In this chapter:
(1) “Action” means a court or judicial proceeding or an arbitration.
(2) “Appurtenance” means any garage, outbuilding, retaining wall, or other structure or recreational facility that is constructed by a contractor in connection with the construction or alteration of a residence, regardless of whether it is attached to or a part of the dwelling unit.
(3) “Construction defect” means a deficiency in the design, construction, or repair of a new residence, of an alteration of or repair or addition to an existing residence, or of an appurtenance to a residence, on which a person has a complaint against a contractor.
(4) “Contractor”:
(A) means:
(i) a builder contracting with an owner for the construction or repair of a new residence, for the repair or alteration of or an addition to an existing residence, or for the construction, sale, alteration, addition, or repair of an appurtenance to a new or existing residence;
(ii) any person contracting for the sale or construction of a new residence constructed by or on behalf of that person; or
(iii) a person contracting with an owner or the developer of a condominium or other housing project for the construction or sale of one or more new residences, for an alteration of or an addition to an existing residence, for repair of a new or existing residence, or for the construction, sale, alteration, addition, or repair of an appurtenance to a new or existing residence; and
(B) includes:
(i) an owner, officer, director, shareholder, partner, or employee of the contractor; and
(ii) a risk retention group registered under Chapter 2201, Insurance Code, that insures all or any part of a contractor’s liability for the cost to repair a residential construction defect.
(5) “Economic damages” means compensatory damages for pecuniary loss proximately caused by a construction defect. The term does not include exemplary damages or damages for bodily or personal injury, physical pain and mental anguish, loss of consortium, disfigurement, physical impairment, or loss of companionship and society.
(6) “Residence” means the real property and improvements for a detached one-family or two-family dwelling, a townhouse not more than three stories above grade plane in height with a separate means of egress, an accessory structure not more than three stories above grade plane in height, or a duplex, triplex, or quadruplex or a unit and the common elements in a multiunit residential structure in which the individual units are sold to the owners under a condominium or cooperative system.
(7) “Structural failure” means actual physical damage to the load-bearing portion of a residence caused by a failure of the load-bearing portion.
(8) “Developer of a condominium” means a declarant, as defined by § 82.003, of a condominium consisting of one or more residences.
(9) “Townhouse” means a single-family dwelling unit constructed in a group of three or more attached units in which each unit extends from foundation to roof and with a yard or public way on not less than two sides.