Los Angeles County Municipal Code Part 1 Definitions

"Apartment" means dwelling unit.

(Ord. 8588 § 2 (part), 1964; Ord. 7583 § Part 3 Ch. 11 § 804.1, 1959.)

"Apartment house" means any structure more than one story in height or any portion of any such structure, occupied or designed, built or rented for occupation, as a home, by three or more families, each living in a separate apartment and cooking within such structure.

(Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 810, 1959.)

"Boarding home" means any premises, structures, or portion thereof (except any hospital or other health facility as defined in Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code and except any mental or alcoholic institution licensed by the state of California), used or intended to be used as a place where sleeping or rooming accommodations are furnished to the whole or any part of the public, with or without compensation and with or without meals, for five or more persons who are unrelated to the operator. "Boarding home" includes, but is not limited to, a rooming house, home for the aged, sober living facility, boarding house, lodging house, and bed and breakfast facility.

(Ord. 94-0052 § 18, 1994; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 806, 1959.)

"Dwelling" means any structure or any portion of a structure, other than an apartment house, motel or hotel, containing one or more guest rooms.

(Ord. 8588 § 2 (part), 1964; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 801, 1959.)\

"Dwelling unit" means a room or a suite of rooms, other than a hotel, which are occupied or which are intended or designed for occupancy by a family for living and sleeping purposes.

(Ord. 8588 § 1 (part), 1964; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 804, 1959.)

"Dwelling unfit for human habitation, use or occupancy" means any dwelling, hotel, motel, apartment house, interim housing facility, or other structure used for living or sleeping purposes which, by reason of its construction or by reason of the lack of maintenance or repair thereof, is in such a condition as creates a hazard to the health, welfare, or safety of its occupants.

(Ord. 2018-0046 § 4, 2018; Ord. 8588 § 1 (part), 1964; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 803, 1959.)

"Family" means one person living alone, or a group of two or more persons living together, whether or not related to each other by birth.

(Ord. 8588 § 1 (part), 1964; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 802, 1959.)

"Guest" means any person who occupies a room for sleeping purposes.

(Ord. 8588 § 2 (part), 1964; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 804.2, 1959.)

"Guest room" means a room occupied, or intended, arranged or designed for occupation by one or more guests. Every 100 square feet of superficial floor area in a dormitory shall be considered a guest room.

(Ord. 8588 § 2 (part), 1964; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 804.3, 1959.)

"Habitable room" means any room meeting the requirements of this Division 1 for sleeping, living, cooking or eating purposes, excluding such enclosed places as closets, pantries, bath or toilet rooms, service rooms, connecting corridors, laundries, unfinished attics, foyers, storage spaces, cellars, utility rooms and similar spaces.

(Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 805, 1959.)

"Hot water" means water supplied to plumbing fixtures at a temperature of not less than 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius).

(Ord. 2018-0046 § 5, 2018.)

"Hotel" means any structure or any portion of a structure, including any dormitory, Turkish bath, bachelor hotel, studio hotel, public club or private club containing six or more guest rooms, and which is occupied, or is intended or designed for occupation, by six or more guests, whether rent is paid in money, goods, labor or otherwise. It does not include any jail, hospital, asylum, sanitarium, orphanage, prison or detention or other building in which human beings are housed and detained under legal restraint.

(Ord. 94-0052 § 19, 1994; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 812, 1959.)

"House court" means a group of five or more dwelling units other than a hotel or a motel, located upon a single lot or parcel of land.

(Ord. 8588 § 2 (part), 1964; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 804.4, 1959.)

"Interim housing facility" means any premises, structures, or portion thereof (except any hospital or other health facility as defined in section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code and except any mental health or alcoholism and drug abuse rehabilitation or treatment facility licensed by the State of California), used or intended to be used as a place where provisional sleeping or rooming accommodations are furnished on a temporary basis to persons who lack permanent housing, are experiencing homelessness or are at imminent risk of becoming homeless, with or without compensation from the resident and with or without meal service. Interim housing facility includes, but is not limited to, bridge housing, crisis housing, recuperative care housing, stabilization housing, recovery bridge housing, and shelters.

(Ord. 2018-0046 § 6, 2018.)

"Motel" means a building of not more than one story containing six or more guest rooms or apartments, or combinations thereof, each of which has a separate, individual entrance leading directly from the outside of the building and is designed, used or intended wholly or in part for the accommodation of automobile transients.

(Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 811, 1959.)

"Portable Cooling Device" means a self-contained mechanical device designed to cool a Habitable room that includes devices that are temporarily affixed or mounted and/or secured for use but can be easily removed or relocated without permanent attachment to the structure. This includes, but is not limited to, portable air conditioners, evaporative coolers, and window-mounted air conditioning units. A Portable Cooling Device may operate using electricity, water evaporation, or other methods to reduce air temperature.

(Ord. 2025-0032 § 1, 2025.)

A.

"Substandard dwelling" means any dwelling, house court, dormitory, hotel, motel, interim housing facility, or apartment house which, through lack of maintenance or repair, generally endangers the life, limb, health, property, safety or welfare of the public, or of the occupants thereof.

B.

Conditions which render a structure a "substandard dwelling" include, but are not limited to, any of the following:

Lack of approved toilet or privy structure, bathtub or shower, kitchen sink, hot and cold running water, or other required approved plumbing within an apartment or dwelling;

Lack of exterior wall or roof covering adequate to protect the occupants from the elements;

Damaged interior walls, partitions, floors or ceiling;

Plumbing fixtures and piping which have become insanitary or are otherwise in a condition to create a health hazard;

Sewage disposal system which has become insanitary or is otherwise in a condition to create a health hazard;

Unreasonable collection of rubbish, debris or trash upon premises;

Any of the conditions specified in Section 11.02.300, subsections B, C, D, or E;

Use of other than habitable rooms for living, cooking, or eating purposes;

Incomplete construction;

Infestation by insects, vermin, or rodents;

General dilapidation;

Lack of a water supply adequate to sustain the health of the inhabitants.

(Ord. 2018-0046 § 7, 2018; Ord. 8588 § 1 (part), 1964; Ord. 7583 Part 3 Ch. 11 § 809, 1959.)