Clause de tontine in France Explained
Clause de tontine explained in English: it is a tontine clause (also called an accrual clause) written into a joint French purchase. The parties agree that when the first of them dies, that person’s share of the property passes to the survivor, with no indemnity. The last person alive is then treated as having been the sole owner of the whole asset from the original purchase.
Searches for clause de tontine en anglais, tontine clause France, pacte tontinier or clause d’accroissement all point to this same stipulation. It is not a UK joint tenancy and not a will. It sits in the authentic purchase deed, or sometimes in the statutes of an SCI.
FrenchNotaires matches you free of charge with vetted bilingual notaires, typically within about 48 hours, in person or by video call. Have the clause drafted before you sign the compromis. You cannot safely bolt it on afterwards.
Key takeaways
A clause de tontine is a last-survivor ownership clause in a joint French acquisition.
On the first death, that co-buyer is treated as never having owned the property. The asset does not enter the estate. Forced heirs have no claim on it, if the clause is valid.
It must be in the original purchase (or company statutes). A later add-on is generally void as a pact on a future succession.
Validity needs a real aléa: comparable life expectancy and a genuine, roughly equal contribution to the price.
Nobody can force a sale or a court partition. Separation without agreement can lock the property for decades.
Tax is usually inheritance tax on the accrued share: nil between spouses or PACS partners; 60% between unmarried partners after a small allowance.
FrenchNotaires matches you free of charge with an English-speaking notaire, usually within about 48 hours, in person or by video.
Clause de tontine meaning in English
In English, a clause de tontine is best described as a contractual right of survivorship attached to a joint purchase of French property. Each co-buyer owns their share subject to a resolutory condition of dying first. The survivor owns the whole subject to a suspensive condition of outliving the others. When the first death occurs, the conditions bite with retroactive effect.
That is the core tontine clause meaning English-speaking buyers need. It is not a gift in the deed, not a clause in a will, and not an insurance product. French courts have treated it as an aleatory contract: each party stakes their money on the chance of being the last survivor.
The closest common-law label is joint tenancy with right of survivorship. Do not treat the labels as interchangeable. English joint tenants can usually sever the joint tenancy. French tontiniers cannot demand a judicial partition. The French rule “no one can be forced to remain in undivided ownership” does not apply here.
French names for the same clause
Notaires, tax statutes and older case law use several labels for one mechanism:
Clause de tontine: everyday name, from the historical tontine (last survivor takes the pool).
Clause d’accroissement: the technical name. The survivor’s title “accrues”.
Pacte tontinier: the agreement as a whole, especially when it sits in company statutes.
Clause de réversion or condition de survie: older wording still seen in commentary and in article 754 A of the General Tax Code.
This guide is about the property tontine in a notarial purchase. It is not the financial tontine sold by insurers (a locked savings pool among many members). If an adviser mixes the two, ask which instrument they mean.
How a property tontine works
While everyone is alive
The co-buyers occupy, let or keep the property together. Day-to-day charges follow the deed. For anything that disposes of the asset (sale, gift, mortgage, long lease), unanimity is required. One tontinier cannot sell “their half” on the open market as if the couple were in ordinary indivision.
When the first co-buyer dies
Civilly, the deceased is treated as never having bought. The survivor is treated as having been sole owner from the original completion. The house or flat does not go into the succession. Children, other forced heirs and legatees have no share in that asset, provided the clause stands.
Fiscally, France does not follow that story all the way. Article 754 A of the General Tax Code treats the accrued share as a gratuitous transfer to the survivor. Inheritance tax is calculated on the relationship between the deceased and the survivor, on the value of the share that accrues, at the date of death.
Tontine, indivision and English joint tenancy
Clause de tontine | Ordinary indivision | English joint tenancy (rough analogue) | |
English label | Tontine / accrual / survivorship clause | Undivided co-ownership | Joint tenants with right of survivorship |
At the first death | Survivor deemed owner from day one; asset outside the estate | The deceased’s share enters the estate | Survivorship; share does not pass by will |
Can one owner force a split? | No. Unanimity to sell or unwind | Yes, in principle: nul ne peut être contraint à demeurer dans l’indivision | Usually yes, by severing the joint tenancy |
Must it be in the purchase? | Yes, from the outset | Default if several people buy without a special clause | Chosen at acquisition, and later severable |
French inheritance tax | Usually yes, on the accrued share (754 A), except a narrow main-home rule | Yes, on the inherited share | Not a French category |
Do not copy a UK joint-tenancy habit into a French deed
A tontine clause locks you together and can cost 60% if you are not married or in a PACS. A bilingual notaire can compare tontine, PACS, a marriage contract and an SCI before the compromis is signed.
Who a tontine is for
Notaires typically discuss it when two people buy a home and want the survivor to keep the roof, especially if they have children from earlier relationships. Classic profiles:
Unmarried partners (concubins), who have almost no automatic inheritance rights in France;
PACS partners, who are already exempt from inheritance tax between themselves but still need a civil mechanism if they want the home kept out of the children’s reserved share;
spouses married under separation of property (séparation de biens).
It is a poor fit for spouses who buy with community funds under a community regime. The asset is already common property; grafting a tontine onto it collides with the matrimonial balance. A marriage contract with a different tool (for example a universal community with a full-attribution clause) may be the conversation you actually need.
It is also a poor fit where one person pays almost all of the price, or where one buyer is much older or already seriously ill. Those files fail the aléa test below.
Validity: aléa, timing and money
French law treats the tontine as an aleatory contract (Civil Code, article 1108: the parties accept that gain or loss depends on an uncertain event). If the “bet” is fake, courts and the tax administration can recharacterise the clause as a disguised gift. The property then comes back into the estate, forced heirship can bite, and gift or inheritance tax follows.
1. It must be there from day one
The clause has to be in the original joint purchase, or in the original company statutes if the tontine is on shares. Adding it later by rider is generally a prohibited pact on a future succession, and void. If you already own in indivision and now want a tontine, you are usually looking at a different structure (sale, SCI, or another estate-planning act), not a cheap amendment.
2. Comparable chances of survival
Each buyer must have a genuine chance of outliving the other. A large age gap, or a known serious illness at the time of purchase, can destroy the aléa. There is no statutory “maximum age difference” in months. Notaires look at the facts. If one party is clearly expected to die first, the clause is at risk.
3. A real, roughly equal stake
Each party must risk losing their investment. That means a genuine contribution to the price, as equal as the file reasonably allows. If one buyer funds almost everything, they take no upside from surviving and have in substance given the other a gift. Bank finance in both names, gift money from one family only, and unequal deposits all need to be documented and discussed before signing, not explained after a death.
4. Consent you can prove
Both buyers must understand that they may die first and leave nothing in that house to their children. The notaire’s duty to explain is heavier here than in a plain 50/50 purchase. Ask for the clause in writing in the compromis, not only in the completion draft.
Tax under article 754 A CGI
Civilly the survivor “always owned” the whole. For tax, article 754 A of the General Tax Code says the opposite: goods taken under a tontine clause inserted in a joint acquisition contract are deemed transmitted free of charge to the beneficiary of the accrual.
Relationship at death | Usual tax on the accrued share |
Spouse or PACS partner | Inheritance-tax exemption (same as a normal succession between them) |
Unmarried partners, friends, unrelated co-buyers | 60% after the small non-relative allowance (currently €1,594) |
Blood relatives | Ordinary inheritance-tax scale for that relationship |
Main home of two buyers, total value under €76,000 at death | Ordinary sale transfer tax instead of inheritance tax, unless the survivor opts for inheritance tax (useful when the survivor is an exempt spouse or PACS partner) |
The €76,000 main-home exception is statutory and has not kept pace with French house prices. In 2026 it rarely saves a real home. Do not buy on the assumption that you will fall under it.
The 60% rate is why a tontine between unmarried partners is often a civil success and a fiscal failure. A PACS, a marriage, or a carefully built company structure can change the tax story. None of those is a DIY overlay on a deed you have already signed.
If the survivor also inherits other assets from the deceased, the tontine share is added to that person’s succession slice for the tax calculation. If they inherit nothing else, they still file a succession declaration for the accrued property.
Tontine inside an SCI
Some files put the tontine on shares of a civil company that buys the property, not on the building itself. The clause then lives in the statutes, not in “a contract of joint acquisition” of the immovable. Article 754 A is drafted for the latter. Notarial practice has long treated a statutory share tontine as triggering share transfer tax (often 5% on the value of the shares that accrue) rather than 60% inheritance tax between unmarried partners.
That is planning, not a loophole you can improvise. Conditions still include aléa, comparable contributions, and a clause from the company’s birth. Recent Court of Cassation reasoning (3rd civil chamber, 9 April 2026, no. 25-12.992) is a warning: if the tontine covers every share, the survivor is deemed to have been the sole associate from incorporation. A civil company needs at least two associates. A tontine on 100% of the capital can collapse the company.
Practical drafting: leave at least one share per associate outside the tontine. Those leftover shares will enter the succession. An approval clause (agrément) can then control whether heirs join the company. Read this against our guides on creating an SCI and SCI share transfers.
Sale, separation and deadlock
Notaires de France are blunt: a tontine can become a trap. If the couple splits, they must agree to sell, or agree that one buys the other out, and agree to cancel or unwind the clause. A court will not order a partition the way it can in indivision.
Until that agreement exists, the property is frozen. Mortgage lenders know this. Some will still fund a tontine purchase, usually with life cover on both heads; others refuse. Disclose the clause to the bank early.
Unwind routes in practice:
joint sale to a third party, then split the price as the deed provides;
one tontinier buys the other’s rights, with a notarial deed that ends the tontine;
for an SCI, a negotiated share sale or dissolution, subject to the statutes.
None of those is cheap, and none works if one party simply refuses. That is the price of keeping heirs out.
Forced heirship and children
A valid tontine is one of the rare French tools that can put a home beyond the reserved share of children. The deceased is deemed never to have owned it, so there is nothing in that asset for the réserve to bite. Heirs who feel cheated will attack the validity of the clause (no aléa, unequal finance, late insertion, hidden illness), not a percentage on the land register.
If you have children and you still want the survivor housed, ask the notaire to compare tontine with other tools: PACS plus a will of the disposable share, a marriage contract, usufruct for the survivor, or a life-insurance capital. A tontine that fails is worse than no tontine: litigation, recharacterisation, and tax on a gift you did not mean to make.
Foreign buyers
The clause is French. It follows the immovable in France even if both buyers live in London or New York. An English will that “leaves the French house to my partner” does not replace it, and may contradict it. Coordinate the French deed with your home-country estate plan.
Points that regularly catch internationals:
UK solicitors describing the purchase as “joint tenants” without the French aléa and tax analysis;
one partner’s foreign gift or inheritance funding most of the price, which weakens the tontine;
assuming 60% will not apply because “the house never entered the estate” (civilly true, fiscally false under 754 A);
signing a French-only clause you have not had explained in English.
You can sign by power of attorney if you cannot attend completion. The explanation of the tontine should still happen before the compromis, not in a rush on the day.
Before you sign
Check | Why it matters |
Is a tontine better than PACS, marriage or an SCI for your tax and children? | The clause is hard to reverse. |
Will both names, and both wallets, really fund the purchase? | Unequal money looks like a gift. |
Are ages and health compatible with a genuine aléa? | Without it, heirs can attack. |
Is the clause in the compromis and the authentic deed, from the first acquisition? | Later insertion is generally void. |
Does the lender accept the tontine? | Some mortgages will not. |
If you use an SCI, are some shares left outside the tontine? | A 100% share tontine can nullify the company. |
Have you read the 60% risk if you remain unmarried and un-PACS’d? | Civil protection is not a tax exemption. |
Frequently asked questions
What does clause de tontine mean in English?
It is a tontine or accrual clause in a joint French purchase. The last survivor is treated as sole owner of the property from the original purchase. The deceased is treated as never having owned it.
Is a tontine the same as English joint tenancy?
No. Both give the survivor the asset, but a French tontine cannot be severed by one party, must be in the original purchase, needs a real aléa, and is taxed under article 754 A CGI.
Do the deceased’s children inherit the house?
Not if the clause is valid. The house is outside the estate. Children may still challenge validity (funding, health, late insertion).
Do unmarried partners pay 60% tax?
Usually yes, on the accrued share, after a small allowance. Spouses and PACS partners are exempt. The under-€76,000 main-home exception is narrow.
Can we add a tontine later?
As a rule, no. It has to be stipulated at the joint acquisition (or in the original SCI statutes). A later rider is generally void.
What if we separate?
You need a joint decision to sell or for one of you to buy the other out, and to unwind the clause. A court will not partition a tontine the way it can partition indivision.
Can three people buy in tontine?
Yes in principle: each predeceasing share accrues to those still alive, until one owner remains. Complexity, aléa and tax all multiply. It is not a casual structure.
Is a tontine in an SCI safer?
It can change the tax route, but it has its own traps, including the risk of nullifying the company if every share is in the tontine. It needs specialist drafting.
Related guides
Official sources
Get the tontine clause right before you commit
Survivorship, tax and deadlock risk are fixed at the purchase. Have the wording reviewed in English before you sign.
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