Do you live in an apartment where the elevator in the building has stopped working? Who handles the maintenance or upkeep of the elevator? These are just a few of the questions that people ask when renting a luxury apartment. If you are renting, the landlord is responsible for several things such as pest control and making sure the building is up to code. Within those codes, one very important code is elevator maintenance and upkeep. Here, Vanguard Elevator discusses apartment elevators and who is responsible for the maintenance and cleaning.

Inspecting Apartment Elevators

Each elevator used or proposed to be used in Georgia must be inspected regularly. The Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner is responsible for performing these inspections. The office is further responsible for issuing Certificates of Authority for all companies, apartments or individuals who install, maintain or service elevators.

Elevator Outages & The Fair Housing Act

Many tenants with disabilities living in apartments depend on elevators for access to their housing and to the shared community (pool, mailroom, etc). When an elevator stops working, tenants with disabilities become trapped and unable to get to and from their floor. The federal Fair Housing Act (FHA) makes it illegal for an apartment complex to discriminate against people with disabilities in the sale or rental, or to otherwise make unavailable or deny, dwellings to them
because of their disability. To meet its obligations, an apartment complex owner must conduct regular maintenance and repairs to ensure the proper functioning of elevators and must promptly respond to elevator outages and promptly make repairs or replace an elevator, if necessary. This is to limit the amount of time the elevator is out of service. Failure to do so could constitute a violation of the FHA.

ADA Accommodations During Elevator Outage

If an elevator is broken or non-functional, the apartment complex still has an obligation under the FHA to ensure that tenants with disabilities have equal use and enjoyment of their homes and must provide reasonable accommodations if needed. Examples include:

• relocating temporarily to another unit or apartment on a lower level if one is available
• relocating tenants to a hotel or other accessible lodging during the repairs
• providing assistance with getting medications, groceries, trash removal, etc.

Failing to implement lawful reasonable accommodation policies to ensure that tenants with disabilities have equal access to their housing when the elevators stop working could also violate the FHA. The FHA also requires that housing providers have emergency evacuation plans and policies to ensure that tenants with disabilities can safely evacuate in the case of fire, medical emergency, or other emergencies, especially when an elevator is out of service.

Steps To Take If Your Elevator Is Broken

• Contact your landlord, complex, management or maintenance company immediately. Make sure that the elevator outage has been reported.
• Inform your landlord, management or maintenance company that you are a person with a disability. Make sure they know that having a safe and operational elevator is a necessity and not a convenience. Make your concerns known ASAP.
• Most apartment buildings contract with an elevator service company to provide maintenance and emergency service. Be patient as it may take 24+ hours for an elevator technician to respond to the outage.
• Be diligent and call each subsequent day that the elevator is out of service. Ask when the elevator is expected to be repaired and what specifically is being done. The more they know about the inconvenience the faster something will get done.
• If delays take more than 24 hours, you may request reasonable accommodation from your landlord or apartment. Ask to be relocated temporarily to another unit or apartment on a lower level if one is available.
• Discuss with management what, if any, emergency evacuation plans and procedures are in place for tenants with disabilities, especially during an elevator outage. You can also contact your local Emergency Services Department or Fire Department for assistance and to alert them to concerns over any lack of emergency evacuation plans.

Are Your Apartment Elevators Broken? Call Us Today!

Vanguard Elevator is committed to providing the highest level of service for all of your elevator needs. On every job, we strive to deliver quality service at an exceptional value. Whether you need maintenance, modernization or new construction, we will provide the same high-quality service that our organization is founded on. Give us a call today!