Ridgewood, NJ Building Safety: Elevator Maintenance (2026)

Chapter 223 of the Village Code, titled the 'Existing Structures Code of the Village of Ridgewood,' sets minimum maintenance standards for every existing structure in the Village, Bergen County, and Article XVI, Mechanical and Electrical Facilities, closes with § 223-118, Elevators, escalators and dumbwaiters. The section opens with a general duty: elevators, dumbwaiters and escalators must be maintained to safely sustain their loads, operate properly, and stay free of physical and fire hazards. It then adds a specific occupancy rule for passenger elevators: in any building equipped with passenger elevators, at least one elevator must be kept running whenever the building is occupied, so a landlord cannot idle every car during business hours to save on service contracts.

The only carve-out is for a building with just one elevator, which may be taken temporarily out of service for testing and servicing, but nothing broader. Enforcement runs through § 223-8, which assigns the Director of Buildings and Inspections, the Code Enforcement Officer, or another Village-Manager-designated employee to enforce the whole Existing Structures Code, elevators included. Because Article XVI carries no elevator-specific fine, a violation falls to the Village's general penalty clause at § 1-15A: a fine of up to $1,000, up to 90 days in the county jail, or up to 90 days of community service, and § 1-15C makes each day the condition continues a separate offense.

This is a Village of Ridgewood ordinance, not the New Jersey elevator safety code administered by the state, and it applies only inside the Village, not in Glen Rock, Ho-Ho-Kus, or any other Bergen County municipality.