Meaning & use
sitting tenant
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountable
A person who already lives in a rented property when it is sold or when new owners take over.
Grammar: Countable; use 'a' or 'the' and a plural form: a sitting tenant, the sitting tenants.
Patterns
- a sitting tenant
- the sitting tenants
- with a sitting tenant
- sell with a sitting tenant
The flat is cheap because it comes with a sitting tenant who has lived there for twenty years.
New landlords often prefer to buy a building with no sitting tenants so they can set higher rents.
When you buy a house with a sitting tenant, you cannot simply ask the person to leave.
Word forms
| plural | sitting tenants |
|---|
Common combinations
- property with a sitting tenant
- They advertised a property with a sitting tenant in the local paper.
- buy with a sitting tenant
- Investors sometimes buy with a sitting tenant to get rent from day one.
- sitting tenant in place
- The sale went through with the sitting tenant in place.
- evict a sitting tenant
- The law makes it hard to evict a sitting tenant without good reason.
Synonyms and how they differ
- existing tenant
- A more neutral phrase used in both British and American English; it does not always suggest the property is being sold.
- occupant
- Broader and more formal; it can mean anyone living in a place, not necessarily someone who pays rent.
Word family
Commonly confused: sitting tenant or sitting room?
sitting tenant vs sitting room
A sitting room is a living room, a place to sit; a sitting tenant is a person who already rents the property.
Practice
The landlord sold the house with a ______ tenant, so the new owner could not move in.
Choose one answer.
'Sitting tenant' is the fixed phrase for a tenant already living in a property when it is sold. 'Seating' relates to chairs, 'sited' means located, and 'situation' does not fit this property context.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “sitting tenant”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.