Two Single people buying in France

[jabriju]

Being new to this forum I am a bit green [:)]

Two of us,(ladies) are thinking of buing a property in France. We would like it to be our main residence. How do we go about protecting ourselves, e.g if one of us dies we would want the other one to be able to live in the property and not have to sell because of inheritance tax etc. Neither of us has any children. What would happen if the surviving person wanted to sell and move back to England? How can they keep the money raised from selling the property and not give it to relatives as the money would be needed to buy another house in the UK or even France if the person wanted to stay in France and downsize.

We would of course get a will done in France.

[Teamedup]

You need very good legal advice and I would check with at least one notaire about this.

As you say the problem could arise if one of you wanted to sell up and leave France.

It isn't quite 'wills' we make in France usually. Although one can make out a testatment, people usually don't. It is quite different.

[jabriju]

Thanks for that.

[Pickles]

[quote user="jabriju"]

Two of us,(ladies) are thinking of buying a property in France. We would like it to be our main residence. How do we go about protecting ourselves, e.g if one of us dies we would want the other one to be able to live in the property and not have to sell because of inheritance tax etc. Neither of us has any children. What would happen if the surviving person wanted to sell and move back to England? How can they keep the money raised from selling the property and not give it to relatives as the money would be needed to buy another house in the UK or even France if the person wanted to stay in France and downsize.

We would of course get a will done in France.

[/quote]

As TU says, you need to get very good legal advice before buying. I am pretty sure (but would not stake my life on it!) that you will not be able to avoid paying some - and possibly significant - tax, even using an SCI.

Pickles

[5-element]

The same sex couples I know seem to find that a PACS (civil union) is the first port of call, if that is applicable to you. It will reduce the inheritance tax anyway. But then, as others say, you still need to get a good notaire and sort it out with him/her.

Not having children should help. But this is definitely a notaire issue.

[jabriju]

Thanks Pickles,

Oh dear, I was afraid of that, we would both love to have a place in France and thought we could pool our resources. My worry of course was if one of us dies then the other would be forced to sell up and after paying inheritance tax would then not have enough to buy another property either in France or back in UK.

Thanks again

[jabriju]

Thanks 5-element,

Yes I had heard of that  somewhere but it doesn't apply to us as we are just friends so don't think we could enter into one of those. Oh well..........

[5-element]

I can see that it could be even more tricky then. Good luck, as what you are attempting sounds a very good thing to do. I hope there is a way around it.