Q&As

Can a Will made in France by British Citizens, who are domiciled there, be probated in the UK?

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Produced in partnership with Lynne Counsell of Addington Chambers
Published on: 26 January 2021
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This response deals with a Will executed by British citizens who are domiciled in France. ‘Domicile’ means the executors have a permanent home in France and that country has become their Domicile of choice. They would thereby be subject to the laws and taxes of that country including the adjudication of claims, the Probate of Wills and the Administration of estates.

An individual can only have one domicile under English Common law at any one time but may have a ‘deemed’ domicile specifically for inheritance tax purposes. See Practice Notes: Domicile and Deemed domicile for tax from 6 April 2017.

Validity of foreign Will

It will first have to be shown that the French Will is valid. This would be in the following two ways:

  1. •

    it is treated as valid under section 1 of the Wills Act 1963. This provides that a Will shall be treated as properly executed

Lynne Counsell
Lynne Counsell

Barrister, Addington Chambers

Lynne has been in traditional Chancery practice for some thirty years, specialising in probate matters, construction of wills and trusts and also financial services and drafting.

Lynne was for some years counsel for Tower Hamlets, representing them on landlord and tenant cases and counsel for Bedford Building Society representing it on mortgage cases.

Lynne has written or updated over fifty books, including writing the initial volume of Atkin’s Court Forms “Financial Services” and updating Halsbury’s Laws on Injunctions. Lynne was also co-author of two editions of “Insider Trading” and co-editor and one of the writers of “Chancery Practice and Procedure.”

Articles include “Marketing of Investments” for the Law Society Gazette and “The Doctrine of Mutual Wills” for the Trust Quarterly Review. Lynne won one of the few cases on mutual wills in the last fifty years – Charles v Fraser (2010).

Lynne has drafted the standard unit trust for the government of Nigeria, the rules and related documentation for various building societies and clubs, shareholder agreements, company takeovers compliance documentation for certain banks as well as wills and trusts.

Lynne was awarded the 2017 Corporate international Magazine Global Award – “Investment Contracts Barrister of the Year in England”.

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Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom
Related legal acts:
Key definition:
Probate definition
What does Probate mean?

The process of proving (ie establishing the validity of) a Will by the executor. Once the Will has been proved, the court will issue a grant of representation. The Scottish law equivalent is executry.

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