Articles

Elevator Reliability

Are you a building owner or manager?

If your property is used partially or entirely for residential occupancy, these new regulations could affect you. New regulations will be enforced starting July 1, 2022.

Stay informed with Solucore to avoid liability.

If you are a building owner or manager, you need to know about Ontario Regulation 290/21 which was filed on April 16, 2021 and comes into effect on July 1, 2022, the day subsection 22 (2) of the Access to Consumer Credit Reports and Elevator Availability Act, 2018 comes into force.

What is Ontario Regulation 290/21?

Last year, Ontario's 20,000 elevators in residential and institutional buildings were the subject of an in-depth study. These included long-term care and retirement homes in addition to any buildings with residential units, and was led by retired justice Douglas Cunningham, who made 19 recommendations in his final report . The Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) is starting to implement these recommendations, hence O.Reg.290/21.

O. Reg. 290/21 is part of the Elevator Reliability Act, 2018. The private member Bill 109 that was introduced by Liberal backbencher Han Dong in 2017 never made it into the third and final reading and as such was not enacted in Ontario. However, after last year’s study, that has changed, and it could affect you and your business.

Why should you care?

On July 1 2022, if an elevator in a long-term care home or a building that is used partially or entirely for residential occupancy experiences an outage, the owner of the elevator is required to submit a report to the TSSA no later than 30 days after the day the elevator is returned to service.

According to the legislation, the following information must be provided:

1. The address of the premises where the elevator is installed.
2. The number of elevators in the building.
3. The installation number allocated to the elevator.
4. The number of floors which the elevator serves.
5. The date and time that the outage started and ended.
6. The cause of the outage, including any factor that prolonged the elevator being out of service.
7. The year in which the elevator was installed.
8. If a major alteration has been made to the elevator, the date that the elevator was returned to service after undergoing the most recent major alteration.
9. If the elevator’s control system has been replaced, the date that the most recent replacement occurred.
10. The intervals at which the elevator undergoes maintenance.
11. The name of the manufacturer of the elevator.
12. The name of the manufacturer of the elevator’s control system.
13. The name of the contractor who maintains the elevator.
14. In respect of a contractor who repaired the elevator during the outage:
    1. The name of the contractor.
    2. The date and time that the contractor was first contacted about the outage.
    3. The date and time that the contractor first attended the premises after being contacted about the outage.

The TSSA will publish on its website the information referred to above. Which means that your elevator’s performance will be publicised on their website and the users can login and see how your elevators are performing which can impact the value of your business (if you rent or if you have a hotel or retirement home) and your property value.

What can you do?

The idea behind this potential public shaming is to put pressure on property owners to make sure that they are managing the elevator contractors in line with regulations. Owners are most helpless when their elevator contractors are not doing their due diligence. When contractors don’t have the professional know-how, your hands could be tied and you will either need to upgrade your elevators and jump through various hoops provided by the elevator company, or endure the consequences of the poor reputation your building could receive resulting in negative impact on your business. Solucore wants to prevent these issues before they arise. See the bottom of the article to learn how.

As elevator experts we recommend the following:

1. Make sure that you are working with reputable elevator consultants that can confidently guide you in the right direction, eliminating future liability concerns.
2. Your elevator maintenance agreement is paramount in enforcing stipulations with the elevator company to ensure they are doing their due diligence. Your maintenance agreement should be on paper (you provide the maintenance agreement to the elevator company.) Do not sign the agreement presented by the elevator contractor. This will give you the flexibility to take action when needed.
3. Do not sign an agreement that has an automatic renewal. Automatic renewal agreements are not good for your business as it does not allow you to have an end date and keeps you locked in a potentially disadvantageous contract.
4. Ensure that your maintenance agreement gives you an “out” for poor performance or for modernization.
5. Meet with your elevator maintenance provider monthly or quarterly to discuss issues, or to ensure that there are no outstanding problems with the elevator maintenance.
6. Perform annual maintenance inspections if you have a reliability issue, and for newer elevators (ten years or less,) perform these inspections once every two to three years for best future outcomes and to avoid liability concerns.
7. Prepare an action plan to deal with consultant deficiency reports/TSSA reports.
8. Prepare a capital upgrade program that would assist you in renewing the elevators.

What happens if I do not inform the TSSA?

Neglected sites might not report the incident and the building could potentially claim that to their knowledge, the elevator(s) were not out of service for 48 hours. Doing this could make it difficult for the TSSA to know precisely how long the elevator(s) were out of service for, as it’s known that most people exaggerate the duration of disruption.

It’s important to note however, that the TSSA receives a notification at the time of the outages, and they receive notifications of complaints from building tenants. These complaints could trigger the TSSA to complete a review of the site, or to audit the equipment. If their investigation reveals that there was an outage (through information obtained from tenant complaints or the elevator company,) and it is concluded that the building did not provide this report, then the TSSA could issue orders. These orders would be given against the building owner, the building manager and/or fines could be given to the property for the violation. Repeat violations could expose the building owner and manager to liabilities which could prove detrimental to the reputation of the site, management company and cause significant financial burden.

How can Solucore help?

The good news is- we can help! Solucore has developed technology that monitors when an elevator is removed from service. This technology allows us to track and inform our clients when an elevator is out of service for a set period of time, in order to make the corrections immediately. Our clients and team members will be notified so that immediate action is taken, keeping your business’s reputation pristine.

In addition to our cutting-edge technology, we also provide maintenance monitoring tools and preventative maintenance contracts/programs. These services ensure that your elevators are never neglected, your business’s public reputation remains unaffected by the new online reporting system, and your status with the TSSA stays in good standing.

¹https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/010209
²https://icreate.tssa.org/230002_iCreate_NewsV2//Management/Attachment/Download/c8cd11c8-9de8-4a6e-80e3-43b41c9b7f15
³https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/r21290
⁴https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-41/session-2/bill-109