Appleton, WI Building Safety: Elevator Maintenance (2026)

Section 4-236, the housing code's general maintenance article, lists elevator servicing among the baseline requirements every structure in Appleton must satisfy. Subsection (15) requires that all structures in the city serviced by an elevator have Certificates of Inspection and a license on file with the Inspection Supervisor, filed quarterly, not once at installation. The subsection carries its own automatic penalty: failure by the owner or operator to keep that quarterly filing current is, by the text of the ordinance itself, sufficient evidence to designate such structure as unfit for human habitation.

That finding pulls in the rest of Article IV's enforcement machinery. Under section 4-183(d), once the Inspection Supervisor determines a building, structure, dwelling unit or equipment is unfit under sections 4-235 and 4-236, and the owner or occupant fails to discontinue the affected use within the time the Supervisor sets, the Supervisor refers the matter to the City Attorney, who institutes court action to compel compliance. The Supervisor may also placard the building with a notice at every entrance stating that its use or occupancy is prohibited, and that placard stays up until the required repairs, alterations or elevator recertification are complete.

Because the unfit-for-habitation designation reaches the whole structure and not just the elevator shaft, an apartment building, office tower or hotel with an out-of-date elevator certificate risks being closed to occupants entirely until the Certificates of Inspection are current again and refiled with the Inspection Supervisor.