How notaires prepared for the regulation

Notaire Edmond Jacoby said a lot was done to help notaires prepare for the regulation. The regulation was adopted in 2012 and the three-year delay before it came into force allowed states time to adapt.

During this time a raft of measures were put in place, such as EU-subsidised training sessions at venues around France. These were not obligatory but there was considerable take-up.

Another set was organised shortly after the regulation came into force in 2015.

"These sessions, of course, don't teach you in two days the legal system of every country but they do give you the tools you need," Mr Jacoby said.

“Notaires have an obligation to keep informed of the contents of new legal texts affecting their practice."

If any are still in doubt despite this, he said clients should ask them to seek information from the Conseil Supérieur du Notariat. 

"There is a whole structure in place about this,” he added. This includes: 

• Cridons – research centres at Lille, Nantes, Lyon, Paris and Bordeaux with specialists in private international law (such as cross-border inheritance). Notaires can call them for advice.

• A European directory of notaires used to dealing with international matters – this allows notaires to find someone who speaks their language and practises in another EU state who can advise on their national law.

• EUFides  – secure website which enables notaires to help each other online and to share documents.

• European Notarial Network – includes a national contact person in each of the 22 EU states with a notarial profession, also aimed at obtaining help in cross-border matters.

• The European Certificate of Succession – where someone dies in a signatory country to the regulation a notaire will draw one of these up, clarifying key points in the succession to notaires in other countries (proof of who the heirs are etc).

• The CNUE [Conseil des Notariats de l'Union Européenne - representing European notaires] in Brussels has created technical dossiers on the contents of foreign laws which can also assist.

To check on details of British law, Mr Jacoby said notaires would use resources including the Cridons and contacting UK solicitors or notaries (a kind of lawyer, often dealing with international documents).

The European Commission plans to review the working of the EU regulation in about 2025, he said.

Use of regulation should be the exception, say notaires 

While implementation of the regulation passed smoothly, notaire François Trémosa from Toulouse stressed that invoking UK, or another country's, law should remain the exception to the rule.

This is not least because – despite all the measures mentioned above – for a French notaire to have to become familiar with the legal rules of another country is never as straightforward as applying the usual French laws in which he or she is trained.

While UK law may be relatively familiar, applying laws of more distant countries could be complicated, he said.

"In many situations I advise changing the marriage regime rather than touching the law applicable to inheritance. If a Briton wants to leave everything to a second spouse and nothing to children of a first marriage, that’s the main situation that causes concern. We suggest Britons in France opt for UK law only if there is no other choice.”

The 2021 inheritance law has also caused complications which are avoided if French inheritance mechanisms are relied on instead of the EU regulation. It is hoped the law may in due course be reversed, thus enabling the EU regulation to be relied again to have the effects intended by the EU legislators.