Who will your French property go to? The law you did not choose

The question looks distant on the day you buy, and that is precisely why it is settled then. It costs an appointment and a short deed. Later, it cannot be settled at all.

The default rule, and the misreading it corrects

Many foreign buyers take for granted that their French property will pass under French law, since it sits in France. Since European regulation 650/2012 the opposite is true: a single law governs the whole estate, real property included, and by default it is that of the deceased’s last habitual residence.

An owner living in London who owns a flat in Nice therefore falls under the law of their residence for everything, that flat included. An owner who settles in France for their last years falls under French law for everything, including assets left abroad. Where the building sits decides nothing.

Why it matters: forced heirship

French law guarantees children a minimum share of the estate, of which they cannot be deprived by will. That share increases with their number, and it applies whatever wishes are expressed.

Many common law systems ignore this rule and allow a far wider freedom to dispose. The gap is considerable in two very ordinary situations: a blended family where one wishes to favour a spouse, and an estate one wishes to pass on other than in equal shares.

Depending on the law that applies, your property will therefore go to whoever you designated, or to whoever the law designates in your place. This is not a technical nuance: it is the difference between a plan respected and a plan undone.

The choice, and its only window

The regulation expressly allows the default rule to be set aside: you may designate the law of a State whose nationality you hold, at the time of the choice or at death. Nothing else. You cannot pick a third law because it suits you.

That choice is made by will, received by a notary, with an express clause. It is made in your lifetime, and that is the only window: afterwards the default law applies, and no heir can change it retroactively.

Two useful points. The choice bears on succession law, not on taxation: inheritance duties owed in France on a French building remain owed, whatever law is designated. And a French will does not void your foreign wills: how they interlock must be checked, and this is one of the points where the practice’s international habit counts most.

The right moment, and the right contact

The best moment is the day of acquisition, or in the weeks that follow. You are already dealing with a practice, your civil-status documents are already gathered and translated, and the marginal cost of a will comes down to the fees of a short deed, themselves on a set scale.

The right contact is the notary, and them alone. They receive the will, register it with the central register of last wills, and check how it interlocks with a foreign matrimonial regime. Choosing a practice that works in your language is nowhere more useful than here: a choice-of-law clause badly understood produces exactly the effect it meant to avoid.

One last practical point, belonging to the same appointment: the statement of costs for a will and a declaration of applicable law follows the same scale as the rest, and these ancillary deeds are budgeted with the acquisition rather than discovered afterwards.