The “Family Life” commission focused on issues related to the transmission of family assets and the financial consequences caused by the breakdown of the couple. (photo credit: Getty Images)
The 121st Congress of French Notaries took place in Montpellier on September 25 and 26, 2025. Participants focused in particular on the financing of family real estate transactions. Faced with the difficulties encountered in the context of a divorce or inheritance, they propose to change the guarantee required by the lender.
Summary:
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An edition dedicated to changes in the family
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Resolving difficulties related to family real estate transactions
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Simplify financing by modernizing the mortgage
An edition dedicated to changes in the family
Table of Contents
The Congress of Notaries of France is a platform for reflection bringing together more than 3,000 legal professionals. The proposals formulated during their discussions constitute concrete legal avenues in the face of current issues. In total, the work of the Association Congrès des Notaires de France has given rise to around a hundred laws and decrees. The 2025 edition had the theme “Family & Notarial Creativity: supporting today’s tribes”. Faced with the evolution of family structures and their diversity, notaries must be able to provide innovative solutions to their clients. The Congress program was structured around three commissions:
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Birth of the family,
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family life,
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The family faced with death.
The “Family Life” commission focused on issues related to the transmission of family assets and the financial consequences caused by the breakdown of the couple. The notaries have considered concrete solutions to remove certain legal and tax obstacles.
The discussions focused in particular on real estate transactions carried out within the family context, for example:
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When a couple separates and one of the ex-spouses buys out the other’s share in the joint ownership by taking out a bank loan,
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When an heir transfers his rights in joint ownership to his brother and the latter is in a relationship. In this scenario, it is in reality the couple who requests a bank loan to finalize the acquisition.
These real estate transactions often have an ambiguous legal nature, which can lead to difficulties of understanding on the part of banking organizations. Indeed, it is not always easy to determine whether they constitute a sale or a sharing, or even both at the same time. These uncertainties have an impact on the type of guarantee requested by the lending organization. For the sake of simplification, banks tend to favor the use of a conventional mortgage. Unfortunately, this option is more costly for the borrower. In addition to the costs incurred by the notarial deed, he must pay the land registration tax. This increases the cost of credit and penalizes the outcome of family transactions, the context of which can be conflictual.
Simplify financing by modernizing the mortgage
To avoid this additional cost, notaries propose to modernize another form of mortgage, called “legal mortgage of the lender of money”. This can be used by the bank when granting a mortgage loan. Unlike conventional mortgages, legal mortgages are exempt from land registration tax. The proposal adopted at the Congress of Notaries consists of being able to use the legal hypothec of the lender of money to finance sale and sharing operations indiscriminately. This measure would simplify the understanding of family real estate transactions and make it possible to limit the use of conventional mortgages.
The wording of article 2402, 2° of the Civil Code would be modified as follows:
“In addition to those provided for by special laws, the debts to which a special legal hypothec is attached are the following:
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2° The debt of the person who has provided the sums necessary for the acquisition or sharing of an immovable is guaranteed thereon provided that it is authentically established by the deed of loan that the sum was intended for this use, and by the receipt from the seller or the co-sharer that payment has been made of the borrowed funds.
The amount of bank charges on transactions linked to an inheritance capped at 850 euros
From November 13, 2025, fees deducted by banks from the accounts of the deceased are limited to 850 euros. A law passed in May 2025 put an end to the billing of fees in 3 specific cases: death of a minor, account balance less than 5,910 euros, simple inheritance. For other estates, the amount of bank charges was capped at 1% of the amounts held. It is now set at 850 euros too.