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Estate inventory (inventaire de succession)

Under French law, the inventaire de succession values an estate's assets and liabilities, item by item: its texts, its contents, and what Marto prepares.

The texts that provide for it

The texts are linked on Légifrance, in French. The Civil Code provides for an inventory in these three cases, among others:

  • acceptance of the estate up to its net assets (acceptation à concurrence de l'actif net): the declaration is accompanied or followed by an inventory of the estate that values its assets and liabilities item by item (Civil Code, art. 789). The inventory is filed with the court within two months of the declaration (art. 790);
  • the vacant estate (succession vacante): upon appointment, the curator has an itemised, valued inventory of the assets and liabilities drawn up (art. 809-2);
  • usufruct: the usufructuary takes things as they are, but enters into enjoyment only after having an inventory of the movables and a statement of the immovables drawn up, in the presence of the owner or with the owner duly summoned (art. 600).

Article 789 has the inventory drawn up by a commissaire-priseur judiciaire, a huissier or a notaire, under the laws and regulations of those professions. Ordinance No. 2016-728 of 2 June 2016 provides that, in all legislative texts, a reference to huissiers de justice or huissiers designates the commissaires de justice, and a reference to commissaires-priseurs judiciaires designates the commissaires de justice (Ordinance No. 2016-728, art. 23).

For the assessment of the duties due on death (droits de mutation par décès), the General Tax Code sets the value of movable property, unless proven otherwise, and in particular, failing deeds of sale, by the valuation in the inventories drawn up in the form of article 789 of the Civil Code within five years of the death, for household furniture (General Tax Code, art. 764).

What the inventory contains

The Code of Civil Procedure names the people called to the inventory: the surviving spouse or civil partner, everyone claiming a right to inherit, the executor if the will is known, and the representative appointed to administer the estate. The applicant calls them at least twenty days before the date set for it, unless they have expressly waived the call (Code of Civil Procedure, art. 1329).

Besides the particulars required for the deeds of each profession, the inventory contains (art. 1330):

  • 1° the names, profession and address of the applicants, of the people present or represented, and where applicable of the commissaires-priseurs judiciaires and experts;
  • 2° the places where the inventory is made;
  • 3° the description and valuation of the property, and the cash;
  • 4° the assets and liabilities of the estate as shown by the documents, deeds and papers produced and by the statements of the applicants and of the people present;
  • 5° the oath sworn at the close of the inventory by those who held the property or lived where it is, that they have removed nothing, seen nothing removed, nor known of anything removed;
  • 6° where applicable, the handing over of objects and documents to the person agreed or, failing that, to the person named by the president of the judicial court or their delegate.

An inventory drawn up under article 789 of the Civil Code contains a numbered list of the estate's assets (art. 1331).

With Marto

Lots are grouped by section: a room or a group (living room, bedroom, jewellery). Each lot gets its description, photos and valuation.

You dictate the lot to the assistant, which records it; you review and correct it. Without it, you type the record in. The assistant stays off until you accept it.

On iPhone, the app photographs lots in bursts.

The preview shows the official record and its totals before you download it. The official record comes out as a PDF: a ruled frame, black on white apart from the photos, and no added mark. It carries the firm, the place, the date, the numbered sections and lots with their main photo and valuation, the totals and the judicial officer's signature block. The list of lots also comes out as Excel.

The sample official record, exported by Marto from a fictitious inventory, shows this document field by field.

See also appraisal and guardianship inventory.