Help needed from anyone who lives/has holiday home in France

[waterlego6064]

Am hoping someone here will be able to help me out with this. My parents have a holiday home in France and my dad has recently died so I'm trying to help mum out with admin. I know that I need to contact all the agencies that mum and dad have accounts with in France (bank, local tax agency, electricity supplier etc etc) to let them know that dad has died and that my mum's name should now be on all the correspondence/bills.

Some of these things are in joint names anyway, so will just be a case of taking dad's name off. Others were only in dad's name so will need to ask those to change the name on the account.

What I'm wondering is whether these bodies and agencies are likely to accept a copy of dad's death certificate (a UK one- he was a resident of the UK and died here) or whether they will require a translated death cert.

Has anyone here been through something similar and can tell me about your experience? Or maybe someone who lives in France and knows about such things?!

Any help much appreciated.

I am sorry for your loss. I don't know the full details but I think you need to contact a notiaire. Your mother is not automatically the owner of your fathers part of the house. You and your siblings (and any other dependents of your father if there are any ) will need to be involved. A UK will does not currently override French succession law.

As for the death certificate I would not be surprised if you need a translation. And it would need to be by an authorised translator. The notiaire should be able to help.

Unless your parents bought w/ a tontine, you have the right of percentage inheritance although there are additional regulations pertaining to right to live until death etc.

You must notify the Noitaire of the local commune. He/She will guide you.

I have been in the same situation except my Father secretly arranged a Tontine purchase whilst telling us, his children that we would inherit 75% of the French property. Our stepmother has inherited the lot and is selling the house. Because my Father had a Tontine, most of the proceeds of the sale will be paid in revenue to the French government, something he inexplicably preferred to his children sharing in his estate.

Please get assistance to protect your Mother too if it is her only or main place of residence.

Thank you very much for your replies and advice.

mignonette -that is just awful...I can't imagine how you must feel about that.

With regards to the house itself- it is a holiday chalet, mum's main residence is here in the UK. My parents did not buy it with a tontine, and so the usual rule will apply for the property to pass to mum, with a share of it to my brother and me. I have consulted a Notaire local to the house who is dealing with it, and I already know that I need to send her a translated death certificate, along with proof of successors and a valuation of the house.

For the house, there are obviously local taxes (fonciere or something like that, and another one). There is also an electricity supplier and phone line, and a bank account with BNP Paribas. These are the ones I was wondering about, perhaps I will e-mail them in the first instance to outline what's happened and ask what we need to send. Alternatively, the Notaire may be able to advise me on it.

There's so much to do when someone dies, I am discovering, especially when they own property abroad!

Thanks again for your replies.

Water

We are all suffering w/ the knowledge of how little he thought of us. He wasn't a good father anyway but to be lied to. He has lots of property BTW so we wouldn't have seen STM left homeless but the law only benefits the super rich as it'd cost ££££ to challenge this under reasonable provision.

Could the Notiare assist you w/ advice on what to do admin wise w/ the other things? Maybe if you know any language teachers they can help compile emails if you do not speak the language.

I am sorry for your loss too. Having to do all this is additional stress too. I hope it all goes smoothly.

Thanks very much mignonette. Very sorry to hear what's happened following your dad's death. How very sad that he felt the need to do that to his children- it's baffling.

My dad was a very good dad, I'm grateful to be able to say, but sorting out his estate is proving to be very complicated for various reasons. I have no doubt that, had he known he was becoming terminally ill, he would have made things more transparent and left us a list of his assets and a list of instructions- that's the sort of man he was! But as it turned out, my mum became very ill in January and he was her carer, until he suddenly became ill and died a few weeks ago. He was 66 and incredibly fit and healthy so I would imagine he anticipated living into his 90s, as his father did before him. He didn't see any of it coming, none of us did, and it's very hard to accept that he's not here now.

I took your advice and contacted the notaire. I have been in e-mail contact with her before, but because I wanted a quick response, I phoned her. In retrospect, that wasn't a great idea as her English turned out to be about as good as my French (ie poor) but we muddled through in Franglais and managed to make ourselves understood to each other, more or less. The gist of what she said is not to worry about those accounts for the time being. With the exception of the bank account (which is in joint names anyway), they are all people from whom we are buying a service, and so it won't matter too much to them whose name is on the bill, as long as it gets paid!

I'm so sorry to read that water He sounds a good man stolen from you far too soon. So many carers get sick themselves, even apparently healthy people. What an awful shock. Always worse to lose a good parent.

Glad to read you spoke to her and she was able to reassure you. The French do appear to be a lot less 'uptight' about these things. As you say, as long as the bills are paid.

Good luck on a speedy probate and may your memories bring on smiles rather than tears. xx