New York City’s Department of Buildings has issued a new regulation for buildings with elevators in 2016. Effective January 1st of this year, the DOB is now requiring buildings to inspect and maintain their elevator machine brake every year. Not only is the brake to be inspected, but the building is now required to document and properly tag the elevator brake.

To avoid a violation from DOB, the following steps must be taken on each elevator, yearly:

1. The elevator machine brake must be disassembled for a full inspection;
2. The elevator machine brake can be reassembled if there is no damage or if there are no worn out parts;
3. Using simulation weights (125% of the elevator’s capacity) to perform brake adjustment to ensure the brake is operating properly.

If any brake repair is needed from the results of the above inspection and testing, the elevator is required to be shut down and the DOB is to be notified immediately. The elevator will not be permitted to be placed back in service until the repair is completed.

If your building has an elevator, you can expect to receive a proposal from your elevator company to perform the testing, which is estimated at four or more hours per elevator.