In a joint ownership (indivision), one co-owner asks to be allotted the house in return for an equalising payment (soulte) to the others. The judgment granting the allocation fixes the payment; does interest run from that judgment? The reported decision of the First Civil Chamber of the Cour de cassation (the French supreme court for civil matters) of 10 June 2026 says no: the allottee becomes owner only at the final partition, and the equalising payment is due, and therefore bears interest, only from that date. Behind this question of timing lies a question of valuation: at what date, and on what value, the payment is calculated.
The facts
On 6 June 1995 a man and a woman bought jointly, three quarters and one quarter, a plot of land and a dwelling house. The joint ownership was hard to wind up; the man sued for partition, then died in 2014, leaving six children who took over the proceedings. The court of first instance in Fort-de-France ruled on 10 May 2016. After a first cassation in 2022, the Fort-de-France Court of Appeal held on 26 November 2024 that the minority co-owner’s claim was increased by €61,500 due for the preferential allocation (attribution préférentielle) of the property to the heirs, “bearing interest at the legal rate from 10 May 2016”, the date of the first-instance judgment.
The heirs appealed: the decision granting preferential allocation does not transfer ownership, the property remains in the undivided estate until final partition, and the equalising payment cannot bear interest before the date of separate enjoyment.
The decision
The Cour de cassation quashed the judgment by striking out the offending words, without remittal (Cass. 1re civ., 10 June 2026, appeal no. 25-10.907, reported).
It restated the two texts. Article 832-4 of the French Civil Code: the equalising payment due for a preferential allocation “is payable in cash, subject to the possibility, under certain conditions, of requesting time to pay not exceeding ten years. Unless otherwise agreed, the sums remaining due bear interest at the legal rate” (translated from the French). Article 834: “the beneficiary of a preferential allocation becomes sole owner of the allotted property only on the day of the final partition”.
Then the rule: “it follows that it is at the time of partition that ownership of the property is transferred and that any equalising payment due becomes payable and may bear interest”. The payment of €61,500 “was not due before the partition and could not bear interest” from the 2016 judgment; the reference to interest is struck out.
What this changes for the valuation
The value is fixed as close as possible to the partition. Since ownership passes only at partition, that is the date at which the equalising payment must match the value of the property. Article 829 of the Civil Code requires assets to be valued “at the date closest to the partition”, and article 890 allows the judge to set the date of separate enjoyment earlier. In proceedings that have lasted, as here, nearly thirty years, a valuation made when allocation was requested is out of date by the time of partition; the report must be capable of being updated, and it is all the easier to update when it sets out its references and method.
No interest, but an occupation indemnity. Between the allocation judgment and the partition, the allottee who occupies the property alone is not yet its owner: they owe the joint ownership an occupation indemnity (article 815-9), calculated on the rental value of the property with the customary deduction for the precariousness of the occupation. The other co-owner is therefore not without compensation while waiting; it simply does not take the form of interest on the equalising payment. A valuation report on a jointly owned property intended for a partition does well to include both figures, market value and rental value, at the same valuation date.
Time to pay. Article 832-4 allows the allottee to obtain up to ten years to pay the part of the equalising payment they cannot pay in cash, with interest at the legal rate on the sums remaining due, and the same article provides that if the value of the allotted assets has risen or fallen by more than a quarter since the partition as a result of economic circumstances, the sums remaining due rise or fall in the same proportion, unless otherwise agreed. That variation clause again calls for the expert: a valuation at the date of partition, then a revaluation in case of dispute, are what make it workable.
The same timing in divorce and inheritance. Preferential allocation exists in the liquidation of the matrimonial property regime (article 1476, which refers to the rules of partition) as in inheritance. In both cases, the valuation date is that of the partition or of separate enjoyment, not that of the separation, the death or the request.
What the expert takes from it
- The preferential allottee becomes owner only at final partition; the equalising payment is due and bears interest only from that date.
- The value on which the payment is based is that of the property at the date closest to the partition; an old valuation must be updated.
- While waiting, the occupant of the jointly owned property owes an occupation indemnity based on rental value, not interest.
- A valuation report on a jointly owned property gains from giving market value and rental value at the same date.
- Time to pay the equalising payment comes with a variation clause of more than a quarter, which presupposes a reasoned valuation at the date of partition.
Further reading
The Market value page describes the assignment, its timescale and its fee. The guides Leaving a family joint ownership in France and Standard court mission: market value for a partition, and the glossary entries attribution préférentielle, soulte and indemnité d’occupation, complement this article. On the same theme: Divorce and joint property: valuation date and occupation indemnity. The decision is available on Légifrance.
What next
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