DC now requires one elevator running whenever a building is occupied
DC now requires one elevator running whenever a building is occupied
2026-09-09 · District of Columbia · Compliance
A District of Columbia building with passenger elevators must keep at least one of them running whenever the building is occupied. That duty applies regardless of how many floors the building has — which is a change in practice, because the older rule most managers worked from reached only buildings of five or more floors.
The Department of Buildings settled the question in Administrative Bulletin 2025-03, issued September 15, 2025 and effective on publication in the DC Register on September 26, 2025.1
The rule the bulletin settles
The bulletin's core statement is a choice of law: “DOB enforces the elevator and heating/cooling provisions of Title 12-G when conducting housing and property maintenance enforcement.” It applies to the Office of Strategic Code Enforcement, the Office of Residential Inspections and the Vacant and Blighted Property Program.
Three operative standards follow.
Elevators — 12-G DCMR § 606.6. “In buildings equipped with passenger elevators, at least one elevator shall be maintained in operation at all times when the building is occupied.” There is an exception for a single-elevator building whose elevator is temporarily out of service for testing, maintenance or repair. The displaced Title 14 provision reached only buildings of five or more floors.
Heat — 12-G DCMR § 602.3. Heat must be supplied from no later than October 1 through no earlier than May 1, maintaining not less than 68°F in all habitable rooms, bathrooms and toilet rooms. The winter outdoor design temperature for the District is 17°F. Two-pipe systems get an October 15 start. The displaced Title 14 rule used a 68°F day and 65°F night split.
Cooling — 12-G DCMR § 608.1. Where air conditioning is provided as a service, it must be capable of delivering, from no later than May 15 through no earlier than September 15, the greater of 78°F or at least 15°F below the outside temperature. Two-pipe systems start June 1.
The Department reserves discretion to rely on Title 14 in coordination with other agencies.
What changes for a DC association
Small elevator buildings are now squarely covered. This is the practical headline. A four-storey District condominium with a single elevator previously had a colourable argument that the housing-code elevator duty did not reach it. Under 12-G § 606.6 as the Department enforces it, that argument is gone: the building has a passenger elevator, and one must be in operation whenever the building is occupied.
The exception is narrow and worth reading precisely. It covers a single-elevator building whose elevator is temporarily out of service for testing, maintenance or repair. It is not a general excuse for a modernisation project that runs for months, and a board planning a cab or controller replacement should think about phasing, temporary provision and resident communication as a compliance matter, not only a service one.
The cooling season is now a bright line. Associations that provide air conditioning as a service — typically two-pipe buildings that switch the system seasonally — have a date range and a temperature standard rather than a judgement call. May 15 to September 15, at 78°F or 15°F below ambient, whichever is greater. Two-pipe systems start June 1.
Anyone who has run a two-pipe building knows the annual argument: an unseasonably warm week in early May, a board that has not switched over, and a stream of complaints. The date settles it.
Heat is a single standard, not day and night. The move from a 68°F day / 65°F night split to a flat 68°F requirement is a real tightening for buildings that set back overnight. Boards running night setback to save energy should check the resulting overnight temperature in habitable rooms — particularly given the District's simultaneous pressure to reduce energy consumption under its performance standards. Those two obligations pull against each other and the board has to satisfy both.
Who this reaches inside a condominium
A point of precision. Title 12-G's housing and property-maintenance provisions are enforced against those responsible for the premises. In a condominium, the elevator and the central heating and cooling plant are common elements, and the association is responsible for them. An individual unit owner who rents their unit has their own obligations as a housing provider, but the elevator duty and the central-system duties sit with the association.
That makes the compliance calendar a board item: switchover dates in the minutes, a maintenance contract that supports the availability standard, and a plan for what happens when the single elevator fails.
What to watch next
Two things.
The District is rewriting its construction codes wholesale, with the Property Maintenance code — Title 12-G — among the twelve categories in scope and proposed rules expected from late 2026 with a 45-day comment period. The standards above are the ones on the table. That process is covered in our report on the code modernisation.
And elevator certification itself moved agencies in October 2025 — a separate change with its own paperwork consequences, covered in our report on conveyance certificates.
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