An elevator maintenance contract is a vital piece to the upkeep of all vertical transportation/elevator equipment. The terms and conditions of a maintenance contract can quite literally make or break the life of the equipment.
Elevator maintenance contracts are written by the elevator service provider with terms and conditions in their own favor. Most building owners and property managers have little-to-no technical and mechanical elevator knowledge and therefore cannot properly decipher what equipment and parts are covered in their elevator maintenance contract.
This commonly results in excessive elevator maintenance charges. It is common to see terms written in such a way that they are intentionally confusing. There is no oversight or accountability for the elevator service provider to ensure that their contractually obligated maintenance is even being performed. The elevator maintenance contracts contain stipulations of elevator components covered for repair and/or replacement and talk about elevator part obsolescence.