Who owns deceased father’s French vehicle after death with no will?

Reader Question: My father recently passed away, and my sister has hired a notaire to sort out his estate. We are unsure if there is a will as his estate was not big, and our mum is already dead. What happens to his car if there is no will? Once decided, how do we register the vehicle again?

It is a notaire’s job to establish whether your father left a will – if he did, this may contain information about the contents of his estate including his vehicle.

This is more likely if the car made up a significant portion of his estate, was of high value or had significant emotional attachment. 

If there is no will, or the will does not specify a particular measure for the vehicle, then it simply belongs to the estate.

The estate should therefore be split among the surviving heirs, in this case you and your sister. 

Effectively, you are both entitled to ‘half’ of the vehicle’s value, and will need to come to an agreement over who gets granted full ownership – you could also decide to have joint-ownership. It does not matter as long as you each get half of the value of the total estate.

Neither party has more rights than the other unless explicitly stated in the will.

Once an agreement has been made, it should be part of a wider agreement on the share-out of the inheritance. 

In cases where there is no will and the estate value is less than €5,000 all heirs can sign a death certificate saying they agree with how the inheritance has been split.

For values over this amount, a signed notarial act called acte de notoritété is required. 

In this case, you should reach out to the notaire your sister is in contact with to see the status of the will and clarify any issues of ownership. 

Will need to update registration

Regardless of who eventually gains ownership of the vehicle, they will need to update the registration details and obtain insurance to drive it. 

Re-registering a vehicle after an owner’s death is done through France Titres (formerly ANTS) using form 13750*07. 

To re-register a vehicle, you need to provide documentation including proof of address (in France), ID, and the original certificat d’immatriculation (carte grise), and documents proving the deceased’s situation and share-out of the estate.

The latter could include an attestation from the notaire clarifying the date of your father’s death and giving details of the car, that formed part of his estate; a copy of the acte de notoriété; or a death certificate signed by the heirs.

In the case of a surviving spouse re-registering the vehicle, the rules can be found in our article here. 

In your case, you may need to provide additional documentation proving the agreed-upon execution of the estate (and vehicle ownership).

This will be the case if there is no will, as there was no designated sole inheritor of the vehicle.

You must provide either a letter of withdrawal signed by all heirs outlining the renunciation of ownership rights in favour of one person, or the notary certificate outlining who has been given vehicle ownership. 

You do not need to show your driving licence during the initial application to re-register the vehicle, but may be asked to when authorities are examining the case.

It is possible to register a vehicle under two people’s names following a death. 

The same information is required, but must state that multiple people are inheriting the vehicle. 

You can find more about this on Service-Public, changing the drop-down menu to alter your situation (registering vehicle in spouse or heir’s name, one or multiple heirs listed, etc) – note if you do not want to keep the vehicle but sell it, different rules apply.