Breakdowns or elevator stops could be even more recurrent in 2025 and concern many French people.
Breakdowns, dysfunctions … The elevator problems are more and more frequent and penalize the French, particularly the inhabitants of the upper floors and the people with reduced mobility. According to a study From the Federation of elevators with Ipsos published in March 2024, nearly 8 in 10 French people regularly take the elevator and 28% even borrow it daily. They use it in particular to move heavy loads, accompany the elderly or young children.
Despite a growing need, especially due to the aging of the population, France is under-equipped in elevators with only 8 aircraft per 1000 inhabitants. This equipment is not, in addition, not very modern: out of 645,000 devices in operation, “25% are over 40 and 40% have exceeded 25 years”, deplores the federation in a press release.
In addition, a new difficulty will be added: the operators will close the 2G networks by the end of the year 2025 and 3G by the end of 2028. However, the telealarms of which are equipped nearly 50% of the elevators, Used by blocked users, work with such networks. If they are not updated, they will no longer respect the regulations and the devices must therefore be stopped.
This could thus concern 230,000 elevators equipped in 2G and 300,000 in total. And the alert federation: “The end of the 2G and 3G networks, planned in the very short term, will make very difficult, if not impossible, the upgrade (of telealarms) within the required deadlines”, taking into account the votes in condominiums which take Of course a lot of time.
Breakdowns could also multiply. Each year, 1.5 million elevator breakdowns are found on average, with approximately three calls per device per year. They intensify in particular because of vandalism. This is, on average, the reason of 25% to 40% of breakdowns. These are all these different points that the elevator federation considers neglected in the bill Presented on January 23, which mainly focuses on the intervention period in the event of a problem.
The text provides, in fact, from January 1, 2026, an “information obligation” when a problem manifests within two days by the owner of the building with a maintenance company. The latter will then have “an obligation of responsiveness” with two days to intervene and eight days to resolve the incident. If the claim is not resolved in two days, the company will have to offer a temporary solution to support residents with reduced mobility, especially for their races and their access to care. In the event of non-compliance, a penalty of 1000 euros will be applied per day of delay.
The federation of elevators considers, in its press release, that these requirements are unrealistic and therefore would limit interventions even more. This bill “brings the risk and the economic weight of the dilapidation of the elevator park and vandalism to the ascensorists and ultimately to the owners,” she deplores.