property inheritance after divorce

[claude]

This question has probably been asked many times, and answered many times also, so please excuse me for asking it again.

Me and my wife have a cottage in the Manche region and would like to put the cottage in my wife's name.  I was married previously, and have two children from my first marriage.  The divorce settlement that my english solicitor set up was that I would keep the property in France, and my ex-wife would keep the family home in England.  Now that I have happily married again, I would like to ensure that the cottage that we have in the Manche region remains my wife's property.  We have recently had a lot of renovation work carried out on the property, and are having the place valued by an estate agent, in case we decide to sell.  I would hope that there may be some way around us having to sell so that we can contiue to enjoy our French home, but with the worry that the place may not remain in our ownership, this is difficult.  While I am asking this question, could I also ask if anyone has used the services of Blevin Franks, and how I would go about requesting their assistance.

Thank you all,  Paul

[parsnips]

 Your divorce settlement has removed your first wifes claim on the property but cannot remove your childrens' rights in your estate. One solution would be that as ,in France you are regarded as married in"separation des biens", if you are still UK resident, you can transfer enough money into your wife's sole name so she can buy the property from you--this would have to be a genuine sale done by a Notaire. She can then Will it back to you,assuming she has no children.

     If you are French resident you could with your childrens' consent (If they are adult, and done before a Notaire) adopt the marriage regime of "communauté Universelle avec attribution integrale" for the house only, and ,with the assistance of an ENGLISH-FLUENT  Notaire ,make compensatory arrangements with the rest of your assets, possibly using Assurance Vie plans.

      As regards your question re Blevins Franks I have some experience of them and of their colleagues at Siddalls Internatinal, which I can tell you about if you contact me by Personal Message via this site. 

[claude]

Due to problems me and my wife have had regarding keeping our cottage in Normandy that I part bought from my siblings after my mother died, the rest of which became mine due to French inheritance we are asking for HELP.  As I was married before, when the financial settlement was going through the court, during a very acrimonious and bitter divorce, I asked my solicitor to ensure that what I got from this settlement was my Cottage.  I have since then been informed that regardless of that agreement through the court, that the property would still become the property of the children on my demise.  As we have been informed of this, we thought best that I sell the cottage to my wife so that it becomes hers through purchase, not gift. 

If we do this, would it be a paper exercise, or would we need to raise the cash and hand this over in front of the notaire? 

We are aware that there are taxes and fees to be paid, and understand that, although, would I have capital gains tax liability as I do not own any other property? 

The home that we have now is in my wife's name, and has been hers for 15 years before we met.

I know there are a number of questions, but we really could use some help, PLEASE.

 

thank you, Paul

[tinabee]

have a look here for the rules and exemptions for capital gains tax

http://www.french-property.com/guides/france/finance-taxation/taxation/capital-gains-tax/

this section gives the basic rules of inheritance law and options available for inheritance planning

http://www.french-property.com/guides/france/finance-taxation/inheritance/overview/

 

good luck!