City of Chicago Annual Inspection Certification [AIC] Program

Earlier in the week we received a few phone calls and emails from our customers saying they can be inspected with the AIC program.  Previously this was only allowed in the Central Business District; Roosevelt to Division to Halsted.  The new rule is if a building has passed their last annual inspection by the City of Chicago they are allowed to participate in self-inspections.  What this means is the buildings can hire an inspection firm to inspect their elevators annually so they can have a current certificate in the elevator.  

What is the AIC program?  The AIC program was started in the Central Business District; Roosevelt to Division to Halsted.  A building owner signed into a web portal, choose an inspector, inspector came out cited violations or passed them through the web portal.  The owner then would print out their certificates. Any inspection firm with a State of Illinois license is allowed to complete elevator inspections in the City of Chicago.   I would encourage a building owner to contact a inspection firm prior to assigning them their building to negotiate price.

What is currently occurring is that there are not enough City of Chicago Elevator Inspectors to get to each building annually.  The City Inspectors not only have 25,000+ conveyances to inspect annually but they have new construction, modernization and other permitted work to take in.  The inspectors are also responsible for amusement park rides.  

Are there enough elevator inspectors to do this work? The inspection firms in the rest of Illinois are very busy with their towns, open areas and some City work.  Many licensed inspectors work for contractors and do not do inspections, they do contracting work.  At this time some of the larger inspection firms have passed on this work.  I spoke to some inspection firms who did not get notified by the City that this was the path they were going to take and were surprised.

If you have any questions or would like information from Colley Elevator you can go to www.colleyelevator.com, email Craigz@colleyelevator.com or call 630-766-7230.