04/15/2021
2021.1 NIBRS User Manual 19
By definition, a structure has four walls, a roof, and a door (e.g., apartment, barn, cabin, church,
condominium, dwelling house, factory, garage, house trailer or houseboat if used as a
permanent dwelling, mill, office, outbuilding, public building, railroad car, room, school, stable,
vessel or ship, warehouse).
A structure is also any house trailer or other mobile unit permanently fixed as an office,
residence, or storehouse. However, a tent, tent trailer, motor-home, house trailer, or any other
mobile unit used for recreational purposes is not a structure. LEAs should not classify the illegal
entry of such mobile units, followed by a felony, theft, or attempt to commit a felony or theft,
as burglary, but rather as larceny.
Hotel Rule
The Hotel Rule applies to burglaries of hotels, motels, lodging houses, or other places where
lodging of transients is the main purpose. Burglaries of temporary rental storage facilities, e.g.,
mini-storage and self-storage buildings, can pose reporting questions.
• If a number of units under a single manager are the object of a Burglary and the manager,
rather than the individual tenants/renters, will most likely report the offenses to the police,
the agency should report the Burglary to the FBI UCR Program as a single incident.
Examples are burglaries of multiple rental hotel rooms, rooms in “flop” houses, rooms in a
youth hostel, and units in a motel.
• If multiple occupants rent or lease individual living or working areas in a building for a
period of time, which would preclude the tenancy from being classified as transient, and the
occupants would most likely report the individual burglaries separately, the reporting
agency should submit the burglaries as separate incidents. Examples of this latter type of
multiple burglaries include burglaries of multiple apartments in an apartment house, offices
of a number of commercial firms in a business building, offices of separate professionals
within one building, and rooms in a college dormitory.
Whenever a question arises as to whether a type of structure comes within the scope of the
Burglary definition, LEAs should examine the nature of the crime and use the examples
provided as guidance.
When a hotel, motel, inn, other temporary lodging, or a rental storage facility is the object of a
Burglary, the LEA should report the number of premises (e.g., rooms, suites, units, or storage
compartments) in Data Element 10 (Number of Premises Entered). For all Burglary offenses, the
agency should report the method of entry in Data Element 11 (Method of Entry) as either data
value F = Force or N = No Force. A forced entry occurs when the offender(s) uses force of any
degree or a mechanical contrivance of any kind (e.g., a passkey or skeleton key) to unlawfully
enter a building or other structure. An unforced entry occurs when the offender(s) achieves
unlawful entry without force through an unlocked door or window. If both forced and unforced
entries are involved, the agency should enter F = Force.