Donation entre epoux & inheritance law

[Sarahd]

Wonder if anyone can help me or has come accross this issue in the past?

Basically my husband & I have owned a property in France for 5 years.

My husband remains domiciled and resident in England whereas I am now resident in France and the house over here is therefore my principal resisence. Three years ago our only child, our son, was born in France & lives with me full time over here.This situation is unlikely to change for the foreseable future.

To get round the potential pitfalls of French inheritance law my husband & I are considering signing a donation entree epoux through a notaire in France to leave the French property to each other in the, hopefully unlikely, event of one of our deaths. By doing so we are hoping to delay the inheritance of 50% of the French property to our son, so that it becomes the property of the surviving partner, to sell if required etc., until death.

The only problem is that as I say my husband remains domiciled in the U.K. and I have heard that the donation entre epoux may not apply in relation to non-residents of France.

Is this true? Is there anyway round this problem? Has anyone got round this specific problem (i.e. the fact one partner is not resident in France) in the past?

Your help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks, Sarah

 

 

 

 

 

[Albert the InfoGipsy]

You could look into changing your marital regime to communaute universelle. This has the effect of any property automatically being treated as having always belonged to the surviving spouse.

Your best bet is to talk to a notaire to make sure there are no problems in your particular situation.

[Loiseau]

As I understand it (having made a donation entre epoux, and seen it come into action):

It doesn't prevent your child/ren inheriting their rightful share, but it does postpone the event - allowing the surviving spouse to go on living in the house and using the furniture etc. The child/ren can't force the survivor to sell just because they want their inheritance.  So it effectively postpones the moment that they get their whack.   BUT it doesn't prevent the children having their share eventually. If the surviving spouse were to sell the property, the child/ren would have to have, then and there, the cut to which they are entitled by virtue of the death of the first spouse.

We were not resident in France, but I think this is something that French people do, so whether you are permanent residents or not has no bearing.

Angela

[Val_2]

We opted for DeE which suits our family situation and as recommended by the notaire after going through different schemes. Its better to be protected as the survivor than nothing at all and if not married,some folks have no protection so it needs to be adressed if you are a property owner with children. The question of death duties too needs to be adressed as my friend got caught for the equivalent of £17K here in France without knowing it when her husband died and her daughter got part share in the property which caused problems.

[Lori]

I thought there was some sort of new legislation that changes the old law to allow a surviving spouse to continue living in the family home if the other spouse dies....  Is this not the case?

Where's Sunday Driver?

 

[Sunday Driver]

You rang, Madame?

Yes, you are right.  You can read all about it on the notaire's national [url=http://www.notaires.fr/notaires/notaires.nsf/V_TC_PUB/INHERITANCE]website[/url].

 

 

[Lori]

Thanks SD.  And in English no less !  I saved it to my favorites list for future reference.

I knew you would know.  Such a gem  you are.

[saddie]

Very useful site. One thing, however, I can't find any clarification about. If a married couple buy a house and the ownership is detailed in the purchase documents as 50/50 and one partner dies is the estate of the deceased 50% of the house?

[Sarahd]

Many thanks to all who have replied. Much appreciated.

In particular the link to the Notaires de France website is most useful. Will now proceed to delve into the murky waters of inheritance law with slightly more clarity. My cunning plan to do away with my ageing husband & run away on the proceeds with our young & strapping French builder is, alas, once again on the back burner................................................Burger it!

 

 

[Loiseau]

[quote user="saddie"]... If a married couple buy a house and the ownership is detailed in the purchase documents as 50/50 and one partner dies is the estate of the deceased 50% of the house?[/quote]

From my own experience - but take advice on this:

The surviving half of the couple retains their own 50 per cent, PLUS half the 50 per cent of the deceased = 75 per cent of total.

The other 25 per cent is divided among the children, plus one share.  i.e. if there are three children, this 25 per cent of the total value is divided into 4, and each child gets one of those shares, leaving one slice for the deceased to leave to whomever they have decided.  (Least complicated if it's the surviving spouse, of course, or the said three children!)  If you leave that extra share to anyone non-related (even step-children), they would have to pay (I think) 60 per cent tax on the value, making it something of a "cadeau empoisonné".

Angela