Elevator, ventilation, fire protection: one building, one file.

Elevators are inspected by an approved inspection body, not by the service company. The main inspection recurs. As the operator, you set the interval in your risk assessment, but it must not exceed two years. In the middle of the inspection period comes the intermediate inspection, also by the inspection body. It consists of visual and simple functional checks of the safety devices and the inspection of selected safety-relevant components. With a two-year interval, it falls about one year after the main inspection.

If the inspection body considers your interval too long, you shorten it in agreement with the body. If you disagree, the authority decides. For elevators, too, an inspection may take place up to two months after the due date without counting as late. In the car, a marking must be clearly visible that shows the month and year of the next recurring inspection and who inspects, usually as an inspection sticker.

After a change that requires inspection, the inspection body must inspect before the elevator runs again. vi reads the inspection report and enters the main inspection and the intermediate inspection into the calendar.

Three things are yours, regardless of the maintenance company and the inspection body.

First, the emergency call and the emergency plan. A two-way communication system must work in the car, and through it an emergency service must be reachable at all times. The emergency plan must contain at least: the location of the installation, details of the responsible employer, persons with access to all parts of the installation, persons who can free trapped people, contact data for first aid, the expected start of a rescue and the rescue instructions. If a phone number or a contact person changes, the plan and the call connection change with it.

Second, the regular check for obvious defects. That is a visual check by an instructed person, for example the building caretaker, against a fixed list. How often is something you set in the risk assessment, and you should record the result in writing.

Third, maintenance. It depends on the type and intensity of use. A heavily used elevator needs more attention than one that rarely runs. That belongs in the maintenance contract and not in a flat rate. In addition, the machine room may only be accessible to authorized persons, and no equipment that endangers safe operation may be placed in the immediate area of the installation.

A full-service contract covers repairs and spare parts as well as maintenance, and that is exactly the catch for the statement. Under the Ordinance on Operating Costs, operating costs are the ongoing costs that arise from the intended use. Expressly excluded are maintenance and repair costs, meaning the costs of fixing defects caused by wear, aging and weather.

For the elevator, § 2 no. 7 lists as chargeable: operating power, supervision, operation, monitoring and care, the regular testing of operational readiness and safety including adjustment by a specialist, and cleaning. Repairs and parts are not on that list.

In practice, the share for repairs and parts must be taken out of the full-service price before the rest is passed on to tenants, as far as the lease allows charging operating costs. The cleanest case is a contract that prices maintenance, fault clearing and parts separately. Without that split, all that remains is an estimate, and that can lead to disputes. Also make sure that no repairs are billed on top of full service that the contract already covers. vi separates maintenance from repair in contracts and invoices and shows the shares for each building. You prepare the statement itself.

Two separate duties apply to air-conditioning systems in buildings.

The first is the energy inspection under the Building Energy Act. It applies to air-conditioning systems and combined air-conditioning and ventilation systems with a nominal output for cooling demand of more than 12 kilowatts. The first inspection is due in the tenth year after commissioning or after the renewal of essential components such as heat exchanger, fan or refrigeration machine, and then at the latest every ten years. You have an authorized person carry it out. There are exceptions, for example for non-residential buildings with building automation under § 56 paragraph 5.

The second is the leak check under the F-gas Regulation. It covers systems with fluorinated greenhouse gases from 5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Hermetically sealed, correspondingly labeled equipment below 10 tonnes of CO2 equivalent is excluded. The interval depends on the charge: below 50 tonnes at least every twelve months, or every 24 months with a leakage detection system installed. Between 50 and 500 tonnes it is six and twelve months. Certified personnel carry out the check.

The two duties are independent, but the appointments can be combined. vi reads the refrigerant and charge from the equipment log and derives the interval.

The operator is whoever uses the installation for commercial or economic purposes. For a rented building, that is usually the owner. The Industrial Safety Ordinance states explicitly that such operators are treated like employers. The duties for inspection, defect correction, emergency call and maintenance therefore rest with them.

In practice, the property manager takes over the tasks: ordering inspection appointments, steering service companies, initiating repairs, organizing the emergency service. Tasks can be delegated, but the duty to see that they are done stays with the operator. That is why the management contract should say who does what by when. Put in writing who receives the inspection reports, who may approve defect repairs up to what amount, who can be reached for an emergency call and how quickly the owner is told about defects with a deadline.

This matters more than it sounds. Inspection reports often go to the manager. If the owner does not see them, the defect appears again in the report at the next inspection. A shared overview of all installations with deadlines and responsibilities prevents that. vi assigns inspection reports and defects to the building and shows who has to do what by when.

Start with the terms. Under basic maintenance, the company owes the regular maintenance work according to the manufacturer's instructions and a work plan, and fault clearing and parts come extra. Full service includes repairs and spare parts, usually with exceptions. These terms are not fixed legal concepts, so the description of services decides. Read the list of exclusions with particular care, because that is where it is decided what is really covered when something breaks.

Also clarify how often maintenance takes place and whether that follows the use, since the law requires maintenance that takes the type and intensity of use into account. Clarify who answers the emergency call, what response time applies for faults and for freeing trapped people, what happens at night and on weekends and what that costs. Ask who pays if the emergency call transmission has to be converted because mobile networks are switched off. And read how price adjustment works and when the contract ends if it renews silently.

Prices are only comparable if the services are. Put side by side what is included, how many stops and trips the installation has and how old it is. A low price with a long exclusion list is rarely cheap. vi reads services and prices from each contract and compares them with similar installations.

Three changes affect buildings directly.

First, the F-gas Regulation (EU) 2024/573. Since January 1, 2026, the use of F-gases with a global warming potential of 2,500 or more for the maintenance or servicing of air-conditioning equipment and heat pumps has been prohibited. Reclaimed or recycled gases are allowed under certain conditions until January 1, 2032. In practice: if an older system with such a refrigerant leaks, you may not simply top it up with virgin gas. You should know the refrigerant and its global warming potential for each system and plan the conversion or replacement in good time.

Second, the Cyber Resilience Act. Building automation, access control, fire alarm and ventilation controls with a network connection are products with digital elements. Manufacturers must handle vulnerabilities over a support period of normally at least five years. Reporting duties have applied since September 11, 2026, and all other obligations apply from December 11, 2027.

Third, the Data Act. It gives operators a claim to the data of their connected installations and the right to have it passed to a service company of their choice. That matters if the manufacturer or a service partner has so far kept operating data to itself. Check the data clauses in new contracts.