Connecticut just changed the rules for your elevators
Connecticut's new residential elevator law took effect October 1, and Pennsylvania's code update lands December 20. Here is what each one requires from you, plus Illinois's next move.
THE SIGNAL
Connecticut's new elevator law is live, and it has your name on it
On October 1, Connecticut's sSB 369, An Act Establishing Various Requirements Regarding Elevators, took effect. It applies to residential elevator buildings: any Connecticut building wholly or partly used for residential purposes with at least one elevator used to enter or exit any floor above or below the ground floor, including a garage. Municipal and state-owned buildings and buildings under an active remodeling permit are excluded.
Owners must keep every elevator in continuous working order under the Connecticut Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators, and give tenants 24 hours of advance written notice before scheduled maintenance. When an elevator is first reported inoperable and not restored to service, the clock starts. Within 24 hours, every tenant served by that elevator gets written notice stating the cause if known, the estimated repair time if known, a contact for status updates, and the local building official's contact information for reporting violations. Within 48 hours, the owner must file the tenant notice plus a repair plan prepared by a licensed elevator contractor (cause, nature of repair, expected completion date) with the local building official, then follow the periodic-update plan until the car is back in service.
Every elevator also needs posted signage near the call buttons, no higher than 60 inches from the floor, in English and Spanish, directing people to dial 911 in an emergency or to call the municipality if there is no working elevator for 48 straight hours. Enforcement is real: building officials investigate complaints and can demand compliance within five days; violations carry up to $250 for a first offense and up to $1,000 plus possible jail time for repeat offenses, and the state can order more frequent inspections, revoke the operating certificate, or stop the car.
What this means for you: If you manage residential property in Connecticut, four moves this week. Post the bilingual signage at every car; it is the cheapest item on this list. Write a 24-hour and 48-hour outage procedure and put it in your on-call binder, because the notice and filing clocks start from the first tenant report, not from when you get around to it. Get a written repair plan from your elevator contractor fast when an outage hits; your maintenance contract's callback-time and emergency-response clauses just became a compliance tool, so read them now while nothing is broken. And keep a timestamped outage log with every report, notice, and filing. That paper trail is what stands between you and a fine.
Source: Connecticut General Assembly (OLR bill analysis)
INDUSTRY WATCH
Pennsylvania's new elevator code lands December 20, and annual testing starts in 2027
Pennsylvania adopted ASME A17.1-2016, effective December 20, 2026. Hydraulic elevators and escalators move from three-year cycles to annual CAT1 testing, and traction elevators get an annual CAT1 no-load test too. Even a fresh 2025 or 2026 pressure test does not buy you out of 2027's CAT1. The two routine inspections stay in place, so budget for the extra witness time plus fire-alarm and generator coordination, and review your maintenance and inspection contracts now. Modernization or new-install permits approved on or after December 20, 2026 will be built to the 2016 code.
Source: VDA (Van Deusen & Associates)
Illinois is lining up door lock monitoring for every elevator by 2029
When Illinois (outside Chicago) adopts A17.1-2022, elevators permitted for installation or modernization after January 1, 2026 will need door lock monitoring, and every elevator will need it by January 1, 2029, with no grandfathering for older equipment. DLM catches the dangerous case: a car that moves before its doors are fully locked. If you own Illinois property with pre-2026 equipment, price this into your next modernization scope now instead of meeting it as a surprise change order.
Source: Elevator World
THE DEEP CUT
When the car stops between floors: your entrapment response plan
Every elevator traps someone eventually. It happens overnight in apartment buildings and mid-morning in hotels, and the first ten minutes decide whether it is an incident or an injury. Write the plan before you need it. It fits on one page.
First, the phone. Every car needs a working two-way emergency phone, and you need to test it monthly, not annually. When the doors do not open, tenants hit the call button. If nobody answers, they try to force the doors or climb out. That is how people get hurt. Your plan should name exactly who picks up: your elevator company's 24-hour emergency dispatch number, printed on the sheet. Not your office line, which nobody answers at 2 AM. Call 911 for any medical issue, or when you cannot get a mechanic rolling within a reasonable time.
Second, the script for whoever talks to the people inside. Three sentences: stay calm, do not touch the doors, help is on the way with a real ETA. Then keep someone on that phone or at the landing, talking, until the car is released. Silence breeds self-rescue.
Third, the information you collect while the mechanic is rolling: which car, which floor, how many people inside, anyone with a medical condition, and the exact time it started. Log all of it in writing. If the outage stretches past a day, Connecticut's new law now requires written tenant notice within 24 hours and a contractor repair plan filed with the building official within 48. Your log is the raw material for both.
Fourth, the rule nobody argues with: building staff do not pry doors, do not reset the car, do not let the super take a look. Only the elevator mechanic or the fire department opens that car. Put it in writing now, while everyone is calm, so nobody has to decide under pressure.
Run a ten-minute drill with your on-call staff this month. The next entrapment will not wait for you to Google it.
Run your contract through the free Contract Scanner
Free tool: the Contract Scanner
This issue was all about new code deadlines, so here is the obvious move. Upload your service contract and the Scanner flags the code-compliance exclusions, the uncapped escalations, and the auto-renewal traps before your 2027 budget locks them in.
P.S. Want more than a flag? The Decode report is a full line-by-line breakdown of your specific agreement, including the exclusions and the triggered-code exposure, for $29.