Your elevator just went down. Maybe it's Monday morning. Maybe you have tenants trapped. Whatever triggered it, the next two hours determine whether this is an inconvenience or a liability event.
This is your action plan. Keep it where you can find it.
Step 1: Is Anyone Trapped?
If yes, call 911 immediately. Do not attempt to rescue trapped passengers yourself. Do not force the doors. Fire departments handle elevator rescues regularly; they have the tools and training. Untrained door-forcing attempts can result in serious injury if the cab is not level with the floor.
While waiting, stay on the phone with trapped passengers. Keep them calm. Confirm the cab has ventilation. Give them a realistic time estimate (don't promise five minutes if you don't know).
If no one is trapped, post signage on every affected floor immediately. "Elevator Out of Service" at every call button. Tenants who don't see signage will call the cab, assume it's broken, and blame you for not communicating.
Step 2: Call Your Elevator Service Company
Call the 24/7 emergency dispatch number, not the account manager. This should be in your contract and on your emergency contact sheet. If you don't have it memorized, find it now.
When you call, have ready:
- Building address
- Elevator unit number
- What the cab is doing (or not doing)
- Whether anyone was trapped
- Time the outage began
Ask for a specific ETA. Get a name. Write it down with the time you called.
If your FM (Full Maintenance) contract includes guaranteed response times, note whether they meet it. For an elevator down (not an entrapment), expect 3-4 hours response time. If they haven't seen a technician in 4 hours, a follow-up call to the local office will provide a more accurate ETA than the call center - local offices know their techs' schedules, while call centers are usually located at corporate headquarters in a different state. Track response performance; this becomes important at renewal.
Step 3: Document Everything
This is the step most property managers skip; it's the one that matters most when things get complicated.
Start a written log from the moment the elevator went down:
- Time of failure and who reported it first
- Time you called and who you spoke to
- ETA given and whether they met it
- Technician arrival time
- Diagnosis in plain language (ask what caused it and whether it was foreseeable)
- Parts needed and whether they're covered under your contract
- Restoration time or estimated date
Why does this matter? Two reasons.
First, it protects you legally. If a tenant is injured during a prolonged outage (falls on a stairwell, misses a medical appointment), your documented response shows you acted promptly. Undocumented inaction looks like negligence, even when it isn't.
Second, it gives you leverage at contract renewal. Slow response times, repeated failures of the same component, parts that weren't covered under a "full maintenance" contract: all of this becomes negotiating data.
Step 4: Communicate With Tenants
Silence is the enemy. Tenants who don't hear from you assume the worst. Get ahead of it.
One email or text to all building tenants within the first hour:
- Factual: "The elevator is currently out of service as of [time]."
- Actionable: "Please use the stairwells."
- Estimated: "We've contacted [company] and expect repair by [time range]."
- Committed: "We'll provide an update by [specific time]."
Then deliver that update, even if it's "still out, waiting on parts." Tenants who get regular updates feel managed. Tenants who hear nothing escalate to lawyers.
ADA-dependent tenants: Contact them directly. Offer to arrange alternative access. An extended outage without accommodation for mobility-impaired tenants is an ADA exposure.
Step 5: Know Your Escalation Path
If the elevator company can't restore service within a reasonable window, escalate:
- Regional manager or operations director. Ask specifically: "Who is your operations director and can I speak with them today?"
- State elevator inspector. An extended outage on a required elevator (high-rise, ADA-only access) may require notification. If the technician shuts down the elevator for safety reasons, the state will red tag it. The elevator company may say it's "locked out," but "red tagged" is the state term (and the one you'll deal with, since property managers work with the state). Note: "lock out tag out" (LOTO) is a separate safety procedure for unsafe conditions.
- Your attorney. If they're claiming the repair isn't covered under your contract, you have a contract dispute. Get it in writing before authorizing a $15K repair invoice.
Step 6: After Restoration
Once the elevator is running, most PMs file the paperwork and move on. That's a mistake.
Before you close the loop:
Get the repair report in writing. What was replaced? What was the root cause?
Ask whether the failure was preventable. A simple question puts it on the table: "Was this something proactive maintenance should have caught?"
Pull your next inspection date. The state inspection certificate in the cab has a date. An elevator that just failed and was repaired should be running cleanly heading into that inspection.
What This Tells You About Your Contract
An elevator outage is a stress test. How fast did they respond? Was the failed component covered? Were parts available, or was your building down for days waiting on an order?
If the answers were unsatisfying, you have information you didn't have before. And a renewal conversation where that information has value.
Extended downtime can lead to entrapment situations. For extended outages lasting days or weeks, see our timeline guide for benchmarks and escalation paths.
ElevatorBlueprint is an independent resource for property managers navigating the elevator industry. We don't sell service contracts. We help you understand them.