Preparing a donation-partage in France: how do we value the lots?

You are seventy, you own a house in France, a let flat, a plot of land, some savings, and you have three children who do not want the same things. You would like to divide everything during your lifetime, once and for all, without any child feeling short-changed and without the estate reopening the discussion in twenty years’ time. The notaire (French civil-law notary) has mentioned a donation-partage (a lifetime gift that partitions the assets between the future heirs). This guide explains what the deed freezes, on what conditions, and why the value of each lot at the date of the deed is the key piece.

What happens in practice

The notaire starts with the inventory: the assets you wish to pass on, their value, the gifts already made. Then the allocation: which child receives what, and how to balance the differences, by a soulte (equalising payment) from one child to another or by cash added to a lot. Then the tax: allowances, scale, and any division of ownership if you keep the usufruct.

All the children are invited. Each signs the deed and accepts their lot. The deed is notarial, like any gift (article 931 of the French Civil Code). The duties are paid. From then on, each child owns their lot, and you no longer do.

On your death, the difference shows. In an ordinary estate, gifts made to the children are brought into hotchpot and revalued at the date of death, which reopens the debate on values. After a donation-partage that meets the conditions of the law, the lots are not brought into hotchpot and remain valued at the date of the deed. The notaire handling the estate only checks that each child’s forced heirship share was respected, on the basis of the values of the time.

The value adopted for each lot on the day of the donation-partage is therefore final, for the family and for the tax office. That is why it deserves better than a verbal estimate.

What French law says

The donation-partage. Anyone may distribute and partition their assets among their presumptive heirs (article 1075 of the Civil Code). Spouses may do so together, for their community and separate assets (article 1076-1). The assets received are set against the child’s forced heirship share, unless expressly given outside the share (article 1077).

Values frozen at the date of the deed. The assets given are valued at the date of the donation-partage for the purposes of allocation and the calculation of the forced heirship share, on three conditions: all the forced heirs alive or represented at the death received a lot, they expressly accepted it, and no usufruct was reserved over a sum of money (article 1078). Earlier gifts may be incorporated into the deed and revalued at that date (article 1078-1).

Forced heirship. The children are entitled to a reserved share of half the assets for one child, two thirds for two, three quarters for three or more (article 913). The remainder, the disposable portion, may favour one of them. A child who received no lot, or less than their reserved share, may bring an action for abatement on death (article 1077-1). Since the 2006 reform, a donation-partage can no longer be challenged for mere lésion (gross undervalue): only an infringement of the reserved share opens the action.

When article 1078 does not apply. If a child received no lot, or did not accept it, the assets given are added back to the estate according to their condition at the date of the gift and their value at the date of death (article 922). The Cour de cassation (the French supreme court for civil and commercial matters) restated this for a plot given as bare land and later built on: it is valued as bare land, at the value at death (Cass. 1re civ., 12 June 2025, appeal no. 22-24.477, discussed on this site).

Tax. Gift duties are based on the real market value of the assets (article 666 of the General Tax Code), after an allowance of €100,000 per parent and per child every fifteen years (articles 779 and 784) and according to the direct-line scale (article 777). Where the usufruct is reserved, the taxable bare ownership is calculated according to the scale of article 669. The tax office may correct an insufficient value (article L. 17 of the Tax Procedure Code).

What a valuation report changes

The report values each asset at the same date, with the same method, and puts it in writing.

The market value of each lot: house, let flat, plot, SCI shares. For a let flat, the value takes account of the lease. For a plot, of its building status checked against the local planning plan (PLU). For shares, of the restated net asset value and reasoned discounts. Each value is demonstrated by identified comparables, in accordance with the definition of market value in the Charte de l’expertise en évaluation immobilière (the French property valuation charter, 6th edition, November 2025, Title III, § 1.1).

The value of the bare ownership where you keep the usufruct, under the economic approach and under the tax scale, the two being useful for different purposes.

A shared reading. The report is delivered to the parents and, with their agreement, to each of the children. Where the children are invited to the inspection, the valuation becomes joint within the meaning of the Charte (Title I, § 1.1) and nobody can say, ten years later, that the house was “given away for nothing” to a brother. The notaire may annex the report to the deed.

What the report does not do: it does not decide the allocation, it does not calculate the duties, and it does not protect against an action for abatement if the chosen allocation cuts into a child’s reserved share. It gives the values on which the notaire builds the deed.

A worked example

A couple from Loctudy, three children, four assets: the family house, a let flat in Quimper, a building plot in Plobannalec-Lesconil and €60,000 of savings. The parents intended to divide on the basis of their own estimates: house €240,000, flat €150,000, plot €90,000.

The valuation puts the house at €300,000, with six comparable sales on the Bigouden coast; the flat at €150,000, taking account of the current lease; the plot at €90,000, serviced and buildable. Total assets: €600,000, that is €200,000 per child in equal shares.

The allocation adopted: the eldest daughter receives the house, €300,000, and pays a soulte of €100,000 to her youngest brother; the second child receives the flat, €150,000, and €50,000 of savings; the youngest receives the plot, €90,000, €10,000 of savings and the €100,000 soulte. Each is at €200,000.

On the initial basis of €240,000 for the house, the total would have been €540,000, €180,000 each, and the eldest would have owed a soulte of only €60,000. As article 1078 freezes the values, that €60,000 gap would have remained permanently with the eldest, to the detriment of her brothers by €40,000, with no remedy on death. The three children’s reserved share represents €450,000; the disposable portion, €150,000, remains fully available for other arrangements.

Common mistakes

• Fixing the values “within the family”. The agreement of the moment does not always survive the death, and the tax office is not party to it.
• Valuing the assets at different dates. A three-year-old estimate of the house and today’s price for the plot distort the equality.
• Undervaluing to reduce the duties. The tax saving is modest, a reassessment is likely, and the undervalued lot permanently favours its recipient.
• Forgetting earlier gifts. If not incorporated, they remain subject to hotchpot on death and reopen the discussion.
• Reserving the usufruct of a sum of money. That clause alone loses the benefit of article 1078.
• Leaving a child out. Without a lot accepted by each child, the value at the date of the deed is no longer frozen.

What to gather

• The title deeds of each property, plans, surveys, the property tax notice.
• The current leases for let properties and the last rent received.
• The planning certificate or the extract from the local planning plan for a plot.
• The articles of association, accounts and capital breakdown for company shares.
• The list of gifts already made, with their date and original value.
• The parents’ marriage contract and the draft allocation, even provisional.
• The contact details of the notaire handling the deed.

Timeframe and fee

The service is a market value report, with an inspection of each property: about 15 hours for the first property, that is from €975 travel not included, and a reduced number of hours for each additional property in the same file, stated in the quote. For SCI shares, the valuation falls under the Businesses and company shares page, most often from €1,300 for a company holding a single property. The report is usually delivered three weeks after the last inspection. Travel is charged at €65 per hour or part hour from PONT-L’ABBÉ, 50 % deposit on ordering, VAT not applicable, article 293 B of the French General Tax Code.

The Market value page describes the report and the Fees page gives the full scale.