Wherever used in this chapter, the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings, respectively:
(a) "Building" means any business building and nonbusiness building as hereinafter defined.
(b) "Business building" means any structure, whether public or private, that is adapted for occupancy for transaction of business, for rendering of professional service, for amusement, for the display, sale or storage of goods, wares or merchandise, or for the performance of work or labor, including hotels, apartment buildings, tenement houses, rooming houses, office buildings, public buildings, stores, theatres, bakeries, food and beverage processing establishments, markets, restaurants, grain elevators, abbatoirs, warehouses, workshops, factories and all other outhouses, sheds, barns and other structures used for business purposes.
(c) "Nonbusiness building" means any structure, whether business or private, that is used or adapted for use for human habitation and is not hereinabove defined as a business building.
(d) "Rat-proofing and rat-stoppage" means a method to prevent the ingress of rats into business and nonbusiness buildings from the exterior or from one business building to another. It consists essentially of closing with material impervious to rat gnawing all openings in the exterior walls, ground or first floors, basements, roofs and foundations that may be reached by rats from the ground, by climbing or by burrowing and sealing all openings in the foundations of homes and buildings, repairing and sealing broken tiles in the foundation, sealing of openings where drains, vent systems or plumbing or pipes extend through the foundation of buildings.
(e) "Rat harborage" means any condition which provides shelter or protection for rats, thus favoring their multiplication and continued existence in, under or outside of any building of any kind.
(f) "Health Officer" means the Commissioner of Public Health of the City, or any duly authorized person who may represent him.
(g) "Owner" means the actual owner of the building, whether individual, partnership or corporation. In the case of a building leased, with a clause in the lease specifying that the lessee is responsible for maintenance and repair, the lessee will be considered in such cases as the owner for the purposes of this chapter.
(h) "Occupant" means the individual, partnership or corporation that has the use of or occupies any building or a part or fraction thereof, whether the actual owner or tenant. In the case of a vacant building, or any vacant portion of a building, the owner, lessee, agent or custodian shall have the responsibilities of an occupant.
(Ord. 3786. Passed 3-8-65.)