2009 Iowa Code
Title 14 - Property
Subtitle 2 - Real Property - Gifts
CHAPTER 562A - UNIFORM RESIDENTIAL LANDLORD AND TENANT LAW
562A.6 - GENERAL DEFINITIONS.

        562A.6  GENERAL DEFINITIONS.
         Subject to additional definitions contained in subsequent articles
      of this chapter which apply to specific articles or its parts, and
      unless the context otherwise requires, in this chapter:
         1.  "Building and housing codes" include a law, ordinance, or
      governmental regulation concerning fitness for habitation, or the
      construction, maintenance, operation, occupancy, use, or appearance
      of a premises or dwelling unit.
         2.  "Business" includes 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.
         3.  "Dwelling unit" means a structure or the part of a
      structure that is used as a home, residence, or sleeping place.
         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, and it also
      means a manager of the premises who fails to disclose as required by
      section 562A.13.
         6.  "Owner" means one or more persons, jointly or severally,
      in whom is vested:
         a.  All or part of the legal title to property; or
         b.  All or part of the beneficial ownership and a right to
      present use and enjoyment of the premises, and the term includes a
      mortgagee in possession.
         7.  "Premises" means a dwelling unit and the structure of
      which it is a part and facilities and appurtenances of it and
      grounds, areas and facilities held out for the use of tenants
      generally or whose use is promised to the tenant.
         8.  "Reasonable attorney's fees" means fees determined by the
      time reasonably expended by the attorney and not by the amount of the
      recovery on behalf of the tenant or landlord.
         9.  "Rent" means a payment to be made to the landlord under
      the rental agreement.
         10.  "Rental agreement" means an agreement written or oral,
      and a valid rule, adopted under section 562A.18, embodying the terms
      and conditions concerning the use and occupancy of a dwelling unit
      and premises.
         11.  "Rental deposit" means a deposit of money to secure
      performance of a residential rental agreement, other than a deposit
      which is exclusively in advance payment of rent.
         12.  "Roomer" means a person occupying a dwelling unit that
      lacks a major bathroom or kitchen facility, in a structure where one
      or more major facilities are used in common by occupants of the
      dwelling unit and other dwelling units.  Major facility in the case
      of a bathroom means toilet, or either a bath or shower, and in the
      case of a kitchen means refrigerator, stove or sink.
         13.  "Single family residence" means a structure maintained
      and used as a single dwelling unit.  Notwithstanding that a dwelling
      unit shares one or more walls with another dwelling unit, it is 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 another
      dwelling unit.
         14.  "Tenant" means a person entitled under a rental agreement
      to occupy a dwelling unit to the exclusion of another.
         15.  "Transitional housing" means temporary or nonpermanent
      housing.  

         Section History: Early Form

         [C79, 81, § 562A.6] 

         Section History: Recent Form

         95 Acts, ch 125, §3
         Referred to in § 135O.1