Definitions

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Accessory building or structure: a detached building or structure in a secondary or subordinate capacity from the main or principal building or structure on the same premises.

Appropriate authority/Authority having jurisdiction (AHJ): a person within the governmental structure of the corporate unit who is charged with the administration of the appropriate code.

Ashes: the residue from burning combustible materials.

Attic: any story or floor of a building situated wholly or partly within the roof, and so designed, arranged, or built to be used for business, storage, or habitation.

Basement: the lowest story of a building, below the main floor and wholly or partially lower than the surface of the ground.

Building: a fixed construction with walls, foundation, and roof, such as a house, factory, or garage.

Bulk container: any metal garbage, rubbish, or refuse container having a capacity of 2 cubic yards or greater and which is equipped with fittings for hydraulic or mechanical emptying, unloading, or removal.

Central heating system: a single system supplying heat to one or more dwelling unit(s) or more than one rooming unit.

Chimney: a vertical masonry shaft of reinforced concrete, or other approved noncombustible, heat-resisting material enclosing one or more flues, for the purpose of removing products of combustion from solid, liquid, or gaseous fuel.

Dilapidated: in a state of disrepair or ruin and no longer adequate for the purpose or use for which it was originally intended.

Dormitory: a building or a group of rooms in a building used for institutional living and sleeping purposes by four or more persons.

Dwelling: any enclosed space wholly or partly used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, cooking, and eating. (Temporary housing, as hereinafter defined, shall not be classified as a dwelling.) Industrialized housing and modular construction that conform to nationally accepted industry standards and are used or intended for use for living, sleeping, cooking, and eating purposes shall be classified as dwellings.

Dwelling unit: a room or group of rooms located within a dwelling forming a single habitable unit with facilities used or intended to be used by a single family for living, sleeping, cooking, and eating.

Egress: arrangements and openings to assure a safe means of exit from buildings.

Extermination: the control and elimination of insects, rodents, or other pests by eliminating their harborage places; by removing or making inaccessible materials that may serve as their food; by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, trapping, or any other recognized and legal pest elimination methods approved by the local or state authority having such administrative authority. Extermination is one of the components of integrated pest management.

Fair market value: a price at which both buyers and sellers will do business.

Family: one or more individuals living together and sharing common living, sleeping, cooking, and eating facilities (See also Household).

Flush toilet: a toilet bowl that can be flushed with water supplied under pressure and that is equipped with a water-sealed trap above the floor level.

Garbage: animal and vegetable waste resulting from handling, preparation, cooking, serving, and nonconsumption of food.

Grade: the finished ground level adjacent to a required window.

Guest: an individual who shares a dwelling unit in a nonpermanent status for not more than 30 days.

Habitable room: a room or enclosed floor space used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, cooking or eating purposes, excluding bathrooms, laundries, furnace rooms, pantries, kitchenettes and utility rooms of less than 50 square feet of floor space, foyers, or communicating corridors, stairways, closets, storage spaces, workshops, and hobby and recreation areas.

Health officer: the legally designated health authority of the jurisdiction or that person’s authorized representative.

Heated water: water heated to a temperature of not less than 120°F–130°F (49°C–54°C) at the outlet.

Heating device: all furnaces, unit heaters, domestic incinerators, cooking and heating stoves and ranges, and other similar devices.

Household: one or more individuals living together in a single dwelling unit and sharing common living, sleeping, cooking, and eating facilities (see also Family).

Infestation: the presence within or around a dwelling of any insects, rodents, or other pests.

Integrated pest management: a coordinated approach to managing roaches, rodents, mosquitoes, and other pests that combines inspection, monitoring, treatment, and evaluation, with special emphasis on the decreased use of toxic agents.

Kitchen: any room used for the storage and preparation of foods and containing the following equipment: sink or other device for dishwashing, stove or other device for cooking, refrigerator or other device for cold storage of food, cabinets or shelves for storage of equipment and utensils, and counter or table for food preparation.

Kitchenette: a small kitchen or an alcove containing cooking facilities.

Lead-based paint: any paint or coating with lead content equal to or greater than 1 milligram per square centimeter, or 0.5% by weight.

Multiple dwelling: any dwelling containing more than two dwelling units.

Occupant: any individual, over 1 year of age, living, sleeping, cooking, or eating in or having possession of a dwelling unit or a rooming unit; except that in dwelling units a guest shall not be considered an occupant.

Operator: any person who has charge, care, control or management of a building, or part thereof, in which dwelling units or rooming units are let.

Ordinary summer conditions: a temperature 10°F (-12°C) below the highest recorded temperature in the locality for the prior 10-year period.

Ordinary winter conditions: mean a temperature 15°F (-9.4°C) above the lowest recorded temperature in the locality for the prior 10-year period.

Owner: any person who alone, jointly, or severally with others (a) shall have legal title to any premises, dwelling, or dwelling unit, with or without accompanying actual possession thereof, or (b) shall have charge, care or control of any premises, dwelling, or dwelling unit, as owner or agent of the owner, or as executor, administrator, trustee, or guardian of the estate of the owner.

Permissible occupancy: the maximum number of individuals permitted to reside in a dwelling unit, rooming unit, or dormitory.

Person: any individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, cooperative, or government agency.

Plumbing: all of the following supplied facilities and equipment: gas pipes, gas burning equipment, water pipes, garbage disposal units, waste pipes, toilets, sinks, installed dishwashers, bathtubs, shower baths, installed clothes washing machines, catch basins, drains, vents, and similarly supplied fixtures, and the installation thereof, together with all connections to water, sewer, or gas lines.

Privacy: the existence of conditions which will permit an individual or individuals to carry out an activity commenced without interruption or interference, either by sight or sound by unwanted individuals.

Rat harborage: any conditions or place where rats can live, nest or seek shelter.

Ratproofing: a form of construction that will prevent the entry or exit of rats to or from a given space or building, or from gaining access to food, water, or harborage. It consists of the closing and keeping closed of every opening in foundations, basements, cellars, exterior and interior walls, ground or first floors, roofs, sidewalk gratings, sidewalk openings, and other places that may be reached and entered by rats by climbing, burrowing, or other methods, by the use of materials impervious to rat gnawing and other methods approved by the appropriate authority.

Refuse: leftover and discarded organic and nonorganic solids (except body wastes), including garbage, rubbish, ashes, and dead animals.

Refuse container: a watertight container that is constructed of metal, or other durable material impervious to rodents, that is capable of being serviced without creating unsanitary conditions, or such other containers as have been approved by the appropriate authority (see also Appropriate Authority). Openings into the container, such as covers and doors, shall be tight fitting.

Rooming house: any dwelling other than a hotel or motel or that part of any dwelling containing one or more rooming units, or one or more dormitory rooms, and in which persons either individually or as families are housed with or without meals being provided.

Rooming unit: any room or group of rooms forming a single habitable unit used or intended to be used for living and sleeping, but not for cooking purposes.

Rubbish: nonputrescible solid wastes (excluding ashes) consisting of either: (a) combustible wastes such as paper, cardboard, plastic containers, yard clippings and wood; or (b) noncombustible wastes such as cans, glass, and crockery.

Safety: the condition of being reasonably free from danger and hazards that may cause accidents or disease.

Space heater: a self-contained heating appliance of either the convection type or the radiant type and intended primarily to heat only a limited space or area such as one room or two adjoining rooms.

Supplied: paid for, furnished by, provided by, or under the control of the owner, operator or agent.

System: the dynamic interrelationship of components designed to enact a vision.

Systems theory: The concept proposed to promote the dynamic interrelationship of activities designed to accomplish a unified system.

Temporary housing: any tent, trailer, mobile home, or other structure used for human shelter that is designed to be transportable and which is not attached to the ground, to another structure, or to any utility system on the same premises for more than 30 consecutive days.

Toxic substance: any chemical product applied on the surface of or incorporated into any structural or decorative material, or any other chemical, biologic, or physical agent in the home environment or its immediate surroundings, which constitutes a potential hazard to human health at acute or chronic exposure levels.

Variance: a difference between that which is required or specified and that which is permitted.

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