Valley International / moving to france
Your matrimonial regime, and what moving to France does to it
Of everything in a newcomer's file, this is the subject most likely to have changed without anyone telling them, and the one that surfaces at the worst possible moment.
A matrimonial property regime determines who owns what during a marriage and how assets are divided if it ends, by divorce or by death. Every married couple has one, whether or not they ever signed anything, because each legal system supplies a default. The question that matters on arrival in France is not what your regime is called at home but which law governs it now, and the answer is not necessarily the law of the country where you married. For marriages celebrated from 1 September 1992, France applies the Hague Convention of 14 March 1978, which sets out how the applicable law is determined and, critically, provides for cases in which it changes automatically.
How the applicable law can change on its own
This is the practical heart of the subject. Under the convention, in defined circumstances connected with the couple's habitual residence, the law applicable to the matrimonial property regime can change by itself, without any act, any deed, any notification and any consent. A couple who married in one country and later settled in another can therefore find that their regime has changed, that assets acquired before and after the change fall under different rules, and that nobody ever told them because no professional was involved at the moment it happened.
Marriages celebrated before 1 September 1992 are governed by the earlier French approach, under which the applicable law was fixed at the time of marriage and did not move. Marriages celebrated more recently fall under a European regulation applicable across participating member states, which has its own rules on choice and determination. Three periods, three sets of rules: which one applies to you depends on the date of your marriage, and that is the first question to answer rather than the last.
Why this matters more in France than at home
French default rules and common-law expectations diverge sharply. Under the French statutory default, assets acquired during the marriage are generally community property regardless of which spouse's name is on them or which spouse earned the money, while assets owned before the marriage and those received by gift or inheritance generally remain personal. A couple arriving from a system of separate property, where ownership follows the title, can therefore acquire a French apartment believing it belongs to the purchaser and find that it does not.
The consequences reach further than divorce. The regime determines what is in the estate on a death, and therefore what the reserved share of the children applies to. The page French succession law: forced heirship, explained calmly sets out that reserved share, and reading it without first establishing the matrimonial regime produces the wrong answer, because the two questions are resolved in sequence.
What can be done, and when
Couples are not passive here. Both the convention and the European regulation allow a choice of applicable law within limits they define, made in the form each requires, and French law allows spouses to change their regime by a deed drawn up before a notaire, subject to conditions and to publicity. A marriage contract entered into abroad continues to exist and may be recognised, but recognition is not the same as effectiveness against a French purchaser or a French bank, and the practical step is often to have it acknowledged and, where useful, restated in French form.
The timing rule is simple: this is cheap to establish on arrival and expensive to resolve later. The moment it becomes urgent is always a bad one, because it is a death, a divorce, a sale that will not complete, or a bank refusing to lend until ownership is clear.
What to establish, in this order
The date and place of the marriage, which decides which set of rules applies. Whether a marriage contract was signed, where, and what it says. Where the couple has been habitually resident since, with dates. What was owned before the marriage and what has been acquired since, and by whom. And whether anything has been bought in France already, because a purchase made under the wrong assumption is the hardest item to correct.
Frequently asked questions
We signed nothing when we married. Do we have a regime?
Yes. Every married couple has a matrimonial property regime, because each legal system supplies a default for those who make no choice, and that default determines who owns what during the marriage and how assets are divided if it ends. Signing nothing means a default applied to you — not that none did. The question on arrival in France is which law now governs that regime, and the answer depends on the date of your marriage and on where you have lived since, not on what you signed or did not sign.
Can our regime really change just because we moved?
For marriages celebrated from 1 September 1992, France applies the Hague Convention of 14 March 1978, which provides for cases where the law applicable to the matrimonial property regime changes automatically in circumstances connected with the couple's habitual residence. No act, no deed and no notification is required, which is exactly why couples do not learn of it at the time. The result can be that assets acquired before and after the change fall under different rules within the same marriage.
Is our foreign marriage contract still valid in France?
It continues to exist and may well be recognised, but recognition and practical effectiveness are different things. A French notaire completing a property purchase, or a French bank taking security, needs to establish ownership from documents they can read and rely on, and a foreign contract in a foreign language rarely serves that purpose without work. The usual step is to have the contract acknowledged and, where useful, its effects restated in French form, before rather than during a transaction.
Why does this affect inheritance as well?
Because the two questions are answered in sequence and the first determines the input to the second. The matrimonial regime decides what belonged to the deceased at the moment of death; succession law then decides how that share passes, including the reserved portion French law protects for children. Establish the regime wrongly and the estate is measured wrongly, so the reserved share is calculated on the wrong figure. Any succession planning that skips the matrimonial question is built on an unverified number.
We bought an apartment in one spouse's name. Is it theirs?
Not necessarily, and this is where couples from separate-property systems are most often surprised. Under the French statutory default, assets acquired during the marriage are generally community property whatever the title says and whichever spouse provided the funds, while assets owned before the marriage or received by gift or inheritance generally remain personal. Whether that default governs you depends on which law applies to your regime, which is precisely the question to settle before buying rather than after.
ÉTHIQUE ET PATRIMOINE, a French simplified joint-stock company (SAS), registered office at 41 rue Saint-Ferdinand, 75017 Paris, France, Paris Trade Register no. 803 414 796, VAT no. FR 40 803 414 796, registered with ORIAS under number no. 24001817 (www.orias.fr) — Financial investment adviser (CIF) no. 18002418, member of ANACOFI-CIF, a professional association approved by the Autorité des marchés financiers, and Anacofi-Courtage for its brokerage activity. Presence: Paris, Montpellier, Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Shanghai and Dubai.
Check my matrimonial position
Book a callWritten by Stéphane Molère, Président d'Éthique et Patrimoine — page last reviewed on 2026-08-30 — rules quoted are those in force at that date.