Expired elevator permits legally operational after UCLA contacts inspectors

UCLA has contacted state inspectors to schedule elevator inspections for 2014, meaning numerous elevators with expired permits are legally operational until an updated permit is issued.

As the Daily Bruin reported in November 2013, many permits posted in elevators on campus were expired or not posted. Some buildings’ elevators had posted permits with expiration dates as far back as 2007.

The Division of Occupational Safety and Health’s Title 8 regulations requires up-to-date inspection to be conspicuously posted in elevators. Fines of up to $1,000 per elevator can be levied on building owners who fail to post updated and valid permits.

Erik Ulstrup, manager of electrical systems at UCLA, said last week he contacted inspectors before the winter break to schedule inspections for later this year.

Though the inspectors have been contacted, Ulstrup said the inspectors are still working out their schedule for the year and have not given a tentative start date for inspections.

Peter Melton, a spokesman for the California Department of Industrial Relations, said if an inspection is in the process of being scheduled, even expired permits are valid until the new inspections happen.

UCLA’s last inspections took place from September 2012 to January 2013, when a single inspector was escorted around and individually checked more than 300 elevators on campus.

The large amount of elevators in need of inspection relative to the small amount of inspectors available often leads to long wait times between inspections, during which permits often expire, Melton said.

Compiled by Kevin Truong, Bruin senior staff.

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