As your Elevator Servicing Company, we are informing you that the NYC Department of Buildings has adopted a new mandated requirement for all existing automatic passenger and freight elevators – Door Lock Monitoring. All elevators under the NYC Department of Buildings jurisdiction must comply with this new requirement by January 1, 2020.

DOOR LOCK MONITORING CODE REQUIREMENT

The Requirement is in Appendix K3, Rule 3.10.12. In summary, the position of car doors must be monitored to prevent the two following issues:

• To prevent operation of the car if the car door is not closed, regardless of whether the car-door contact and interlock contact circuits are open or closed (excluding access switch operation and inspection operation).
• To prevent power closing of the doors if the door is open and the car door contact circuit is closed or bypassed, or if the interlock circuit is closed. Primarily, this determines if jumpers or other means of bypassing normal door operation are being used.

The types of elevators affected by this change are elevators wit power operated car doors that are:

• Mechanically coupled with the landing doors
• Opposite manually operated swing type landing doors

The NYC Department of Buildings can impose substantial penalties and possibly shut down elevators that do not comply with these rules by the effective date.

• Permits will need to be filed, material will need to be ordered, technicians will need to be scheduled, and your elevator will be out of service for the period of times it takes to install, test and sign off on this new equipment.
• In some cases, your equipment may not be able to accept the products needed to retrofit and comply with this new code. If this is the case, you will need modernization of your elevator controller.
• Unfortunately, the cost of this work can range from $8,500.00 to $25,000.00 depending on the age and type of equipment. Every elevator in NYC is required to have this feature.

We understand this is not welcomed news but we must comply with NYC Code. Our goal is to complete these upgrades quickly and efficiently so that you will be in compliance by the effective date. We will be checking your elevator devices to determine what type of upgrade will be required to be in compliance and you will be notified of our proposed work. Please reach out to us with any questions or concerns.