I live in Brittany. My dear wife recently passed away and for the last x2 weeks I have been buried in paperwork trying to deal with her estate, with barely time to grieve. I was told that under French Law I must engage a Notaire so that the name on our joint French property can be officially transferred into my sole name. I recently contacted a Notaire about this but after I advised them we had made our Wills under EU directive 650 to have them subject to English inheritance Law, in consequence they have told me that I must have my wifeâs estate settled in England. I donât even know what this means, except maybe âprobateâ.
My wifeâs estate is quite simple, if it is true that it must be settled in England, I simply do not know what this entails in order to satisfy any French demands.
Has anyone had a similar experience and do you know if âsuccessionâ can be carried out here in France or must it be done in the UK , as the Notaire seems to think ?
France was my wifeâs Domicile and she has no assets in the UK.
From what you say, you chose to have your respective estates administered under the law of England & Wales. If you chose Scottish or NI jurisdiction, different rules apply. I mention that only because some French people equate England with the UK!
Assuming your notaire is correct, and your paperwork is in order, then you would need to apply for the relevant Grant in England. That will probably be for Probate, though a different grant may be appropriate (depending on circumstances).
The process involves the executor (i) identifying all your late wifeâs assets and liabilities, (ii) completing various forms for submission to HMRC and HMCTS, (iii) paying any inheritance tax due and (iv) distributing the estate according to the will. Itâs laborious rather than particularly complex.
There is no reason why you cannot do the paperwork in France if your late wife had all her assets in France, but you would need to be in England in order to swear the executorâs oath.
There is a lot of helpful material on the governmentâs website (searcg for IHT400 and take it from there!) including guides on how to complete the various forms.
(There is an online application process but, if I remember correctly, you canât use it if there are âforeignâ assets.)
First of all, @flynnboy , I am very sorry to hear of your loss and send you as much virtual support as I can.
When my uk resident uncle died 5 years ago, I (a French resident) was his executor. The UK probate office sent me any required forms, and accepted all documents witnessed by a French Notaire with no visits to the UK required - apart from one to his bank who insisted that the executor should attend in person.
Iâd also add that the Notaire made no charge for his services.
As @Porridge suggested, the process was not difficult but did require a certain attention to detail. I hope that the process is smooth, easy and swift for you.
Thanks for your input everyone. The one thing I still need to get to know before I can proceed with anything is, it seems that the succession can be done in France according to one source, so I need clarification on this one point. I have discovered that I can apply for probate myself in the UK without a Solicitor, which I will do if I have to. I had one quote from the UK of 8,000 quid !
Iâm not sure your notaire has it right. Your wife was domiciled here and her assets were here. The aspects of English law apply to the way in which her succession is divided. So Iâm not sure the notaire can just pass the buck.
I will have a dig around the legislation.
I have done probate for three people in the UK. It is very straightforward and if your wifeâs affairs are strightfoward will not need a professional.
I can only speak from having french succession rules apply. We saw no point in having UK wills as we had nothing over there and ourselves and the children were/are french residents. If you find french succession rules are to be administered, they have to be started almost immediately but you have ten years in which to accept the inheritance so you can refuse and then re-accept before the ten year deadline, this is important for those who inherit and there are debts to be settled because they can refuse the inheritance and all the debts but if they re-accept later on, the debts still apply. Be careful as you can do UK probate yourself by getting the forms and filling them in, our friend did that and saved thousands of pounds in lawyers fees. Bear in mind too if your spouse was the owner designated on the carte grise for the car as you would have to apply to inherit it and change ownership, it does not automatically pass to you if you are not the registered keeper. My condolences for your loss, I know what you are going through.
I put together a document last year about how to deal with a death in the UK after my mother died. Iâll see if I can find it.
Probate can be all done online, although you will need to send a hard copy of the will. Do not assume you have completed the application until after you have paid, even though the web page may look like youâve finished the important stuff.
Thank you very much. I found the Co-op site and found it very useful. If I find that I do have to carry out UK probate I intend doing it myself. But I still need it confirming as I have also been told that because of our paricular circumstances it can be done here in France.
Thanks JaneJones. This is also what I have read and so think that the Notaire might be wrong. I have read that âDomicileâ is very important and her Domicile was here. In addition she has no assets in the UK. I have read that these two things add up to the fact that her probate does not have to be carried out in the UK - I just somehow need to clarify/confirm this !?
Thanks JaneJones, my French is not good enough to understand that document, but I get the gist. My wifeâs only asset is her joint ownership of our french house, and she was Domiciled here, no assets in the UK. I think I may have to find another Notaire ?
Youâre correct Jane. I was through my late wifeâs succession ten years ago which involved assets in Ireland and here. I took out probate for the Irish assets and the Notaire handled the assets in France. Iâve also been through succession planning here based on the change in the law regarding nominating which jurisdiction applies.
