Buying Commercial Property · glossary
Actual occupation means being physically on the land and using it. Under the Land Registration Act 2002, the rights of a person in actual occupation can bind a buyer even if the register does not show them. There are exceptions, for example if the occupier was asked and did not reveal the right when they reasonably should have.
Being physically on the land and using it. A person in actual occupation can have rights that bind a buyer even though the register does not show them. So the buyer inspects the building and buys with vacant possession. Chapter 3 · see Overriding interest, Vacant possession
Explained in Chapter 3, Reading the Title, of Buying Commercial Property.
A few rights bind a buyer even though no entry mentions them. They are called overriding interests (Schedule 3 to the same Act). The one that matters here is the right of a person in actual occupation: someone physically on the land and using it.Read Chapter 3, Reading the Title →
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Being physically present on the land with some permanence, not just visiting. A tenant running a shop, or a family living in a house, is in actual occupation.
Because the occupier's rights, such as a lease or a share in the property, can bind the buyer. So buyers inspect the property, ask the seller who occupies it, and get anyone with a possible right to confirm or give it up in writing.
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