Drafting a market value expert remit for a partition in France

A court-ordered partition, a court-ordered sale (licitation), a liquidation after divorce: the court, the commissioned judge or the appointed notaire (French civil-law notary) needs a value, and often several. The remit given to the expert determines how useful the report will be. Too short a remit forces a second expert appraisal; a remit that asks questions of law goes unanswered. This page offers tried and tested heads of remit for partitions, with their legal texts, the documents to attach and the order of magnitude of the timeframes.

What French law says

Court-ordered partition. Partition is made in court where a joint owner refuses to consent to an amicable partition, where disputes arise over how to proceed with or complete it, or where the amicable partition has not been authorised or approved in the cases provided by law (article 840 of the French Civil Code). The writ for partition contains, on pain of inadmissibility, a summary description of the assets, the claimant’s intentions as to their distribution and the steps taken towards an amicable partition (article 1360 of the French Code of Civil Procedure). If the complexity of the operations justifies it, the court appoints a notaire and commissions a judge to supervise the operations (article 1364). The notaire may engage an expert, chosen by mutual agreement or appointed by the commissioned judge (article 1365); the notaire has one year, which may be extended (article 1366). Property that cannot easily be divided or allocated is sold at auction, on the conditions the court determines (article 1377). The partition of community property follows the same rules (article 1476 of the French Civil Code).

Valuation rules. Equality in partition is equality in value (article 826). Property is valued at its value on the date of separate enjoyment, as close as possible to the partition, taking into account the charges encumbering it (article 829). Lots are composed and equalising payments (soulte) calculated on that basis (article 830); preferential allocation may be requested in the cases provided (article 831), the equalising payment being in principle payable in cash (article 832-4). A joint owner who has exclusive enjoyment of a property owes an indemnity to the joint ownership (indivision) (article 815-9); that joint owner is liable for deterioration and is entitled to an indemnity for improvements (article 815-13).

Recent case law. The property is valued at the date closest to the partition in its condition at that date; deterioration attributable to a joint owner is the subject of separate compensation, and the occupation indemnity follows the rental value throughout the period of enjoyment (Cass. 1re civ., 1 October 2025, appeal no. 23-16.501). For the abatement of gifts (réduction des libéralités), gifted property is valued in its condition at the date of the gift and at its value at the date of death or partition (Cass. 1re civ., 12 June 2025, appeal no. 22-24.477). For compensation between spouses (récompense) for works, the formula (A minus B) multiplied by C/D requires two values at the same date and the total cost of the works (Cass. 1re civ., 23 May 2024, appeal no. 22-18.911).

The expert appraisal. The decision states the heads of remit and sets the time limit (article 265 of the French Code of Civil Procedure); the expert answers only questions of fact (article 238), takes the dires (a party’s written observations to the expert) into account (article 276) and files the report with the court registry (article 282).

What happens in practice

The report is read by the notaire drawing up the liquidation statement (état liquidatif), by the joint owners’ lawyers and by the court in the event of disagreement. Each looks for a precise value, at a precise date, for a precise use: the estate to be divided, the equalising payment owed by the allottee, the occupation indemnity to be charged to the occupier’s account, the reserve price in the event of a court-ordered sale.

The remit therefore benefits from being drafted with the liquidation statement in mind: each line of the partition account that depends on a value calls for a head of remit. In practice, a standard remit reads as follows.

1. Visit the site after summoning the parties, describe the property, its location, composition, floor areas, condition and fittings, and record the conditions of its occupation.
2. Examine the title deed, easements, applicable planning rules, co-ownership rules and current leases.
3. Give an opinion on the market value of the property at the date closest to the partition, in its condition at that date, as a range and as a single figure.
4. Give an opinion on the market rental value of the property, year by year, from [date of death, of the divorce petition or of the start of exclusive enjoyment], stating the discount proposed to reflect the precarious nature of the occupation.
5. Quantify, where relevant, the deterioration attributable to one of the joint owners and the improvements that joint owner financed, distinguishing each head.
6. Where relevant, give an opinion on the value of the property at [other date set by the court], and on the value, in its condition at the time of the gift, of gifted property.
7. Propose a composition of lots of equal value and the amount of the equalising payments, or, if partition in kind appears impossible, say so and propose a reserve price.
8. Answer the dires and file the report within the time limit set.

Head 4 avoids a second expert appraisal for the occupation indemnity. Head 6 avoids a return to the expert if the court adopts another date. Head 7 allows the notaire to draw up the liquidation statement without a new valuation.

What a valuation report changes

The report delivered on this remit contains, for each head, a costed and verifiable answer: comparables identified one by one, methods explained, assumptions written down, calculations reproducible, value as a narrow range and as a single figure (Charte de l’expertise en évaluation immobilière, the French property valuation charter, 6th edition, November 2025, Title II, chapter 10; European Valuation Standards 2025, EVS 5). Rental values are presented year by year, with the proposed discount and the resulting amount, so that the occupation indemnity account can be drawn up directly.

The report does not say who is the allottee, nor whether the occupation indemnity is owed, nor whether a gift is subject to hotchpot. Those questions are for the court or the notaire. It provides the value corresponding to each hypothesis, without taking a position on which one should be adopted. I described this division of roles in the home is valued as close as possible to the partition, even if it has deteriorated.

A worked example

An inheritance in CONCARNEAU, three heirs in equal shares, a house occupied by one of them since the death, four years earlier. Remit: market value at the date closest to the partition, rental value since the death, proposed equalising payment in the event of allocation.

Market value at the date of the report: €450,000, in a range of €435,000 to €465,000. An estate agent’s estimate at the date of death, produced by the occupier, gave €400,000; on that basis, the equalising payment owed to the two other heirs would have been €266,667. On the value at the date of partition, it is €300,000, a difference of €33,333.

Market rental value: €1,200 per month for the first two years, €1,300 for the next two, with a 15 % discount for precarious occupation. Resulting occupation indemnity: €1,020 multiplied by 24 plus €1,105 multiplied by 24, that is €51,000 owed to the joint ownership, of which two thirds go to the other heirs in the partition account, €34,000.

On this remit, the report took about 22 hours, preliminary report and answers to the dires included.

Common mistakes

• A remit asking for the value “at the date of death” for the partition. That is the valuation date for inheritance tax, not for the partition (article 829). The remit may ask for both, distinguishing them.
• A remit with no head on rental value when the property is occupied by a joint owner. The occupation indemnity will then require a new measure.
• A remit asking the expert to “fix the occupation indemnity”. The expert gives the rental value and proposes the discount; the amount owed and its period are for the court.
• A remit that does not state the period of the rental value. Over four or ten years, a single value reflects neither the market nor the condition of the property.
• A remit asking the expert to “say whether the gift is subject to hotchpot” or to “determine each party’s rights”: questions of law, outside article 238.

What to gather

Documents useful to attach to the decision or to send to the expert from the first summons:

• The deed of notoriety, the divorce judgment or the deed establishing the start of the joint ownership, with the date on which exclusive enjoyment began.
• The title deed, the co-ownership rules and the descriptive statement of division where relevant.
• Current leases, surveys, plans, permits, property tax.
• The draft liquidation statement or the notaire’s statement of difficulties (procès-verbal de difficultés), with the valuations already produced.
• Quotes, invoices and photographs relating to the works or deterioration relied on.
• Earlier deeds of gift where hotchpot or abatement is in dispute.

Timeframe and fee

On court appointment, the timeframe is that of the decision (article 265 of the French Code of Civil Procedure); a remit of this kind on one property is most often filed within four months of the deposit when the documents are disclosed without delay. The fee is fixed by the judge (article 284) after deposit (article 269); my hourly rate, €65 per hour, and travel, €65 per hour or part hour from PONT-L’ABBÉ, appear in the statement of costs. VAT not applicable, article 293 B of the French General Tax Code.

Where the parties prefer a joint private valuation, with the same remit signed by their counsel, the report is delivered about three weeks after the visit, from €975 excluding travel, costs shared as set out in the engagement letter. The content of the report is on the Market value page, the remit formats on the Court expert and litigation support page, and the schedule on the Fees page.