I’m not bothered because I can do my own spell checking but there does seem to have been something of the sort to have sneaked in all by itself. It works in English so when I write in French I have almost full lines of red underlines as it recognises very little. I have grown to ignore it. 
Couldn’t agree more. We have no children, married in the uk/ ie separation des biens regime. We wish to leave our assets to the surviving other, then if no surviving spouse, to French charities. We produced hand written wills as dictated by our notaire, who didn’t charge us at all, bar the fee for registering them in the central wills registry. Pretty simple and painless!