Also known as: buildings · structure
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A structure with walls and a roof, especially a permanent one.
Bruce Baldwin inserts a crowbar through the window of a tenant-occupied house to reach a locked safe inside. The crowbar crosses the threshold while Bruce intends to steal cash from the safe. The entry element is satisfied because the tool was used to commit the felony rather than merely to gain access.
Bharat Bhatia erects a warehouse that has four walls and a roof on land near an interstate. The completed structure meets the definition of a building because it is a permanent edifice with walls and a roof.
Brenda Booth enters an office building at night through an unlocked side door to steal computer equipment. The building is not open to the public at that hour and Brenda lacks any privilege to enter. She is guilty of burglary because she entered the building with the purpose to commit a crime inside.
Select any source to read its text and confirm it supports the definition.
Benson Motors leaves a storage shed on land owned by Beacon Bank after the bank's consent expires. The shed remains in place for months. The continued presence of the structure on the land constitutes a trespass even though Benson Motors no longer has permission to keep it there.
Baxter Dynamics finances the purchase of heating equipment that Brandon Black installs in a commercial building. The equipment becomes a fixture attached to the real property. A security interest may attach to the equipment as a fixture, but no security interest exists in ordinary building materials incorporated into the structure itself.
Brooke Bryant owns a house that tenants use as their regular sleeping quarters. The tenants leave for a two-week vacation but intend to return. The house remains a dwelling during their absence because temporary vacancy does not change its character as a structure used regularly for sleeping.
No. A structure remains a building and can qualify as a dwelling even when occupants also conduct business inside it, provided someone uses it regularly for sleeping.
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Insertion counts as entry only when the defendant uses the tool to commit the intended felony inside the structure. Mere use of a tool to gain access does not satisfy the entry element.
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Yes. Occupancy rather than title determines whether the building is that of another. An owner may therefore commit burglary of the owner's own building when tenants occupy it as their dwelling.
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A security interest may be created in goods that become fixtures, but the interest does not extend to ordinary building materials that are incorporated into an improvement on land.
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No. A structure continues to qualify as a dwelling during a temporary absence by the occupants so long as they intend to return and have used the structure regularly for sleeping.
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…such as the decline of arranged marriages and the abandonment of the law of coverture, have worked deep transformations in the structure of marriage, affecting aspects of marriage once viewed as essential. These new insights have strengthened, not weakened, the institution of marriage. Indeed, changed understandings of…