Selling a property you inherited in France

You don’t have to navigate a French property sale in another language — that’s our job. Once the property is in the heirs’ names, selling it is the last step, and we see it through from the buyer’s offer to the money in your account.

If the property is not yet in the heirs’ names, that comes first — see registering inherited property (or our full succession administration service) — and we can roll straight into the sale afterwards.

For families whose French estate we have already settled, the sale is seamless — we already hold the property documents, the power of attorney and the completed registration, so there is nothing to gather again and the sale proceeds without delay. The same lawyer who settled the estate handles the sale.

A single fixed fee for our seller-side legal work, agreed in writing before we start — never an hourly meter, and never a percentage of the sale price. A percentage is what an estate agent charges; our work is a defined piece of legal work, so we price it as one clear figure. The fee depends only on the value of the property, and there is a lower fee where we have already settled the estate for you.

All fees + VAT. The “where we settled the estate” column is the lower fee that applies when we have already administered the estate for you — the documents, the power of attorney and the completed registration are already in hand, so there is less to do.

Our fee assumes the succession title is already regularised — the attestation immobilière published and the records in the heirs’ names. Where succession steps are still outstanding, we tell you exactly what is missing and quote it separately (or as a transparent bundle) before any work begins.

If the property still carries a mortgage or other charge, redeeming it and lifting it from the records at completion (mainlevée) is a defined extra step — a fixed €350 + VAT add-on, agreed in advance. Nothing is open-ended: where there is more to a sale than the standard case, we tell you the fixed figure before you instruct us.

Disbursements are separate and never folded into our fee. In France the notaire’s conveyancing fee is paid by the buyer; on the seller’s side the usual third-party costs are the technical diagnostics file (DDT), any fiscal representative the plus-value rules require, and modest certificate fees — each payable to the provider, not to us, and each shown to you up front so there are no surprises.

One thing to plan for on tax — separate from our fee. A French sale can trigger French capital-gains tax on the increase over the declared succession value: 19% plus social charges — though a seller affiliated to UK or Irish social security pays a reduced social levy (7.5% rather than 17.2%), and both charges taper away with the years counted from the date of death. The notaire computes and deducts the whole amount at the deed, and above €150,000 of price a UK-resident seller must appoint an accredited fiscal representative (the fee for which is exactly the kind of third-party cost we show you up front). For an inherited property the gain is often modest, because the value is effectively reset at the date of death. This is a different tax from the succession duty we handle, and not one we advise on — we flag it clearly and point you to a suitable tax adviser. The four-country picture is in the tax picture before you list.

VAT is charged at the French rate (currently 20%) and always shown separately, so our fee is clear.

Timing depends mostly on finding a buyer — that part is in the hands of the market and your agent. Once a buyer is found, the compromis de vente fixes the timetable to completion; two to three months from the compromis to the deed is common in France, driven by the buyer’s financing condition and the notaire’s searches. Where we have already settled the estate and hold the documents, the legal side is ready without delay. We act under your power of attorney throughout, so you do not need to travel for the deed.