When only one co-owner lives in a jointly owned property, that co-owner often pays the property tax (taxe foncière), and the question comes back when the accounts are drawn up: since they alone enjoy the house, should the tax not remain their own burden? In a reported decision of 13 January 2016, the First Civil Chamber of the Cour de cassation (French supreme court for civil and commercial matters) answers no: property tax serves to preserve the building and falls on the joint ownership (indivision) until partition, notwithstanding the sole occupation. For the valuer preparing the joint ownership accounts, property tax leaves the occupation account and joins the preservation expenses.
The facts
A man and a woman bought a plot of land in joint ownership and had a house built on it. A judgment ordered the opening of the accounting, liquidation and partition of that joint ownership; the file included an expert report on the construction works.
The Basse-Terre Court of Appeal ruled on 12 May 2014. It held that the man would receive 73% of the sale price of the building and the woman 27%, set at €20,000 the expenses he had incurred to improve the jointly owned building, and dismissed his claim relating to the amount of the property tax, on the ground that, “since the property is jointly owned, the occupant must bear the charge” (translated from the French). The man appealed to the Cour de cassation.
The decision
The Cour de cassation rejected the first four complaints of the appeal (moyens), including those directed at the division of the price and at the improvement expenses: on the latter point, the Court of Appeal had found that the works invoiced after 2003 related to the construction of the house, not to the improvement of the building.
It quashed, however, on the property tax, under article 815-13, first paragraph, of the French Civil Code. The Court of Appeal left the charge to the occupant “whereas the property tax, which serves to preserve the jointly owned building, falls on the joint ownership until the day of partition notwithstanding the sole occupation”; it breached that provision. The quashing, limited to that single point, remits the case to the Fort-de-France Court of Appeal, which will rehear it (Cass. 1re civ., 13 January 2016, appeal no. 14-24.767, reported).
Article 815-13, first paragraph, provides that a co-owner must be credited with the necessary expenses incurred out of personal funds to preserve the jointly owned property, even if they did not improve it. The decision places property tax in that category and draws the consequence: the charge falls on the joint ownership until partition, whether the property is occupied or not. It quantifies nothing, the amount being for the court of appeal that will rehear that point, and it says nothing about an occupation indemnity (indemnité d’occupation): it holds only that sole occupation does not shift the tax onto the occupant.
Two weeks later, the same chamber restated the rule, “the burden of the property tax falling on the joint ownership”, to hold ineffective the submissions of an ex-wife who disputed owing the property tax, in a ruling of 27 January 2016 discussed for a different point in the article on the occupation indemnity after divorce.
What this changes for valuation
Two separate accounts. Sole occupation is paid for through the occupation indemnity owed under article 815-9 of the Civil Code, which judges in practice set on the basis of the rental value (valeur locative) of the property; property tax belongs to the preservation expenses of article 815-13, borne by the joint ownership. Although the decision does not address it, the expert notes that the solution matches the rental market: under a residential lease, property tax cannot be recovered from the tenant, unlike the household waste collection tax (taxe d’enlèvement des ordures ménagères), as the decree of 26 August 1987 provides. A rental value taken from that market therefore does not include property tax; leaving the tax to the occupant as well would make them bear a charge that a tenant does not bear. The test for sole enjoyment, which gives rise to the indemnity, is set out in the article on keys kept by one co-owner.
The claim of whoever paid. A co-owner who paid the tax out of personal funds is entitled, under article 815-13, to be credited with it. The ruling of 4 March 2026 on the loan repaid by a single co-owner sets the measure of such expenses: the greater of the two sums represented by the expense incurred and the subsisting profit, according to equity. The two decisions fit together: the 2016 one classes property tax as a preservation expense borne by the joint ownership, the 2026 one says how the resulting claim is computed. For an annual tax, which does not increase the value of the property, the report quantifies the expense incurred, year by year; the assessment in equity belongs to the judge.
Until partition, notice by notice. The charge falls on the joint ownership “until the day of partition”: beyond that, it passes to whoever receives the property. The report therefore sets out a table of the tax notices, showing who made each payment; tax paid out of jointly owned funds creates no claim. The account stops at the date of partition, which is also, unless the property was handed back earlier, the end of the occupation indemnity, as the article on the indemnity owed until partition or return of the property recalls.
Sums to isolate. The property tax notice also carries the household waste collection tax, which funds a service to the occupant and which a landlord recovers from the tenant. The decision of 13 January 2016 concerns only property tax and says nothing about that tax: the report presents it on a separate line, for the notaire (French civil-law notary) or the judge to decide.
What the valuer takes from it
- Property tax on a jointly owned property is a preservation expense within the meaning of article 815-13, first paragraph: it falls on the joint ownership until partition, even when a single co-owner occupies the property.
- Sole occupation is settled through the occupation indemnity, an account separate from property tax; the rental value the expert uses to quantify it, like that of a residential lease, does not include that tax.
- A co-owner who paid the tax out of personal funds has a claim under article 815-13; the report quantifies it year by year, supported by the tax notices and proof of payment.
- The household waste collection tax, shown on the same notice, appears on a separate line: the decision does not deal with it.
- The indemnity owed by the occupant and the claim of whoever paid appear side by side in the liquidation statement (état liquidatif), where they may be set off.
Further reading
The Market value page describes the assignment, its timescale and its fee. The guide Leaving a family joint ownership in France and the glossary entries indivision, indemnité d’occupation and valeur locative complement this article. The neighbouring 2016 rulings have their own commentary: Sole enjoyment in joint ownership: keeping the keys is enough and Occupation indemnity after divorce: runs from appeal withdrawal. On the same theme: Joint ownership: a loan repaid by one owner and article 815-13 and Occupation indemnity: until partition or return of the property. For commercial leases, where the tax may be passed on to the tenant and the logic differs: Occupation indemnity: property tax passed to tenant lowers it. The decision is available on Légifrance.
What next
A jointly owned property occupied by one owner, and years of property tax paid?
I prepare the accounts between the occupant and the joint ownership: property tax paid by each owner, year by year, and the occupation indemnity computed on the rental value of each period, in a report the notaire, the lawyer or the court can rely on.
Free quote, by email or by phone. No commitment before the quote is accepted. Fees are never linked to the value of the property (Charte de l’expertise, Title I, §2.1).
