sitting tenant

sitting tenant (plural sitting tenants)

1. (UK) A tenant who is already in occupation of a premises, especially when there is a change of owner. The tenant is not evicted when the property is sold to a new owner.

• “sitting tenant”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
• “sitting tenant” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.
• “sitting tenant” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “sitting tenant”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.