Terms Used In Rhode Island General Laws > Chapter 45-24.3 - Housing Maintenance and Occupancy Code

• Accessory structure: means a detached structure which is not used or not intended to be used for living or sleeping by human occupants, and which is located on the same premises with a dwelling. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
• Appropriate authority: means the official department, or agency, designated by a local community to administer and enforce these regulations pursuant to the provisions of this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Approved: means approved by the local or state authority having administrative authority. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Ashes: means the residue from the burning of combustible materials (and the noncombustible portion of refuse loaded into an incinerator). See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Basement: means a portion of the building partly underground, but having less than half its clear height below the average grade of the adjoining ground. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Cellar: means the portion of the building partly underground, having half or more than half its clear height below the average grade of the adjoining ground. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
• Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
• Corporate unit: means a city or town, as the case may be, delegated with the powers to provide for the enforcement of this chapter. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
• Dormitory: means a room or group of rooms in a dwelling used for living and sleeping purposes by four (4) or more persons. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Dwelling: means any enclosed space which is wholly or partly used or intended to be used for living or sleeping by human occupants; provided, that "temporary housing" as defined in this section, shall not be regarded as a dwelling. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Dwelling units: 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. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Enforcing officer: means the official charged with the administration and enforcement of this chapter, or the officer's authorized representative. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
• Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
• Extermination: means the control and elimination of insects, rodents, or other pests by eliminating their harborages; by removing, or making inaccessible, materials that may serve as their food; and by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, trapping, or by any other recognized and legal pest elimination methods approved by the health officer. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
• Family: means one adult person plus one or more persons who are legally related to the adult person and residing in the same dwelling unit with that person. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Garbage: means the animal and vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking, serving, and nonconsumption of food. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
• Guest: means any person who shares a dwelling unit in a nonpermanent status for not more than thirty (30) days. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• 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, furnace rooms, pantries, kitchenettes and utility rooms of less than fifty (50) square feet, foyers or communicating corridors, stairways, closets, storage spaces and workshops, and hobby and recreation areas in unsealed or uninsulated parts of a structure below ground level or in attics. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Health officer: means the legally designated director of health of this state, or the director's authorized representative. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Household: means a family and/or one or more unrelated persons, including servants, and not more than two (2) boarders, who share the same dwelling and use some or all of its cooking and eating facilities. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• in writing: include printing, engraving, lithographing, and photo-lithographing, and all other representations of words in letters of the usual form. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-16
• Infestation: means the presence within or around a dwelling or other structure in large numbers of insects, rodents, or other pests. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
• Kitchen: means any room containing any or all of the following equipment, or area of a room within three feet (3?) of that equipment: sink, and/or other device for dish washing, stove or other device for cooking, and refrigerator or other device for cool storage of food. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Lead-based substances: means any paint, plaster, or other building material which contains lead at levels in excess of acceptable environmental lead levels established by department of health regulations. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). ^{Source: OCC}
• Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
• Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
• Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
• Multiple dwelling: means any dwelling containing four (4) or more dwelling units. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
• Occupant: means any person, over one year of age, living, sleeping, cooking, or eating in, or actually having possession of, a dwelling unit or a rooming unit, and/or structure, except that in dwelling units a guest will not be considered an occupant. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• 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. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Owner: means any person who, alone or jointly or severally with others:

  (a)  Has legal title to any dwelling, dwelling unit, or structure with or without accompanying actual possession thereof; or

  (b)  Has charge, care, or control of any dwelling, dwelling unit, or structure as owner or agent of the owner, or an executor, administrator, trustee, or guardian of the estate of the owner. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5

• Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
• Permissible occupancy: means the maximum number of persons permitted as a family or household to reside in a dwelling or rooming unit based on the square foot per person in habitable rooms. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Person: means and includes any individual, firm, corporation, association, or partnership. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Plumbing: means and includes all of the following supplied facilities and equipment: gas pipes, gas burning equipment, waste pipes, garbage disposal units, water closets, sinks, installed dishwashers, lavatories, bathtubs, shower baths, installed clothes washing machines, catch basins, drains, vents, and any other similar supplied fixtures, together with all connections to water, sewer, septic tank, or gas lines. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Premises: means a platted lot or part of a platted lot or unplatted lot or parcel of land, or plot of land, either occupied or unoccupied by any dwelling or non dwelling structure, and includes any building, accessory structure, or other structure on that land. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Privacy: means the ability of a person or persons to carry out an activity commenced without interruption or interference, either by sight or sound, by unwanted persons. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Probable cause: A reasonable ground for belief that the offender violated a specific law.
• Prosecute: To charge someone with a crime. A prosecutor tries a criminal case on behalf of the government.
• Quorum: The number of legislators that must be present to do business.
• real estate: may be construed to include lands, tenements, and hereditaments and rights thereto and interests therein. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-10
• Refuse: means all putrescible and non-putrescible solids (except body wastes) including garbage, rubbish, ashes, and dead animals. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Rooming house: means any dwelling or that part of any dwelling containing three (3) or more rooming units in which space is occupied by three (3) or more persons who are not members of a single family. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Rooming unit: means 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 or eating purposes. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Rubbish: means non-putrescible solid wastes (excluding ashes) consisting of both:

  (i )  Combustible wastes such as paper, cardboard, plastic containers, yard clippings, and wood, and

  (ii )  Noncombustible wastes such as tin cans, glass, and crockery. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5

• Safety: means the condition of being free from danger and hazards which may cause accidents or disease. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Septic tank: means a receptacle, usually underground, to which sewage is drained and retained to effect disintegration of the organic matter by bacteria. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Space heater: means a self-contained, automatically controlled, fuel burning appliance of either the circulating type or the radiant type. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Structure: means all structures used or intended to be used for commercial, business, or industrial use or occupancy. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• Supplied: means paid for, furnished, provided by, or under the control of the owner or operator. See Rhode Island General Laws 45-24.3-5
• town: may be construed to include city; the words "town council" include city council; the words "town clerk" include city clerk; the words "ward clerk" include clerk of election district; the words "town treasurer" include city treasurer; and the words "town sergeant" include city sergeant. See Rhode Island General Laws 43-3-9
• Trial: A hearing that takes place when the defendant pleads "not guilty" and witnesses are required to come to court to give evidence.
• Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.