Regular maintenance and checking of the safety of elevators is of utmost importance, but a big number of building owners who are unwilling to spend money on this ignore the issue. Civil Defense and the municipality, on the other hand, also never arranged visits to buildings in order to check the safety measures applied there.
Arab News spoke to several building owners who confirmed that elevator checkups are a must, but the high cost is reason for them to ignore it.
“I own five buildings which have one elevator each. I never contracted a company for the periodic maintenance of the elevators because of the high cost. The charge ranges from SR4,000 to SR6,000 per elevator. Companies increase the cost in accordance with the height of the building. Such unlimited costs discourage me from hiring any company,” said Hamad Al-Zahrani, a Saudi landlord.
Marwan Al-Youssefi, general manager of a residential building group in Jeddah, confirmed that he was responsible for six buildings, each with six floors. He said that he paid about SR30,000 a year for the maintenance of elevators. “When the owner bought the buildings, she contracted a maintenance company that took care of the elevators annually. The company asked for SR5,000 per elevator,” he said.
Al-Youssefi agreed that taking care of the elevator was not an important issue for many building owners. “Building owners mostly teach the guard what to do if the elevator breaks down.”
Abdullah Al-Qurashi, owner of two buildings, confirmed that he had never maintained or even checked the elevators. “As I do not live in the buildings that I own, I never thought about the need for maintenance.”
He did not know whether the buildings’ guards were taking care of the issue.
Jamal Basiouni, supervisor of elevators’ maintenance in a private company, confirmed that most of their customers were hotels, furnished apartments, companies and malls. “We never received a building owner who is looking to contract us for annual checkups, except for those who bought elevators from us.” He thought that some landlords preferred to deal with a mechanic without contracting a company. “This would be much cheaper,” Basiouni said.
All proprietors who spoke to Arab News confirmed that they had never been investigated or visited by the municipality or Civil Defense teams to check on building maintenance and safety measures.
Ruwida Al-Hwamde, a Jordanian living in a third-floor apartment in Jeddah, confirmed that she disliked elevators because they were always damaged. “Our building’s elevator sometimes stops suddenly for a few minutes, and then it works again. I prefer not to use it because of its bad maintenance. My husband, however, never asked the building owner to check the elevator, because he is afraid that the owner will increase the rent,” she said.
Saleh Al-Kathiri, a Saudi resident living on the third floor of a building, stressed that he had never thought about elevator maintenance. He did not check the elevator when he started renting his apartment and did not ask the landlord whether he checked the elevator regularly or not. Later, he discovered that the elevator always malfunctioned “because of the heavy loads residents are putting in the elevator.” He noticed that neither the building owner nor the residents were aware of the safety measures that should be taken in the elevator. “They don’t care if it works or not. For example, when it stops they get out with the guard’s help and then use it again once it is fixed.”
