The English Investor

From 1 April 2025, French départements can raise their DMTO rate from 4.5% to 5% under article 116 of the Loi de finances 2025. By April 2026, ~83 of France's 100 départements have done so. For a typical British buyer of a resale flat in Paris or the Côte d'Azur, the practical effect is a notary-fee bill that's €2,500 to €5,000 higher than a year ago — and most British buyers can't claim the primo-accédant exemption that would let them avoid it.

France raised CSG on capital income by 1.4 points on 1 January 2026 — but bare rental and real-estate gains were specifically exempted, while LMNP got hit. And UK-resident landlords with the right A1 or S1 paperwork can pay just 7.5% on every euro of net rental income, an 11-point saving most British landlords have never been told about.

The Cour de Cassation's 9 April 2026 ruling is a brutal warning to British couples holding a French property through a small SCI: a tontine clause that covers all the shares makes the SCI null from inception. We unpack the trap, the practical fix that preserves the tax-efficient outcome, and what to do if your existing statutes are at risk.

The Cour de Cassation has just confirmed that the 2-month deadline to contest a French copropriete AGM decision runs from the day the registered letter was first presented at your address — even if you never picked it up. A procedural trap for non-resident British landlords, explained with the 16 April 2026 ruling and the wider French property timetable.

A 16 April 2026 Cour de Cassation ruling settles, for the first time, that an action to rectify a French notarial deed of property sale is a personal action with a 5-year prescription. What British buyers need to know.

At one minute past midnight on 1 May 2026, England's biggest tenancy reform in nearly four decades came into force. What the Renters' Rights Act does, and how the new English regime compares to French law that's been in place since 1989.