Inheritance law change would put more homes on market in France

A proposed new law that should help to get more empty and abandoned properties back on the market, especially in rural areas, has been voted through by MPs. 

Disputes among heirs over whether to sell inherited homes have long been seen as a factor in the increasing number of such properties.

The two MPs who put forward the law said these are “especially numerous in rural areas” and this leads to a loss in available property, especially where there are policies against new construction on undeveloped land.

The proposals, which were approved by MPs on March 6 and now await a Senate vote before becoming law, are intended to help resolve situations where heirs who have inherited a property jointly do not agree over what to do with it.

They also aim at simplification where difficulties arise in tracing or identifying heirs. 

Problems often occur where siblings have lost touch with each other, or where nieces, nephews or cousins stand to inherit if a sibling dies before a share-out, and any plans to sell are blocked until all the inheritors are traced.

These scenarios can all lead to situations where the final legal share-out is blocked – in French legal terminology, it remains en indivision successorale – and the property can be neither sold nor rented out.

In this case, those who want to obtain sale money or rents cannot, and potential buyers or tenants also cannot benefit from the property. 

The MPs who put forward the law stated in introductory remarks to their text that “this can sometimes last a long time – a very long time – in some cases of acrimonious share-outs, 20, 30, or 40 years”. 

An estimated 3.1 million homes are vacant, says the Ecology Ministry, or 8.3% of all residential property – almost 9% in rural areas and smaller towns, rather than large cities, where they are less common.

Currently, where heirs disagree, the sale of a home can be authorised by a court only if heirs holding at least a two-thirds share agree on this. 

A key part of the new law proposes reducing this to one half. 

For example, in the case of two sisters with equal shares, one could obtain the right to sell in future.

The law states that every commune should establish a database of abandoned homes. 

It also reinforces rights of the state to sell property in cases where the share-out has been awaited for 10 years or more, one heir has died, and his own heirs cannot be traced. 

It permits departments to try out rules in force in Alsace-Moselle, which allow for resolving share-out disputes via increased mediation powers for notaires, instead of the parties having to go to court.