City of Brunswick Public Works Department

It is the purpose of the chapter to provide minimum basic and uniform standards governing the condition, occupancy and maintenance of dwellings, apartment houses, rooming houses or buildings, structures or premises used as such or designated or intended for such use in the city and to establish necessary safeguards for the safety, health and welfare of the occupants and users thereof.

(Ord. No. 635, § 70.02, 7-5-1972)

Sec. 12-3. Scope.

(a) The provisions of this chapter shall apply to the construction, alteration, repair, equipment, use and occupancy location, maintenance, removal and demolition of every building or structure or any appurtenances connected or attached to such buildings or structures and accessory structures or buildings located on such premises within the corporate limits of the city.

(b) No provision of this chapter shall be held to deprive any federal or state agency, municipal authority or health department having jurisdiction, of any power or authority which it had on the effective date of the ordinance from which this ordinance derives or of any remedy then existing for the enforcement of its orders, regulations, ordinances or laws, nor shall it deprive any individual or corporation of its legal rights as provided by law.

(c) In any case where a provision of this chapter is found to be in conflict with a portion of any other provision of this Code or city ordinance, the provision which establishes the higher standard for the protection of health, welfare and safety of the occupants of dwellings, apartment houses, rooming houses or buildings, structures or premises used as such or designated or intended for such use shall prevail.

(d) Buildings which are moved or relocated shall be considered new buildings and shall comply with all of the requirements of applicable codes and ordinances of the city.

(Ord. No. 635, § 70.03, 7-5-1972)

Sec. 12-4. Definitions.

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

Alter or alteration means any change or modification in construction or occupancy.

Apartment means a room or a suite of rooms occupied, or which is intended or designed to be occupied, as the home or residence of one individual, family or household, for housekeeping purposes.

Apartment house means any building, or portion thereof which is designed, built, rented, leased, let or hired out to be occupied, or which is occupied as the home or residence of more than two families living independently of each other and doing their own cooking in the building, and shall include flats and apartments.

Appeal board means the housing standards appeal board.

Approved means approved by the commissioner of health.

Area, as applied to the dimensions of a building, means the maximum horizontal projected area of the building at grade.

Area (See Floor area).

Attic story means any story situated wholly or partly in the roof, so designated, arranged or built as to be used for business, storage or habitation.

Basement means that portion of a building between floor and ceiling, which is partly below and partly above grade (as defined in this section), but so located that the vertical distance from grade to the floor below is less than the vertical distance from grade to ceiling, provided, however, that the distance from grade to ceiling shall be at least four feet, six inches. (See also Story.)

Building means any structure built for the support, shelter, or enclosure of persons, animals, chattels, or property of kind. The term "building" shall be construed as if followed by the words "or part thereof." Further, the term shall include but not be limited to structure, appurtenance, dwelling, apartment or rooming house.

Building, existing, means a building erected prior to the adoption of this chapter or one for which a legal building permit has been issued.

Cellar means that portion of a building, the ceiling of which is entirely below grade or less than four feet, six inches above grade. (See also Story.)

Commissioner of health means the legally designated health officer of the county board of health or his authorized representative, and one of such authorized representatives shall be and is hereby designated the city building inspector, his assistants, agents, servants and employees.

Dwelling, when used in this chapter without other qualifications, means a structure occupied exclusively for residential purpose by not more than two families.

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.

Existing building (See Building, existing.)

Exit corridor means any corridor or passageway used as an integral part of the exit system. That portion of a corridor or passageway which exceeds the allowable distance of travel to an exit, becomes an exit corridor or passageway.

Exit passageway means an enclosed hallway or corridor connecting a required exit to a street.

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 commissioner of health.

Family means one or more persons living together, whether related to each other by birth or not, and having common housekeeping facilities.

Floor area means the area included within surrounding walls of a building, exclusive of vent shafts and courts.

Garbage means the animal and vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking and consumption of food.

Habitable room means a room occupied by one or more persons for living, eating or sleeping purposes, not including toilets, laundries, serving and storage pantries, corridors, halls, cellars and spaces that are not used frequently.

Health officer. (See Commissioner of health .)

Heating. The following definitions apply to heating installations:

(1) Central heating boilers and furnaces means and includes warm air furnaces, floor-mounted direct-fired unit heaters, hot water boilers and steam boilers operating at less than 15 pounds of gauge pressure, used for heating of buildings or structures.

(2) Chimney means a vertical shaft of masonry, reinforced concrete or other approved noncombustible, heat resisting material enclosing one or more flues, for the purpose of removing products of combustion from solid, liquid, or gas fuel.

(3) Flue means a vertical passageway for products of combustion.

(4) Vent pipe, as applied to heating, means a pipe for removing products of combustion from gas appliances.

(5) Water heater means a device for the heating and storage of water to be used for other than heating or industrial purposes.

Infestation means the presence, within or around a dwelling, of any insects, rodents or other pests.

Inner court means an open unoccupied space bounded by the walls of the building, but located within the exterior walls of the building.

Multiple dwelling has the same meaning as "apartment house."

Occupant means any person, over one year of age, living, sleeping, cooking, eating in or having actual possession of a dwelling unit or rooming unit.

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.

Ordinary minimum winter conditions means the temperature 20 degrees Fahrenheit above the lowest recorded temperature for the previous 15-year period.

Owner means and includes his duly authorized agent or attorney, a purchaser, devisee, fiduciary or a person having a vested or contingent interest in real property.

Plumbing means the practice, materials and fixtures used in the installation, maintenance, extension and alteration of all piping, fixtures, appliances and appurtenances in connection with any of the following: Sanitary drainage or storm drainage facilities; the venting system; public or private water-supply systems, within or adjacent to any building, structure or conveyance; also the practice and materials used in the installation, maintenance, extension or alteration of stormwater, liquid-waste or sewage, and water supply systems of any premises to their connection with any point of public disposal or other acceptable terminal.

Premises means a platted lot or part thereof or unplatted lot or parcel of land or plot of land including the buildings or structures thereon.

Public area means an unoccupied open space adjoining a building and on the same property that is used jointly by occupants of structure containing two or more dwelling units.

Repair means the replacement of existing work with the same kind of material used in the existing work, not including additional work that would change the structural safety of the building, or that would affect or change required exit facilities, a vital element of an elevator, plumbing, gas piping, wiring or heating installations, or that would be in violation of a provision of law or ordinance. The term "repair" or "repairs" shall not apply to any change of construction.

Required means required by some provision of this chapter.

Residential occupancy means buildings in which families or households live or in which sleeping accommodations are provided, and all dormitories. Such buildings include, among others, the following: dwellings, multiple dwellings, and lodging houses.

Rooming house means any dwelling, or that part of any dwelling 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; and includes, but is not limited to, boardinghouses, lodginghouses or tenement houses.

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.

Rubbish means combustible and noncombustible waste materials, except garbage. The term shall include the residue from the burning of 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.

Supplied means paid for, furnished or provided by or under the control of the owner or operator.

Stairway means one or more flights of stairs, and the necessary landings and platforms connecting them, to form a continuous and uninterrupted passage from one story to another in a building or structure.

Story means that portion of a building included between the upper surface of any floor and the upper surface of the floor next above, except that the topmost story shall be that portion of a building included between the upper surface of the topmost floor and the ceiling or roof above.

Structure means that which is built or constructed, an edifice or building of any kind, or any piece of work artificially built up or composed of parts joined together in some definite manner. The term "structure" shall be construed as if followed by the words "or part thereof".

(1) Bearing walls means a wall which supports any vertical load in addition to its own weight.

(2) Cavity wall means a wall built of masonry units or of plain concrete, or a combination of these materials, so arranged as to provide an air space within the wall, and in which the inner and outer parts of the wall are tied together with metal ties.

(3) Curtain wall means a nonbearing wall between columns or piers and which is not supported by girders or beams, but is supported on the ground.

(4) Faced wall means a wall in which the masonry facing and backing are so bonded as to exert common action under load.

(5) Exterior wall means a wall, bearing or nonbearing, which is used as an enclosing wall for a building, but which is not necessarily suitable for use as a party wall or fire wall.

(6) Fire wall means a wall of incombustible construction which subdivides a building or separates buildings to restrict the spread of fire and which starts at the foundation and extends continuously through all stories to and above the roof, except where the roof is of fireproof or fire-resistive construction and the wall is carried up tightly against the underside of the roof slab.

(7) Foundation wall means a wall below the first floor extending below the adjacent ground level and serving as support for a wall, pier, column or other structural part of a building.

(8) Hollow wall of masonry means a wall built of masonry units so arranged as to provide an air space within the wall, and in which the inner and outer parts of the wall are bonded together with masonry units or steel.

(9) Nonbearing wall means a wall which supports no load other than its own weight.

(10) Panel wall means a nonbearing wall in skeleton or framed construction, built between columns or piers and wholly supported at each story.

(11) Parapet wall means that part of any wall entirely above the roof line.

(12) Party wall means a wall used or adapted for joint service between two buildings.

(13) Retaining wall means any wall used to resist the lateral displacement of any material.

Writing means and includes printing and typewriting.

Meaning of certain words. Whenever the words "apartment," "apartment house," "dwelling," "dwelling unit," "rooming house," "rooming unit" or "premises" are used in this chapter, they shall be construed as though they were followed by the words "or any part thereof."

(Ord. No. 635, § 70.09, 7-5-1972)

Cross references: Definitions and rules of construction generally, § 1-2.

Sec. 12-5. Compliance required.

No person shall occupy as owner-occupant, or let to another for occupancy, any dwelling for the purpose of living, sleeping, cooking, or eating therein, which does not comply with the provisions or standards contained in this chapter.

(Ord. No. 635, § 70.10, 7-5-1972)