Also known as: dwelling-house · dwellinghouse · dwelling
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A structure that people regularly use for sleeping. It remains a dwelling even if occupants also use it for other purposes, such as conducting a business. A temporary absence by the occupants does not strip the structure of its character as a dwelling.
Dominic Drake hid inside Dolores Diaz's cabin intending to steal valuables after she left for the day. When police arrived he broke a window to flee. The breaking occurred solely to exit the structure rather than to gain initial entry, so the burglary charge fails even though the cabin qualifies as a dwelling house.
Officers with probable cause spotted Damian Decker selling drugs on a public street. Decker ran into his girlfriend's apartment building and locked the door. Police followed him inside under the hot pursuit doctrine and arrested him without a warrant inside the dwelling house.
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Derek Douglas entered Daphne Doyle's lakeside cabin at 2 a.m. carrying a crowbar and intending to steal electronics. Because the entry occurred at night in the dwelling of another, the offense is graded as a second-degree felony under the Model Penal Code.
Darrell Duncan slid a long screwdriver through a gap in the bedroom window of Dominic Drake's trailer to pry open a locked wall safe containing cash. The tool insertion counts as an entry because Duncan used it to commit the intended felony inside the dwelling house rather than merely to gain access.
Police chased a fleeing armed robber into Dolores Diaz's home. Officers conducted a search as broad as reasonably necessary to prevent escape and ensure safety, seizing a handgun and stolen jewelry they encountered inside the dwelling house.
Damian Decker was attacked inside his own apartment by an initial aggressor. Because the assault occurred in his dwelling house, Decker was not obliged to retreat before using defensive force even though a safe exit existed.
A structure qualifies as a dwelling house if someone uses it regularly for sleeping. It remains a dwelling even when occupants also use it for business or during temporary absences, but it loses that status before anyone moves in or after all occupants move out without intent to return.
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Occupancy rather than ownership controls. An owner can commit burglary of the owner's own building when tenants occupy it and use it as their dwelling house.
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Burglary is a felony of the second degree if perpetrated in the dwelling of another at night or if the actor inflicts or attempts to inflict bodily injury or is armed with explosives or a deadly weapon during the offense.
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When officers have probable cause to arrest in a public place and the suspect retreats into a private dwelling house, they may pursue without a warrant and conduct a search as broad as reasonably necessary to prevent escape or ensure safety.
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…case presents the question whether East Cleveland’s housing ordinance, which prohibits a grandmother from living in the same dwelling with her grandson, violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Appellant, Mrs. Inez Moore, lives in her East Cleveland home with her son Dale Moore and two grandsons,…