An elevator is the main element of the entrance infrastructure of an apartment building. Residents of apartments use the elevator many times every day to go up to the desired floor and down to the exit from the entrance.
For those residents whose apartments are located above the 5th floor, it is impossible to imagine life without an elevator. Walking to the 9th or 12th floor is very difficult even for a young and physically healthy person.
Passenger and freight elevators, experiencing enormous daily loads, quickly wear out, break down, and sometimes require complete replacement. Replacing an elevator in an apartment building is not a cheap pleasure.
We’ll tell you in our article what to do if the elevator urgently needs to be replaced, but the residents don’t have the amount of money needed for this.
What types of elevator repairs exist?
Replacing an elevator is a last resort measure, which in our country is used most often when the elevator is already completely faulty, cannot be repaired, or has fallen into the shaft. Typically, problems in elevator operation are solved through various types of routine or major repairs.
An elevator is a lifting mechanism that requires compliance with certain operating rules. The elevator belongs to the common property of the apartment building. The management company must maintain the lifting mechanism.
The most commonly used elevator repair methods are:
- Technical inspection . According to the schedule created by the management company, the elevator is regularly checked for serviceability and safety of its operation. The lighting, operation of the buttons, and the lifting mechanism are checked.
- Emergency maintenance and emergency troubleshooting . Such repairs usually occur when a person gets stuck in an elevator and needs to be rescued urgently.
- Maintenance . The need for it is usually identified at the time of technical inspection. These are minor damages that can be repaired in a matter of hours. For example, one of the vandals tore out a button in the elevator or cut off the power to the lighting.
- Scheduled and unscheduled overhaul of the elevator . Residents of an apartment building make monthly contributions to the fund for capital repairs of the house. If the elevator malfunctions, the management company must replace it at the expense of these funds.
Replacement of elevator equipment usually occurs at the expense of the management company . Residents of the house constantly pay not only for major repairs of the house, but also for the maintenance and servicing of the elevator.
Over several years, a significant amount accumulates. And replacing an elevator occurs extremely rarely in houses. Elevators have a long service life.
Regulatory regulation of elevator replacement
Replacing an elevator and repairing it are regulated by civil and housing legislation. According to Art. 36 of the RF Housing Code, an elevator is considered common property of an apartment building.
According to Art. 39 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the owners of the property in the building where the elevator is operated are responsible for the condition of the elevator . But if the homeowners have entered into an agreement for elevator maintenance with the management company, then the responsibility for maintaining the elevator is transferred to the shoulders of the management company’s employees.
According to Art. 154 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the costs of replacing the elevator are included in the receipt for payment for housing and communal services . In this case, it does not matter whether the residential or non-residential premises use an elevator, and on which floor the apartment owners live.
The rules for operating elevators are separately prescribed by the Technical Regulations of the Customs Union 011/2011 “Safety of Elevators”.
In addition, in 2021, the operation of elevators is carried out on the basis of the norms of Government Decree No. 743.
Elevator service life
Many residents do not know what the statutory deadlines for replacing elevators in residential buildings are. They do not know when to sound the alarm to replace the elevator in order to avoid emergencies.
An elevator is a dangerous mechanism that, if used incorrectly, can harm the health and lives of people using it.
If the cable on which the elevator moves breaks, the elevator will collapse into the shaft. If there are any people inside the cabin at this moment, they are in serious danger.
The passport of each elevator must reflect its maximum service life of the facility.
According to Art. 4 of the Technical Regulations, if the elevator passport does not indicate a special period for its trouble-free use, it is considered that the elevator can be operated for a maximum of 25 years.
The inspection of the lift will have to be carried out by a company that has special accreditation. Based on the results of each inspection, a report is drawn up, which specifies the future fate of the elevator: its repair, further use or replacement.
The examination carried out must be recorded in the lifting machine’s passport.
Many apartment buildings have two elevators: passenger and freight . This was done so that in the event of a breakdown, residents could use the second elevator option. And citizens who wanted to transport heavy objects: building materials, equipment, etc., did not use passenger elevators for these purposes.
Carrying a weight in an elevator that exceeds the established values leads to frequent breakdowns and increased wear.
Replace or modernize the elevator?
The main task of Rostechnadzor is to monitor how the requirements of the Technical Regulations are met.
After inspecting the elevators in accordance with the requirements of the Technical Regulations and receiving their results, Rostechnadzor developed proposals and submitted them to the Russian government. These proposals concern issues of improving the safety of elevator operation. During an inspection of elevator equipment, facts were revealed when, instead of replacing elevators, they were modernizing them, that is, reducing costs. But if certain obsolete parts were retained in the elevator equipment, the level of safety was seriously reduced. A meeting was held in the government on this issue. Based on its results, letter No. 2695-NS/06 was developed in January 2018. This document from the Ministry of Construction clearly defines the concept of “modernization”, as well as its differences from the concept of “replacement”. The letter also states that the elevator should be considered modernized if only 1 old element remains in it.
How to replace an elevator in an apartment building?
When there is a need to replace lifting equipment, the question of how to do it is decided. There are several options for making a replacement:
- On one's own . This is an extreme case in which all other options do not apply. Residents will have to pay for the installation costs themselves. This, by the way, is a lot of money. Some companies provide installments for 3 months or six months.
- Replacement of elevators under the overhaul program . This is a federal program that can be used by residents of multi-apartment residential buildings. In this case, about 90% of the costs are borne by the state, the rest is collected by the apartment owners. To become a participant in the program, you need to provide a set of certain documentation to a special commission. At the same time, the elevator will be checked for serviceability and the validity of its replacement.
- Replacement of elevators according to the regional program . Lifting equipment is replaced at the expense of the budget. It is carried out only in regions that are participants in such a program.
To replace an elevator in a building, you need to obtain the consent of at least two thirds of the homeowners. To do this, first a meeting of homeowners is organized on important issues, including replacing the elevator. All consents and refusals are recorded in the minutes of the meeting.
Under the Accelerated Elevator Replacement Program, the installation of more than 15,000 new elevators in various regions of the country was completed in 2021 . And every year the authorities create more and more new conditions for servicing the country’s citizens with new elevators and satisfying their requests on these issues.
How is an elevator replaced after a major overhaul?
If repairs are carried out at the expense of capital repair funds, which are paid monthly by apartment owners, then a special mechanism for replacing lifting equipment is in effect.
This happens as follows:
- 6 months before the planned work to replace the elevator, the management company is obliged to notify all residents of the building;
- The owners express their opinions, agree with the planned date or propose their own deadline for completing the work;
- Upon receipt of consent, the management company begins work on time.
Before carrying out work, a technological examination is carried out . Based on the examination, a schedule of repair work is drawn up. After the elevator replacement is completed, documentation documenting the result is drawn up, commissioning work is carried out and the elevator is put into operation.
To become a participant in a regional or federal program for replacing an elevator, you need to collect the following documentation: a technical passport of the house, a document confirming the method of managing an apartment building, an inspection report of the elevator describing its technical condition.
In addition, you will need to obtain permission from the authorized body to replace the elevator, draw up a work plan and financial estimate.
Deadlines for completion of work
The period during which residents of an apartment building will receive a new, working elevator depends on many factors. First of all, this is influenced by the number of floors of the house itself.
For residents of high floors, the lack of an elevator creates enormous problems and difficulties. They are the ones who are interested in quickly debugging new equipment.
However, even residents of the first and second floors will have their own interest in solving this problem. They, despite constant disagreements and disputes, also pay for the maintenance of the elevator, even though they don’t ride it.
Typically, in a nine-story building, replacing an elevator takes about a month, in a twelve-story building - 35 days, in a seventeen-story building - 45 days.
Cost of replacing an elevator in a 9-story building
To make it clear to residents of an apartment building that receipts for payment for major repairs must be paid on time, we will consider in detail the cost of replacing the elevator at their own expense by apartment owners.
If citizens do not participate in any way in maintaining their elevator or do not pay for major repairs, the authorized bodies and the management company will not be willing to pay for the replacement of the elevator in their building. Then you will have to pay for this very expensive service yourself.
Each installation company sets its own prices for replacing elevators, but on average these figures can be expressed this way. If the elevator is planned to be replaced in a 9-story building, then the price for one floor will be about 50 thousand rubles.
It is easy to calculate that for 9 floors this amount will turn into 450 thousand rubles. The price also depends on the elevator manufacturer. Domestic lifting mechanisms are slightly cheaper than foreign ones. This price applies exclusively to passenger elevators.
A small freight elevator per floor will cost 60 thousand rubles when installing domestic equipment . These are the simplest cars, not equipped with mirrors, handles and other modifications. Prettier and more comfortable elevators will cost about 1 million rubles.
Of course, it will be very difficult to raise that kind of money on your own. Few residents would agree to pay such a large sum to replace an elevator. Therefore, it is best to try to participate in federal and regional programs for replacing elevator equipment.
The elevator in an apartment building is used every day by residents, resulting in natural wear and tear.
An elevator can pose a particular danger to humans, so its operation is carried out under the control of authorized bodies represented by management companies or special institutions, such as Moslift.
To replace an elevator in an apartment building for free, you need to become a participant in a regional or federal program and prove that the elevator is faulty and poses a real threat to the safety of those operating it.
Is it possible to differentiate payments for an elevator?
Article 39 of the Housing Code clearly states:
1. Owners of premises in an apartment building bear the burden of expenses for maintaining common property in the apartment building.
2. The share of mandatory expenses for the maintenance of common property in an apartment building, the burden of which is borne by the owner of the premises in such a house, is determined by the share in the right of common ownership of the common property in such a house of the specified owner.
And in Part 1 of Article 158 of the RF Housing Code we see the same thing:
The owner of premises in an apartment building is obliged to bear the costs of maintaining the premises he owns, as well as to participate in the costs of maintaining common property in an apartment building in proportion to his share in the right of common ownership of this property by paying fees for the maintenance of residential premises and contributions for major repairs.
The Housing Code of the Russian Federation says nothing about the fact that someone can be exempted from paying for the maintenance of the house, including for elevator maintenance, or the amount of payment can be reduced for some category of residents.
According to Article 156 of the Housing Code of the Russian Federation, the specific amount that must be paid under the article “maintenance and repair of residential premises” is determined at a general meeting of owners, taking into account what the management organization proposes. If the house is managed by a homeowners association or cooperative, then the fee for maintaining the residential premises is determined by the board of this organization. If a decision on the amount of the fee has not been made, it is established by local governments or state authorities.
It turns out that everything is clear - all residents must pay for the maintenance of the common property of the apartment building in proportion to the area of the premises they own. There is nothing to argue about. But…
Let's tell you a story about a man who went to the Constitutional Court. And you can draw your own conclusions.
