Inheriting a house in France: the property attestation, its deadline, its cost and what to check before signing

The notaire must publish the attestation within four months of the day they were instructed (requis) to draw it up, not four months from the death (article 33, A, of the decree of 4 January 1955). If the properties fall under more than one land-registry office, the deadline is extended by one month for each additional office.

The heirs have their own deadline. They can be held liable if they instruct the notaire more than six months after the death, or more than six months after an event that changes who inherits, what the estate contains or an heir’s option (article 33, and article 69 of the decree of 14 October 1955, which starts the period on the day of death). This is separate from the tax calendar: the inheritance tax return (déclaration de succession) is due within six months of a death in mainland France and within a year in other cases (article 641 of the Tax Code). In practice, instruct the notaire within six months and ask for the planned filing date.

Check first that the draft contains every entry the land registry requires, then that the figures match your family and the properties. A mistake is easy to fix before signing; after publication it needs a correcting attestation (attestation rectificative). Go through the draft line by line:

• the civil status of the deceased and of each heir or legatee: surname, first names in civil-status order, date and place of birth, address (article 5 of the decree of 4 January 1955);
• for each heir, whether they accepted the estate and how: outright, or up to the net assets (article 29);
• the shares, and the surviving spouse’s choice between a life interest in everything and a quarter outright, only the quarter being possible if a child is not from both spouses (article 757 of the Civil Code);
• each property: type, municipality, cadastral section and plot number, and lot numbers in a co-owned building (article 7);
• the origin of title, with the publication references of the deceased’s own deed: date, volume, number (article 32 of the decree of 14 October 1955);
• any will or gift between spouses (article 69 of the same decree);
• the value given to each property, which is the basis for the fees.

An heir who lives abroad provides the same civil-status details as the others, normally through a birth certificate extract less than six months old (article 5 of the decree of 4 January 1955). If the heir was born outside France, the notaire can also rely on a birth certificate extract of any date or, failing that, on a passport, an identity card or an acte de notoriété; a document in a foreign language comes, where needed, with a translation certified by a translator on a list of court experts (article 75 of the decree of 14 October 1955).

A European Certificate of Succession, issued in a country bound by Regulation (EU) No 650/2012, proves heir status in the other member states, but it does not replace the attestation: the rules for recording property in a register remain national (article 1(2)(l) of the Regulation), and in France only a deed received by a notaire practising in France can be published (article 710-1 of the Civil Code). The French notaire therefore still draws up the attestation, relying on the certificate where useful.