France · Dying without a will · Information, not legal advice — as at 25 August 2026
Who inherits if there is no will in France?
Under French intestacy: with children of the marriage, the surviving spouse chooses between the usufruct (life enjoyment) of the whole estate or outright ownership of one-quarter, the children taking the rest; where any child is from another relationship, the spouse’s choice disappears and it is one-quarter outright. With no children, the spouse shares with the deceased’s surviving parents (half to the spouse, a quarter to each parent) and takes everything where both are gone — subject to a limited right of return of family property to siblings. An unmarried partner inherits nothing; even a PACS partner is not an heir — at most a one-year right to stay in the home. Whether French law governs at all turns on where the person made their home and on the (absent) will — the first thing we check.
The gate first: these rules decide the estate only when French law governs the succession — broadly, when the person made France their home, or when a French property is pulled back under French law because there is no will with a choice-of-law clause. If the gate is unfamiliar, read the three situations first — and note the sting: for the family of someone who lived in England or Ireland, dying without a will is exactly what tends to bring the French house under these rules.
The spouse’s choice — France’s signature rule
Where the deceased leaves children who are all children of the couple, the surviving spouse chooses between two positions: the usufruct of the entire estate — lifetime enjoyment of everything, the children owning the bare title until the survivor dies — or outright ownership of one-quarter, the children sharing three-quarters now. The choice reshapes the family’s next twenty years: usufruct keeps the survivor in full enjoyment but locks the children out of their inheritance until the second death. Where any child is from another relationship, the option vanishes: the spouse takes one-quarter outright, full stop — the blended-family rule that catches second marriages constantly.
The other family shapes
Children, no spouse: everything, equally — a predeceased child’s share passing to that child’s own children. Spouse, no children: the spouse takes half where both of the deceased’s parents survive (a quarter to each parent), three-quarters where one survives — and everything where both are gone, subject to one French curiosity: siblings keep a limited right of return over half of family property the deceased had received from the parents. No spouse, no children: parents and siblings share by fixed rules, then wider family — and ultimately the French State.
The partner the law does not see
The hardest rule in the book for modern families: an unmarried partner inherits nothing under French intestacy — and neither does a PACS partner. A PACS survivor is not an heir; the law gives them, at most, a one-year right to remain in the shared home. Twenty years together, a jointly built life, a house in the Var — and without a will, the house passes to the deceased’s children or parents, not the partner. For any unmarried or PACS couple with French property, the will is the single document that changes everything.
What happens next — the machinery
Whoever inherits, the estate still moves through the French machinery: the notaire establishes the heirs (the acte de notoriété), the foreign-law questions are proven where they arise, the succession declaration is filed on the French clock, and the property passes via the attestation immobilière — who inherits and how it transfers are separate questions. From abroad, all of it runs under power of attorney as part of the French estate administration — and where the family’s first question is simply “who inherits, and in what shares?”, that is a fixed-fee written opinion, signed by a lawyer.