Judicial separation in France: staying married, but living and counting apart
The spouses stay married, but their property, their tax and their home are separated.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy
Judicial separation (séparation de corps), often called legal separation, lets spouses live apart without ending the marriage. It is obtained by the same routes as divorce: mutual consent through a lawyers’ agreement filed with a notary, acceptance of the breakdown, definitive breakdown of the marriage, or fault. Its effects on money are clear: it always brings separation of property, the community must be wound up and divided, with a partition duty of 1.10 % on the net assets, and joint taxation ends. The marriage itself remains: duty of support, which can justify maintenance for the spouse in need, duty of fidelity, no remarriage or PACS, inheritance rights and the status of spouse for the survivor’s pension. Legal separation can be converted into divorce at one spouse’s request after 2 years, or at any time by joint request. It is close to what some countries call judicial separation, and it is recognised as a status of its own on French civil records. The calculator works out the partition duty and the time left before conversion.
Legal separation: dividing assets and the route to divorce
Partition duty to budget for
€2,200
| Each spouse’s share | €100,000 |
| Conversion to divorce by one spouse alone | in 16 months |
| Conversion by joint request | at any time |
Legal separation and divorce compared
| Legal separation | Divorce | |
|---|---|---|
| Marriage | maintained | dissolved |
| Property regime | separate property, community divided | community divided |
| Partition duty | 1.10 % | 1.10 % |
| Income tax | two tax households | two tax households |
| Duty of support | continues: support possible | replaced by the compensatory payment |
| Remarriage, PACS | not possible | possible |
| Inheritance between spouses | kept, unless waived by agreement | lost |
| Married name | kept, unless forbidden | lost in principle |
The money side of legal separation
Winding up the community is done as in a divorce, before a notary if there is real estate: on €200,000 of net assets, the partition duty is €2,200. The page on dividing assets works out each share with reimbursements, and the soulte page the buy-out of the home. Child support is set exactly as in a divorce, with the Ministry of Justice table.
Between spouses, the duty of support takes the place of the compensatory payment: maintenance paid to the spouse in need is deductible for the payer and taxable for the recipient, as the page on spousal support explains. For pensions, the legally separated spouse remains a spouse: on the other’s death, they have the rights of a surviving spouse, survivor’s pension included, which the page on the survivor’s pension after divorce describes by contrast.
Converting to divorce
Conversion is never automatic. A legal separation by mutual consent can be converted into a mutual consent divorce at any time; a court-ordered separation can be too, or, at one spouse’s request, by a writ to the court after 2 years, with a lawyer compulsory. The ground for the separation becomes the ground for the divorce, and that is when a compensatory payment can be claimed.
Practical steps after the judgment or filing
Legal separation takes effect between the spouses when the judgment becomes final, or when the agreement is filed with the notary in the amicable route. It must be noted in the margin of each spouse’s marriage and birth certificates to bind third parties. Report the change to the tax office within 60 days so that each has their own withholding rate, and tell the CAF if benefits are involved. The bank should be told what happens to joint accounts and loans, which remain owed by both until the division settles the matter.
For couples from countries where separation has no legal form, the key point is this: a French judicial separation is a real change of status, recorded on civil records, with separation of property and separate taxation, while the marriage itself survives.