Arlington County, VA Building Safety: Elevator Maintenance (2026)
Key Facts
- Elevator/boiler inspection
- Annual, per § 29-2
- Electrical PM program
- Five-year cycle, § 29-2
- Enforcing official
- Building Official (County Manager designee)
- Adopted code
- VUSBC Volume II, Building Maintenance Code
- General penalty
- Up to $2,500 fine or 30 days jail
- Code available at
- Community Inspections Offices, 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
Summary
Arlington County Code Chapter 29 puts the Building Official in charge of the county's mandatory annual inspection of elevators and boilers, plus a five-year electrical preventive maintenance program, under the adopted state Building Maintenance Code. The County Manager's designee enforces these standards on top of the separately enforced Fire Prevention Code.
“Code Official” means the County Manager or his designee who shall be responsible for the enforcement of Volume II, Building Maintenance Code, relating to health and sanitary matters, heat, hot water, security locks, air conditioning, painting, and maintenance and care of buildings and structures. The Building Official shall be the Code Official who is responsible for technical decisions for building, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical systems and equipment; unsafe structures; and annual inspection of elevators, boilers and the five-year electrical preventive maintenance program.
Full Breakdown
Chapter 29, the Building Maintenance Standards chapter, adopts the Virginia Uniform Statewide Building Code, Volume II, Building Maintenance Code, under § 29-3. " The same section separately makes the Building Official and Fire Marshal jointly responsible for annual full-Code inspections of commercial and highrise buildings, so an elevator inside one of those buildings is checked both on its own equipment-specific annual cycle and as part of the building's broader annual review. Enforcement authority comes from § 29-7: the County Manager or a designee inspects on complaint, as part of a systematic area program, or on the official's own initiative, and may enter with the owner or tenant's consent.
If an owner or tenant refuses entry, the County Manager can petition a court for an order authorizing the inspection on a showing of probable cause. E lets the County Manager declare a public emergency and order the County to abate, repair, or raze the building. B.
Violations & Fines
Chapter 29 sets no elevator-specific fine, so the general penalty at Arlington County Code § 1-6 controls: a fine up to $2,500, imprisonment in the County Jail up to 30 days, or both, with each day the violation continues counted as a separate offense. Where conditions are an imminent threat, the County Manager can bypass the fine track and order immediate abatement, repair, or razing under § 29-7.E.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Sources & Official References
Other rules in Arlington County
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