SophieG

Thank you everyone, for taking the time to answer, you have all been enormous help. I really laughed about the description of the French bureaucracy - yes, it's all a bit bonkers over there. I'm half French myself, but even with my reasonably good French, I wouldn't want to try to do it all without an English speaking notaire of some sort. Luckily it's a simple inheritance - I've read the French laws of succession & they are terrifyingly convoluted! Funnily enough, the executor of my mother's estate tried in vain to contact the local notaire (in an email translates into French) but that was a couple of months ago & he has yet to reply.... I'll get onto him again for the probate valuation, & see what info & prices I can get from UK based notaires. Thanks again! Sophie

Hello. I've joined this forum as I am in urgent need of advice. I inherited, absolutely, on the 1st of Jan, a large-ish property in rural France. I'm fully resident in the UK. I've had so much other stuff to sort out, plus grieving my mother's death, that I've left the France issue for a while. I now need to sort it. This much I know: - that the property is likely worth 350000€, although I haven't had it valued yet, so once it is valued I need to pay French death duties of approx 50,000€, urgently. -that I need to get the will & death certificate out there, & officially translated (with the mairie???) -that I need to get the house officially transferred at the Mairie's office. Is this correct? Does anyone have experience of this situation? Where do I start? What else do I need to do? And, crucially, how much can I get done from the UK (my mum has friends in France that could help drop off documents for me out there if I posted them, but obvs not if I need to be there in person...). l can't be out there much, and will prob only have a week out there to get things sorted initially (transfer to me to make it all legal). But I want to make it a productive week. Any help much appreciated!