@Rebbetzin
Don’t try to argue law with an attorney, you have not read the contract for sale of the seat. Not only have I read it, I wrote it along with a property attorney and a Superior Court Judge.
I purchased a life tenancy, so no I can’t take it home. Anyone using it without my permission is not a tenant as you suppose (erroneously) but a SQUATTER subject to immediate eviction.
Your suppositions that: “A shul extends an open invitation to all visitors to enter and use their facility. This implied invitation allows visitors to become “tenants” in “your” empty seat. As the “landlord” (with very limited property rights) you cannot merely evict the tenant because you showed up!
I am explaining this at length because this is a common misconception in shuls when people claim rights to “their” seats.” is FALSE. Our shul has signs in the lobby instructing visitors/guests to see an usher or gabbai for seating and that seats with nameplates are not to be used without permission,
I f I know I’ll not e in shul on a given day, I infirm the gabbai, and as my agent he may let someone use my seat.
The $5,000 I paid for my seat 30 years ago doesn’t relieve me of paying annual dues.
The congregation is a private entity and as such may adopt its own rules, you can’t make blanket statements based on other synagogues’ practices.