Successions: change in rules for assets held by several heirs

Indivision is a transitional period, which is before the division of an estate. During this period, the property of the succession belongs indiscriminately to all the heirs; none of them has an exclusive right to this property. The undivided division may relate to a particular property, or to several. It may be movable property (works of art, furniture, jewelry, vehicles, bank accounts, shares, etc.) or immovable property (house, apartment, building or agricultural land, etc.).

In the context of indivision, decision-making rules differ depending on the types of choices to be made.

• Protective measures, such as replacing a defective boiler or carrying out roof repairs, may be decided by a single shareholder (a shareholder is the member of an shareholder).

• Acts of administration (conclusion or renewal of a residential lease, sale of movable property to settle debts and expenses of undivided property) require a two-thirds majority of the undivided rights (undivided rights are the rights held by the undivided on an undivided property). The majority of 2/3 of undivided rights and the majority of 2/3 of heirs are sometimes different. An undivided shareholder may have more undivided rights than the others over one of the assets.

• Deeds of disposition (sale or donation of real estate, etc.) shall be subject to the principle of unanimity. However, unanimity is not necessary in some cases (for example, when a joint shareholder is unable to express his or her will).

Certain terms related to undivided status were amended by a law dated April 7, 2026. In the explanatory memorandum for the proposed law, it is recalled that the situation of undivided succession ‘is likely to last for a long time, a very long time, and some disputed succession undivided succession has lasted for 20, 30 or 40 years’. It is also stated that “we are witnessing the proliferation of abandoned properties, whether as a result of conflicting divisions or vacant estates, where no heirs have been found”.

Now, following the enactment of this law, the Civil Code provides that an indivisaire may obtain a judicial authorization to conclude alone the act of sale of a property forming part of an indivision; this is possible when this sale is justified by an emergency situation and by the common interest. This provision enshrines case law of the Court of Cassation on the subject.

New rules on the division of an indivision by judicial means

A situation of indivision ends with the division of property. Each heir then receives his share of the inheritance and becomes its owner individually.

Where the division of the assets cannot be settled amicably (for example, in the event of opposition by one of the undivided members), a part of the heirs may apply to the court at the place where the succession was opened for division. The division is then settled in a judicial manner; if necessary, the court appoints a notary to carry out the division operations and a judge-commissioner to supervise these operations.

The law of 7 April 2026 broadens the scope of application of judicial sharing. From now on, legal proceedings may be initiated for the division of assets, even where there is no undivided relationship between the parties, where the complexity of the liquidation operations so warrants, or where this lack of undivided relationship appears during the proceedings. In addition, you can now request that the judicial division of undivided property be implemented for the liquidation, division and settlement of the property interests you have with your ex-husband, CIVIL PARTNERSHIP partner or common-law partner.

Another development concerns the representation of the joint shareholders in judicial division proceedings. In the context of such a procedure, a notary is responsible, inter alia, for drawing up an inventory of the assets and calculating the rights of each individual. Until then, this notary could, when confronted with the inertia of an indivisaire, give him formal notice to be represented. In the absence of any reaction from him, he could ask the judge to designate an agent responsible for representing the defaulting shareholder. These two provisions, which make it possible to compensate for the failure of a joint shareholder, were deleted by the law of 7 April 2026.

The report on the introduction of the bill points out that this deletion was decided with a view to the introduction of a new provision: mandatory representation by a lawyer at all stages of the procedure to make up for the failure of a joint shareholder. The implementation of this new provision must be the subject of a decree, which will also specify the modalities of this mandatory representation.