For the purposes of this article, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
(a) "Basement" means a portion of a building located partly underground, but having less than half its clear floor-to-ceiling height below the average grade of the adjoining ground.
(b) "Cellar" means a portion of a building located partly or wholly underground, and having half or more than half of its clear floor-to-ceiling height below the average grade of the adjoining ground.
(c) "Dwelling" means any building which is wholly or partly used or intended to be used for living or sleeping by human occupants; provided, that temporary housing as hereinafter defined shall not be regarded as a dwelling.
(d) "Dwelling unit" means any room or group of rooms located within a dwelling and forming a single habitable unit with facilities which are used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, cooking and eating.
(e) "Extermination" means 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 by any other recognized and legal pest elimination methods approved by the Health Officer.
(f) "Garbage" means the animal and vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking and consumption of food.
(g) "Habitable room" means a room or enclosed floor space used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, cooking or eating purposes, excluding bathrooms, water closet compartments, laundries, pantries, foyers or communicating corridors, closets and storage spaces.
(h) "Housing Commission" means the legally designated Commission which, when properly petitioned by any person affected by any notice issued in connection with the enforcement of any provision of this article, or of any rule or regulation adopted pursuant thereto, shall conduct a hearing and give the petitioner an opportunity to be heard and to show why such notice should be modified or withdrawn.
(i) "Housing Officer" means the legally designated Housing Official of the City or his authorized representative.
(j) "Infestation" means the presence, within or around a dwelling, of any insects, rodents or other pests.
(k) "Multiple dwelling" means any dwelling containing more than two dwelling units.
(l) "Occupant" means any person over one year of age living, sleeping, cooking or eating in or having actual possession of a dwelling unit or rooming unit.
(m) "Operator" means any person who has charge, care or control of a building or part thereof, in which dwelling units or rooming units are let.
(n) "Ordinary minimum winter conditions" means the temperature fifteen degrees Fahrenheit above the lowest recorded temperature for the previous ten-year period.
(o) "Owner" means any person who alone or jointly or severally with others:
(1) Shall have legal title to any dwelling or dwelling unit, with or without accompanying actual possession thereof.
(2) Shall have charge, care or control of any dwelling or dwelling unit, as owner or agent of the owner or as executor, executrix, administrator, administratrix, trustee or guardian of the estate of the owner. Any such person thus representing the actual owner shall be bound to comply with the provisions of this article and of the rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto, to the same extent as would apply if he were the owner.
(p) "Person" means any individual, firm, corporation, association or partnership.
(q) "Plumbing" means all of the following supplied facilities and equipment: gas pipes, gas-burning equipment, water pipes, garbage disposal units, waste pipes, water closets, sinks, installed dishwashers, lavatories, bathtubs, shower baths, installed clothes washing machines, catch basins, drains, vents and any other similar supplied fixtures, as well as all connections to water, sewer or gas lines.
(r) "Rooming house" means any dwelling or that part of any dwel1ing containing one or more rooming units, in which space is let by the owner or operator to three or more persons who are not husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, or sister or brother of the owner or operator.
(s) "Rooming unit" means any group of rooms forming a single habitable unit used or intended to be used for living and sleeping, but not for cooking or eating purposes.
(t) "Rubbish" means combustible and noncombustible waste materials, except garbage; and including the residue from the burning wood, coal, coke and other combustible material, paper, rags, cartons, boxes, wood, excelsior, rubber, leather, tree branches, yard trimmings, tin cans, metals, mineral matter, glass, crockery and dust.
(u) "Supplied" means paid for, furnished or provided by or under the control of the owner or operator.
(v) "Temporary housing" means any tent, trailer or other structure used for human shelter which is designed to be transportable and which is not attached to the ground, to another structure or to any utilities system on the same premises for more than thirty consecutive days.
(w) "Unfit for human habitation" means a dwelling, dwelling unit, multiple dwelling, apartment, or apartment house, including among other buildings, garages, sheds, and similar accessory structures, which by reason of inadequate maintenance, dilapidation, obsolescence or abandonment are unsafe, unsanitary or which constitute a fire hazard or are otherwise dangerous to human life and are no longer adequate for the purpose for which they were originally intended.
(x) Whenever the words "dwelling", dwelling unit", "rooming house", "rooming unit" or "premises" are used in this article, they shall be construed as being followed by the words "or any part thereof".
(1978 Code Sec. 5-38)