Matrimonial property liquidation in France: which valuation date?

The divorce has been pronounced, or the petition has been filed, and the liquidation of the matrimonial property regime is stuck on the figures: value of the home, occupation indemnity owed by the spouse who stays there, compensation between spouses (récompense) for works financed by the community. Behind each figure there is a date, and the dates are not the same. This guide puts them in order, with their texts and the recent rulings, and proposes a standard mission for the expert so that the liquidation statement can be drawn up without going back.

What French law says

Reference to the rules of inheritance partition. The partition of community property is subject, as to its form, court-ordered sale (licitation), the effects of partition and equalising payments (soultes), to the rules laid down for partitions between co-heirs (article 1476 of the French Civil Code). Spouses married under separation of property who bought jointly fall directly under the rules of joint ownership (indivision) and partition.

The valuation date. Assets are valued at the date of separate enjoyment (jouissance divise), which is as close as possible to the partition (article 829). The judge may set an earlier date if he considers it more favourable to equality; failing that, the property is valued at the date closest to the partition, in its condition at that date (Cass. 1re civ., 1 October 2025, appeal no. 23-16.501). I commented on this ruling in Divorce: the home is valued as close as possible to the partition, even if it has deteriorated.

The date of effect of the divorce. Between spouses, the divorce takes effect, as regards property, on the date of the divorce petition, unless deferred to the date on which cohabitation and collaboration ceased (article 262-1). This date fixes the composition of the estate to be divided, not the value of the assets. It also marks the usual starting point of the occupation indemnity.

The occupation indemnity. A co-owner who uses or enjoys the property privately owes an indemnity to the joint ownership (article 815-9). It is assessed by reference to the rental value of the property throughout the period of private enjoyment, not a rental value frozen at an earlier date (same ruling of 1 October 2025).

Deterioration and improvements. A co-owner is liable for deterioration that has reduced the value of the property through his act or fault; he is entitled to an indemnity for the improvements he has financed, according to equity and having regard to the increase in the value of the property at the time of partition (article 815-13).

Compensation between spouses. Récompenses are calculated according to the subsisting benefit (profit subsistant) when the sum was used to acquire, preserve or improve an asset that is found in the borrowing estate at the date of liquidation (article 1469, paragraph 3). For works on a spouse’s separate property, the formula is (A minus B) multiplied by C/D (Cass. 1re civ., 23 May 2024, appeal no. 22-18.911), discussed in compensation for works is calculated with two values.

What happens in practice

In a contested divorce, the liquidation is entrusted to a notaire (French civil-law notary), appointed by the judge when the complexity justifies it (article 1364 of the Code of Civil Procedure). The notaire draws up a draft liquidation statement. He needs values: one per asset, at the date closest to the partition, and, for each disputed item, the intermediate values required by law.

This is where the liquidation gets stuck. Each spouse produces his or her own estimate, often at different dates: one at the separation, the other today. The figures are not comparable, and the notaire draws up a statement of difficulties (procès-verbal de difficultés). The case goes back before the judge, who orders a court-ordered expert appraisal, or rules on the values produced, which he cannot do on a disputed single-party report.

The shortest route is a joint private valuation, decided by the two lawyers as soon as the draft liquidation is prepared, with a written mission listing each value to be established and its date. The notaire then has a single document, and the liquidation statement can be signed.

What a valuation report changes

The report does not set the dates: the law or the judge does that. It provides, for each date adopted as an assumption, a verifiable value. A standard mission for a liquidation includes, depending on the items in dispute:

1. The description of the property and its condition on the day of the inspection, with dated photographs.
2. The market value at the date closest to the partition, in the condition found, as a range and as a single figure.
3. If the judge or the parties have adopted an earlier date, the value at that date, established with the sales of the time.
4. The market rental value of the property for each period since the date of effect of the divorce, with the proposed deduction for the precarious nature of the occupation, for the calculation of the occupation indemnity.
5. The costing of deterioration attributable to the occupant: the difference between the value of the property normally maintained and its actual value, or the cost of restoration on quotes.
6. For a récompense: value A at the date of liquidation, value B without the works at the same date, and the reconstruction of the total cost D of the works at the date they were carried out.
7. For a preferential allotment: the value used to calculate the equalising payment, after deducting the outstanding loan capital if the loan is taken over.

Each legal assumption appears at the head of the report, as required by the Charte de l’expertise en évaluation immobilière (the French property valuation charter, 6th edition, November 2025, Title I, § 2.2 and Title III, § 1.2). The notaire and the two lawyers can thus move from one assumption to another without a new valuation.

A worked example

Spouses married without a marriage contract, house in VANNES, divorce petition filed in March 2021, draft partition in 2026. The spouse who stayed in the house produces a 2021 estimate at €350,000 and offers to take over the property on that basis. The joint valuation concludes at €410,000 at the date of partition. The equalising payment rises from €175,000 to €205,000: a difference of €30,000, on the question of the date alone.

The occupation indemnity runs from March 2021, that is sixty months. The market rental value is €1,200 per month, reduced to €960 after a 20 % deduction for precarious occupation. The indemnity owed to the joint ownership is €57,600, half of which goes to the other spouse in the liquidation account: €28,800.

The community financed €40,000 of works on land owned separately by the occupying spouse, out of a total reconstructed cost of €50,000, labour included. The house is worth €410,000 and would be worth €330,000 without the works. The récompense is (410,000 minus 330,000) multiplied by 40,000/50,000, that is €64,000, whereas the expense incurred was only €40,000. The law retains the higher of the two.

Common mistakes

• Adopting the value at the date of separation without a decision of the judge or a written agreement. In a market that has moved, the difference ends up entirely in the equalising payment.
• Calculating the occupation indemnity on a single rental value for the whole period, when the rental market and the condition of the property have changed.
• Compensating for deterioration by freezing the valuation date. The ruling of 1 October 2025 sanctions precisely this shortcut: deterioration is a separate item.
• Costing the récompense with the invoices. The denominator D is the total cost of the works, labour included, not the sum of the invoices kept.
• Producing two single-party reports at two dates. The notaire cannot reconcile them, and the judge cannot rely exclusively on either.

What to gather

• The divorce judgment or settlement, with the date of the petition and any deferral of its effects.
• The marriage contract if there is one, and the title deed of each property.
• The notaire’s draft liquidation statement or statement of difficulties.
• The loan amortisation schedules, with the outstanding capital at the date of the petition and today.
• For récompenses: quotes, invoices, bank statements of payments, building permit, photographs before the works.
• For the occupation indemnity: the date the other spouse left, leases or rents of neighbouring properties if the client knows of any.
• Surveys and certificates and, if the property has deteriorated, a bailiff’s report or restoration quotes.

Timeframe and fee

The market value report is delivered about three weeks after the inspection. It represents at least 15 hours, that is €975 at the rate of €65 per hour, travel not included, charged at €65 per hour or part hour from PONT-L’ABBÉ. A liquidation mission that adds the rental value per period, a historical value or the calculation of a récompense takes more time; the valuation contract costs it item by item. The fee for a joint mission is shared as set out in the engagement letter. A 50 % deposit is requested on signature. VAT not applicable, article 293 B of the French General Tax Code.

The content of the report and the fee scale are on the Market value page and on the Fees page. On court appointment, the fee is set by the judge (article 284 of the Code of Civil Procedure).