Today we went to Toulouse to see an English-speaking lawyer about what happens to our house out here when either or both of us die. French law is very different from English in this respect. We had read up about it and it seemed that in our particular circumstances we need do nothing special, but we keep reading dire warnings so thought it best to check up.
We are joint owners of the house and the way the law operates here, if one of us dies, their half will be inherited equally by our two boys and the surviving spouse. So the survivor will retain ownership of 1/2 + inherit 1/3 of the other 1/2 - ie 2/3. The boys would own 1/6 each. Fortunately we didn't have to go into what happens if there are other children from earlier marriages - things get even more complicated!
This all sounds very odd to us English but apparently the rest of Europe is similar - its we who are the odd ones out.
Anyway, after due deliberation, and finding out that we had correctly understood the situation, we have decided to leave things as they are, but at least it feels tidier somehow to have made a fully-informed decision.
1 comment:
Hi Rosemary,
I knew about this because our friends Barbara & Chris explained this very strange way of splitting the house if one spouse dies. The governement wants to protect the children ... Imagine when you have to split the house with the children of your spouse and let say that you don't get along well with them .... I can see that opens the door to MANY MANY family fun discussions!
Take care Rosemary,
Post a Comment