In 1971 parents grant their four children a deed described as a gift partition (donation-partage, a lifetime gift by which parents distribute their assets between their heirs, with the values fixed at the date of the deed): three children each receive plots of land and an undivided third of a dwelling house, the fourth an equalising payment representing a quarter of the assets. Fifty years later, that fourth child applies for a judicial partition and for the deed to be requalified as a simple gift. The Lyon court of appeal so rules, and on 2 July 2025 the Cour de cassation (the French supreme court for civil matters), in a reported decision, confirmed: “there is a gift partition only in so far as the ascendant carries out a physical distribution of his assets among his descendants, who […] cannot be allotted jointly”. An undivided third of a house is not a lot. Consequence for valuation: the assets given in 1971 are no longer frozen at their value of the time, they are brought back to the estate at their value at the date of partition, in their condition of 1971.
The facts
By authentic deed of 25 September 1971, a couple grants their four children a gift partition. Three of them receive, each, plots of land together with an undivided third of a dwelling house; the fourth receives an equalising payment representing the value of a quarter of the assets. The father dies in 1989, the mother in 2001; one of the allotted children died in 1999, leaving his widow and children.
The child who received the equalising payment sues his co-heirs for a judicial partition and asks for the gift partition to be requalified as a simple gift. His brother and sister claim against the heirs of the notary who drew up the deed. The Lyon court of appeal, on 14 March 2023, requalifies the deed as a simple gift subject to rapport (the bringing back of gifts into the estate for equal division): there can be no gift partition where the donees, or some of them, have received undivided rights, and the parents did not carry out an actual distribution of their assets. The allotted children appealed: the deed also allotted each of them, privately, plots of land, which is enough to effect a partition.
The decision
The first civil chamber dismissed the appeal (Cass. 1re civ., 2 July 2025, no. 23-16.329, reported). Under article 1075 of the Civil Code, “any person may make, among his presumptive heirs, the distribution and partition of his assets and rights in the form of a gift partition”. “It follows that there is a gift partition only in so far as the ascendant carries out a physical distribution of his assets among his descendants, who, apart from the case provided for in article 1078-4 of the Civil Code, cannot be allotted jointly.”
Since three of the children were each donees, in addition to several plots, of an undivided third of a house, the parents had not carried out an actual distribution of their assets, and “the court of appeal rightly deduced that the deed had to be requalified as a simple gift subject to rapport”. That plots were allotted privately besides does not save the deed.
What this changes for valuation
Two regimes, two valuation dates. A gift partition freezes the value of the lots at the date of the deed, for the computation of the reserved portion, provided all the children were allotted and accepted it; that is its main advantage, and why notaries recommend it. A simple gift, by contrast, is brought back to the estate at the value of the asset at the date of partition, according to its condition at the date of the gift, under article 860 of the Civil Code. The requalification therefore moves the valuation date from 1971 to the date of partition, fifty years later, with everything the plots and the house have gained in between. The glossary describes the rapport des donations and its date rules.
The condition of 1971, the value of today. Rapport is made of the current value of the asset “according to its condition at the time of the gift”. Farm plots that became buildable through the mere evolution of the planning scheme are brought back at their current value as building land, because the gain does not come from the donee; conversely, the house one of the children extended or restored is brought back without the improvements he paid for, and a plot the donee serviced at his own expense is valued without that servicing. The valuer reconstructs the condition of 1971 from the deed, the cadastre of the time and the permits, then values that condition at current market conditions, as explained in the article on gifted land valued as bare land.
The asset sold or given on. If one of the donees sold his plots, rapport is made of their value at the time of the sale, and if the price was reinvested, of the value of the new asset at the date of partition; if he gave them to his own children, the article on the property given on again valued at the second gift specifies the date. On a 1971 gift, such events are likely, and the valuer’s report starts by tracing the history of each asset before valuing it.
The 1971 equalising payment and today’s equality. The child who received an equalising payment representing a quarter of the 1971 assets was treated equally with his brother and sister at that date; if the assets have gained a great deal in value, he no longer is in today’s values, and that is precisely what rapport at partition value corrects. The valuation report sets side by side, for each child, the current value of what he received in 1971 and the equalising payment revalued under the applicable rules, so that the notary draws up the estate accounts. The guide on gift partition explains how to avoid that outcome at the time of the deed.
Advice for future deeds. The ruling recalls that a gift partition requires private lots for each child; an asset one does not wish to divide, such as a family house, cannot be “shared” in undivided thirds without losing the regime. The solutions go through the allocation of the house to one child with an equalising payment, a company, or a prior sale. In each, the valuation of the lots at the date of the deed is what guarantees the equality and the soundness of the gift partition.
What the valuer takes from it
- A gift partition requires a physical distribution: undivided rights allotted to several children cause it to be requalified as a simple gift.
- A simple gift is brought back at the value of the asset at the date of partition, according to its condition at the date of the gift.
- The valuer reconstructs the condition of the asset at the date of the gift and values it at current conditions, without the donee’s improvements.
- An asset sold or given on since is valued at another date; the history of each asset precedes the valuation.
- For a future deed, private lots valued at the date of the deed preserve the gift partition regime.
Further reading
The Market value page describes the assignment, its timescale and its fee. The guide Lifetime gift partition: valuing the lots between children and the glossary entries rapport des donations, réserve héréditaire and soulte complement this article. On the same theme: Gift rapport: property given on again is valued at that date and Inheritance in France: gifted land is valued as bare land. The decision is available on Légifrance.
What next
An old gift partition under challenge, plots given decades ago, and values to establish at the date of partition?
I value each gifted asset at the date of partition, in its condition at the date of the gift, with current references and the history of the asset, for a report the notary and the court can integrate into the estate accounts.
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