§ 657A.1 — Definitions

Iowa § 657A.1

• Jurisdiction: Iowa
• Title XV: JUDICIAL BRANCH AND JUDICIAL PROCEDURES
• Ch. 657A: ABANDONED OR UNSAFE BUILDINGS — ABATEMENT BY REHABILITATION

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As used in this chapter, unless context requires otherwise:
1. “Abandoned” or “abandonment” means that a building is vacant, or is occupied only
by trespassers, and in violation of the housing code or building code of the city in which the
property is located or the housing code or building code applicable in the county in which the
property is located if outside the limits of a city.
2. “Abate” or “abatement” in connection with property means the removal or correction of
hazardous conditions deemed to constitute a public nuisance or the making of improvements
needed to effect a rehabilitation of the property consistent with maintaining safe and
habitable conditions over the remaining useful life of the property. However, the closing
or boarding up of a building or structure that is found to be a public nuisance is not an
abatement of the nuisance.
3. “Building”meansabuildingorstructurelocatedinacityoroutsidethelimitsofacityin
a county, which is used or intended to be used for commercial or industrial purposes or which
is used or intended to be used for residential purposes and includes a building or structure
in which some floors may be used for retail stores, shops, salesrooms, markets, or similar
commercial uses, or for offices, banks, civic administration activities, professional services,
or similar business or civic uses, and other floors are used, designed, or intended to be used
for residential purposes. “Building” does not include a mobile home, a modular home, and
a manufactured home as defined in section 435.1, unless the mobile home or manufactured
home has been converted to real estate pursuant to section 435.26.
4. “Interested person” means an owner, mortgagee, lienholder, or other person that
possesses an interest of record or an interest otherwise provable in property that becomes
subject to the jurisdiction of the court pursuant to this chapter, the city in which the property
is located, the county in which the property is located if the property is located outside the
limits of a city, and an applicant for the appointment as receiver pursuant to this chapter.
5. “Neighboring landowner” means an owner of property which is located within five
hundred feet of property that becomes subject to the jurisdiction of the court pursuant to
this chapter.
6. “Owner” includes a person who is purchasing property by land installment contract or
under a duly executed purchase contract.
7. “Public nuisance” means a building that is a menace to the public health, welfare, or
safety, or that is structurally unsafe, unsanitary, or not provided with adequate safe egress,
or that constitutes a fire hazard, or is otherwise dangerous to human life, or that in relation
to the existing use constitutes a hazard to the public health, welfare, or safety by reason of
inadequate maintenance, dilapidation, obsolescence, or abandonment.
8. “Responsible building official” or “official” means the person appointed by the city or,
§657A.1, ABANDONED OR UNSAFE BUILDINGS — ABATEMENT BY REHABILITATION 2
if the building is outside the limits of a city, the county, to enforce its building codes and
regulations in general or to enforce this chapter in particular.