§ 14-279. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Building means any structure or dwelling, whether public or private, which is devoted to or designed for occupancy, or for the transaction of business, for the 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, roominghouses, motels, office buildings, public buildings, stores, theaters, markets, restaurants, grain elevators, abattoirs, warehouses, workshops, factories and all other houses, outhouses, sheds, barns and other structures on premises used for business or dwelling purposes, whether the same be occupied or not.

Health Officer means the City Manager.

Occupant means the individual, partnership or corporation using or occupying any building or part thereof, whether owner or lessee. In the case of a vacant building, the term "occupant" means the owner or the person who as agent of the owner undertakes to care for the same for the owner.

Owner means the actual owner or owners of a building within the city, whether individuals, partnerships or corporations and the agent thereof, and also the lessee or lessees thereof when, under the terms of a lease, the lessee is responsible for maintenance and repairs.

Rat eradication means the elimination or extermination of rats within buildings of any kind by any or all measures such as poisoning, fumigation, trapping or clubbing.

Rat harborage means any condition which provides shelter or protection for rats, thus favoring their multiplication and continued existence in, under or outside a building of any kind.

Ratproofing, as used in this article, applies to a form of construction to prevent the ingress of rats into buildings from the exterior or from one building to another. The term "ratproofing" consists essentially of the closing of all actual or potential 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, with material or equipment impervious to rat gnawing.

(Prior Code, § 40.110; Code 2006, § 8.16.1)