My co-heir has as a result of a court summons, accepted the succession, but after 61/2 years she still won’t sign the Acte De Partage. Even with further legal proceedings she’ll drag it out further and still won’t sign. She thinks she’s entitled to 100% of the succession. Mediation is not an option.
My question is since this is a form of theft, whether criminal law might take precedence?
PS - Please don’t ask me for the background. It can be found in my other threads here.
Theft requires a fairly precisely defined set of circumstances - are those circumstances met under French law ? The only way to determine that would be to consult with a French criminal lawyer.
Alternatively, you could always file a complaint with the gendarmerie or the police municipale (depending on who is responsible for the area in question), if you feel you have been a victim of theft, and then it would be up to them to carry out an investigation, and proceed or not, with charges.
Thanks RicePudding.
You need a good avocat spécialisé en droit des successions who can help you navigate this inheritance deadlock. French inheritance law can be complex, and criminal theft charges aren’t straightforward here. Legal consultation is definitely your next step.
Thanks for replying. I have a contract already drawn up by a French lawyer in France for further action which I haven’t yet signed.
My question - is she criminally breaking the law by denying me what’s legally mine?
As others have said, the only person who can give a fully informed opinion is a suitable French legal professional - either a criminal lawyer (Avocat pénaliste) or one who specialises in matters of inheritance (Avocat spécialisé en droit des successions).
Good luck.
Thanks Brian. I’ve provisionally emailed a couple of French criminal lawyers based in France asking the same question
I’ll update you all in due course.
What have your Google searches for rules and cases on this revealed?
This cannot be an unusual case, where there are joint inheritors to a property and only one of the heirs continues to occupy the property and seems to be blocking other heirs from (1) using a share of it and (2) disposing of the property
I could understand if the will had left usufruit to her for the rest of her life in which case you’d be stuck with it. But if not then this would be a case regularly occurring and I would have thought some serious Google searching would let you find rules, other cases and actions taken which would help you understand a legal professional’s advice more quickly.
Thank you. I’ve done a lot of searching on Google, in vain and I just hoped someone here might know the answer. I seek an alternative to further legal action as it will take at least 18 months and I need the inheritance and ensuing security - now - I’m not 40.
I’m sorry, I can’t remember whether you have spoken directly to the notaire handling the succession, if so what does he/she say; and if not, why not?
To answer your original question: dragging out legal proceedings is not theft, and it’s not something the police would deal with.
It would be for the court seized of the proceedings to take any enforcement action, and it would take a very dim view should any other authority try to interfere.
Veto there is nothing more the Notaire can do. She won’t respond to his request to sign the Acte De Partage.? She believes she’s 100 percent entitled to the entire estate. She’s not. Maybe she should be sectioned? …… lol
Thanks to the summons I think I have lost my right to the standard ten year frame - (or have I?)
No not dragging out the settlement but rather withholding my inheritance by not settling the estate. .
I was answering your original question, which was
But the same principle would apply: you enforce a judgment in the court which ordered it.
I’m a bit confused as to how your thought process is going here - you accuse your sibling of theft, and then write that you seek an alternative to legal action. Why do you think that initiating a criminal action, e.g. by filing a complaint about the acts committed by your sibling with the police, would be any quicker ?
To give you an idea of some statistics of timelines for criminal proceedings and the number of cases never prosecuted, you can look at the following document.
What is this Acte de Partage and why is her signature necessary if there"s a will giving you half already?
What is this Acte de Partage and why is her signature necessary if there"s a will giving you half already?
Karen - This is the first time I’ve dealt with a legal issue and it’s not even here in the UK. Yes there’s a will drawn up in France and The Acte De Partage or The Acte De Notoriété which I’m assuming, needs her signature - or does it?.
As I’ve already mentioned the 10 year period for a decision to accept or waive the inheritance was reduced to aa 2 month period via the summons she received last April.
Are you saying her and my signatures are not needed?
What she’s doing knowingly is immoral - wrong. This is all unknown territory to me. I’ve a contract with aa French lawyer drawn up for the next costly steps after the summons issued last year which is needing signed. It will take at least 18 months and even then she can still drag it out further - and probably will.
Sorry I did not see the answer to my question in tbe comment above? Why is her signature also necessary on something called an Acte de Partage, when you’ve said the property has already been left to you and your sister jointly?
