Unless the context otherwise requires:

1. "Building and housing codes" means any law, ordinance or governmental regulation concerning fitness for habitation or the construction, maintenance, operation, occupancy, use or appearance of any premises or dwelling unit;

2. "Deposit" means any money or other property required by a landlord from a tenant as a security and which is to be returned to the tenant upon termination of the rental agreement, less any deductions properly made and allowed by this act;

3. "Dwelling unit" means a structure, or that part of a structure, which is used as a home, residence or sleeping place by one or more persons, and includes any site, space or lot leased to the owner or resident of a manufactured or mobile home;

4. "Good faith" means honesty in fact in the conduct of the transaction concerned;

5. "Landlord" means the owner, lessor or sublessor of the dwelling unit or the building of which it is a part, manufactured or mobile home site, space or lot, and it also means a manager of the premises who fails to comply with the disclosure provisions of Section 116 of this title;

6. "Occupant" means any person who abides within a dwelling unit, or any person who owns or occupies a manufactured or mobile home, but who is not a tenant or an unemancipated minor child of a tenant, and who is not legally obligated by the terms of a rental agreement;

7. "Organization" means a corporation, government, governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership or association, two or more persons having a joint or common interest and any other legal or commercial entity;

8. "Owner" means one or more persons, jointly or severally, in whom is vested:

a.all or any part of the legal title to the property, or

b.all or part of the beneficial ownership and a right to present use and enjoyment of the property, and such term includes a mortgagee in possession;

9. "Person" means an individual or organization;

10. "Premises" means a dwelling unit and the structure of which it is a part, the facilities and appurtenances therein, the site, space or lot leased to the owner or resident of a mobile or manufactured home, and the grounds, areas and facilities held out for the use of the tenant generally or the use of which is promised to the tenant;

11. "Rent" means all payments, except deposits and damages, to be made to the landlord under the rental agreement;

12. "Rental agreement" means all agreements and valid rules and regulations adopted under Section 126 of this title, which establish, embody or modify the terms and conditions concerning the use and occupancy of a dwelling unit and premises;

13. "Roomer" or "boarder" means a tenant occupying a dwelling unit:

a.which lacks at least one major bathroom or kitchen facility, such as a toilet, refrigerator or stove,

b.in a building

(1)where one or more of such major facilities are supplied to be used in common by the occupants of the roomer or boarder's dwelling unit and one or more other dwelling units, and

(2)in which the landlord resides;

14. "Single-family residence" means a structure used and maintained as a single dwelling unit. A dwelling unit, including those with common walls, shall be deemed a single-family residence if it has direct access to a street or thoroughfare and shares neither heating facilities, hot water equipment, nor any other essential facility or service with any other dwelling unit; and

15. "Tenant" means any person entitled under a rental agreement to occupy a dwelling unit.

Added by Laws 1978, c. 257, § 2, eff. Oct. 1, 1978. Amended by Laws 1995, c, 149, § 2, eff. Nov. 1, 1995; Laws 2003, c. 112, § 1, emerg. eff. April 21, 2003.