Starting October 2026, owners must maintain elevators in residential buildings

Owners must keep each elevator in working order and notify tenants about maintenance and outages. These duties apply to owners of Connecticut buildings used partly or wholly as homes, where an elevator serves a floor above or below ground level. They exclude buildings on state or municipal property and buildings under a current permit for remodeling, restoration, repair, or renovation. Owners must follow applicable building and housing codes, including the Connecticut Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators. Owners must post an English and Spanish sign by the elevator telling people to call 911 in an emergency and giving a municipal contact for a non-emergency outage when no other working elevator is available for at least 48 consecutive hours. These requirements take effect October 1, 2026. Owners must give tenants at least 24 hours’ notice before scheduled maintenance and notify affected tenants within 24 hours after an elevator is first reported inoperable and remains out of service.

Owners must send the local building official an outage notice and a repair plan prepared by a licensed elevator contractor. This applies when an elevator in a covered residential building is reported inoperable and is not restored to service. The plan must describe the cause, if known, the needed repairs, and the expected completion date. Owners must follow the official’s schedule for updates until the elevator is working again. The 48-hour deadline starts when the elevator is first reported inoperable and remains out of service. Within two business days after receiving the notice and plan, the official must contact the owner or contractor to set an update schedule.

Local building officials must investigate complaints and report specified elevator problems to the Department of Administrative Services, which may enforce compliance. These duties concern complaints, repair plans, update schedules, and owner noncompliance involving inoperable elevators in covered residential buildings. After finding an elevator inoperable, an official must ask the owner to comply within five business days and warn that noncompliance may bring penalties. The department may fine owners or use other enforcement powers, including more frequent inspections or action against an elevator’s operating certificate. An owner who violates these requirements may be fined up to $250 for a first offense and up to $500 for each later offense.