Ames, IA Building Safety: Elevator Maintenance (2026)

Sec. 13.705, Elevators, is one of the shortest but most specific rules in the Rental Housing Code's Division VII, Mechanical and Electrical Requirements. It sets a single operational standard: in a building equipped with passenger elevators, at least one elevator must be kept running at all times the building is occupied, so tenants in multi-story rental housing always have working vertical access. The only carve-out applies to buildings with just one elevator, which may be taken temporarily out of service for testing or servicing, a necessary allowance since a single-elevator building has no backup while the unit is worked on.

The rule sits alongside the division's general duty in Sec. 13.700, which puts the owner on the hook for maintaining mechanical equipment, including elevators, in compliance with the chapter and bars anyone from occupying a structure that fails those requirements. Because Sec. 13.705 falls within the Minimum Property Maintenance Standards the Inspection Division reviews before issuing or renewing a Letter of Compliance under Sec. 13.302, an out-of-service elevator beyond the testing exception is a deficiency the owner must correct, and taking every elevator in a multi-elevator building offline at once is not permitted under any circumstance the section describes.