second marriage house in his name

[nicelady123]

my husband owns a house in charente. he has two grown children

it is mortgaged at the moment in time.

we may sell my house in uk and use part of money to pay off mortgage

but will this house go straight to his son on his death ? I would want his son to sell as non of us would be living in france then.

is it possible to do a will to say this?

i would have to be ensured i would have the money i put into house back as it is my childrens inheritence. i have three grown children. I was badly wronged financially by first husband and really need to make sure that what i do is correct. we dont have english notaires near us. we are in charente. He says if i did this he could transfer house into my name only. i doubt this was possible ??? any help please ?

[andyh4]

I really only have two pieces of advice

1.  see a notaire

2.  move out of France and sell the house.

 

The current French inheritance laws makes it very difficult or even impossible for those in second marriages with children from previous ones.  There are some things that you can do to mitigate the impact but you really need professional advice rather than the advice from folks on a forum.  The only people who could reliably help would be those who were in exactly the same situation as yourself and who had been through the effects of the partner passing away.

 

Passing the house into your name only could be contested and is a dangerous ploy.  One option might be to sell the property to a non French company owned by you and your husband - but we are back in the realms of needing professional advice.

[dragonrouge]

Here I absolutely go with the advice that you have been given. I am a lawyer (UK) and its my second marriage with no children from my first marriage. We jointly own the house and bluntly if I am left and unless I limit exposure it will go down my family route. I do not want that to happen I want it to go down my wife's family route.

The advice is sound inheritance here is a stranglehold on everyone and unlike the UK France does not recognise issues such as Trust or the effects of equity upon the issue.

Until I had safeguards (and to be again blunt) I do not think you will get those I would take and pay for the best legal advice you can afford.

I am not an expert in French law but say and at the same time you paid off the mortgage then the house was transferred to you. What would the family of your husband say or see when the house is going to you. I think the transfer to you (even if possible) would be viewed if contested as by-passing inheritance law. Then lots of other things come into play.

Take advice and make sure you understand what is being said. Make absolutely sure you understand what you are committing yourself to.

[parsnips]

[quote user="Radhadee"]my husband owns a house in charente. he has two grown children

it is mortgaged at the moment in time.

we may sell my house in uk and use part of money to pay off mortgage

but will this house go straight to his son on his death ? I would want his son to sell as non of us would be living in france then.

is it possible to do a will to say this?

i would have to be ensured i would have the money i put into house back as it is my childrens inheritence. i have three grown children. I was badly wronged financially by first husband and really need to make sure that what i do is correct. we dont have english notaires near us. we are in charente. He says if i did this he could transfer house into my name only. i doubt this was possible ??? any help please ?[/quote]

Hi,

 As has been said , you must see an english-fluent notaire to discuss your options (I recommend Mme M-C Bessout, of Montpon, tel.05 53 80 34 58).

Rather than just hand over the money from your house to clear the mortgage , I suggest you could  use it to buy the share in the value of the french house which it represents, then your husband can use it to clear the mortgage. Your husband and you should also have a "donation entre époux "drawn up, this will ensure that you each have options in the event of the death of the other which will avoid any part of the deceased's estate going in full title to the children ,until the death of the surviving spouse. How well you all get on with the children will be very important--given all-round good-will it is possible to arrange successions almost to obtain any outcome you wish. All this you should discuss with the notaire before doing anything about the house sale.

     

[freddy]

Another idea that might be worth considering and discussing with the notaire would be to sell your house and then formally lend the money to your husband - with a signed agreement. In theory, in the event of his death you then have a debt against his estate which would need to be repaid. I have no idea whether this would work under french rules. It does have the obvious disadvantage that you don't own any part of the house so would not get any benefit from any capital gain, you would only be entitled to your money back and possibly some interest. Though equally you wouldn't be exposed to any fall in value either!

[WendyG]

Please, please do something to sort this out sooner rather than later, I speak from experience in that it took me 5 years and a hell of a lot of mon ey to sort things out.

It is absolutely essential that you seek advice from an English speaking notaire as previously advised.  English and French law are totally different and you really need proper advice.

WendyG