"Sacha" wrote in message
...
In Jersey you have two wills if you're a property owner. One is for the
disposal of property and the other for 'personalty' meaning goods and
chattels. In terms of property a spouse had the right to occupy a third
of
it which is why one sees so many Jersey houses with a little 'granny'
cottage tacked onto the end. I think those laws have been somewhat amended
now.
--
Sacha

The French inheritance laws have led to some bizarre properties here too.
With forced succession rules many farms have gradually got chopped up into
smaller and smaller pieces of land each with houses on them and a maze of
rights of way to get from public highway to house to land. Land and gardens
are often no longer attached to the house that owns them but up the road!
I've heard there are plans to change the inheritance laws here to strengthen
the rights of the spouse, but knowing the way things change (or rather don't
change) here in France, such changes are probably a long way off. It is not
infrequent to hear of cases of one spouse dying and the surviving spouse of
40 years or more being left homeless, or in dire poverty due to death
duties.
--
David
.... Email address on website http://www.avisoft.co.uk
.... Blog at http://dlts-french-adventures.blogspot.com/