How to Complete and File the NYC ELV3 Elevator Inspection Report

The NYC ELV3 elevator inspection report is the Department of Buildings form that documents the results of a Category 1, Category 3, or Category 5 elevator safety test. An approved elevator inspection agency completes it, and the owner (or the agency on the owner’s behalf) files it through DOB NOW: Safety within 21 days of the test date. Miss that window and late fees run monthly per device; miss the annual or five-year cutoff and the department refuses the filing and issues a failure-to-file violation.¹

One thing to clear up before you start: hazardous conditions and cease-use items are not reported on the ELV3. Those must be corrected immediately and handled through a separate process.²

What You Need Before You File

The portal will not let you finish the filing without each of the following:

The building’s Borough, Block, and Lot numbers (BBL) and the Building Identification Number (BIN). You can search for devices by address, Device ID, or BIN inside the portal.³⁴
The Device ID for each elevator, escalator, or related device being reported. Look it up through the DOB’s Building Information Search.⁵
The exact inspection date. Your 21-day clock runs from this date.
The property owner’s email address, which must match an existing eFiling account, plus the owner type.⁴
Email and license type for both the Director (or Co-Director) and the Inspector at the approved agency that performed the test.⁴
The same credentials for the separate approved agency that witnessed the test. NYC Administrative Code §28-304.6.1 requires the witnessing agency to be unaffiliated with the performing agency, and the department must be notified at least 10 days before the test takes place.⁶
If defects were found: the elevator part, sub-part, violating condition, and suggested remedy, which you select from the portal’s dropdowns.⁴

Filing in DOB NOW: Safety

Since September 2018, every ELV3 must be submitted online at nyc.gov/dobnow. Paper submissions are not accepted for new filings.⁷

Log in, open the elevator section, and select the inspection type (Category 1, 3, or 5). Search for the device by Device ID, address, or BIN. Enter the inspection date and the performing and witnessing agency credentials. For each device on the report, mark whether a defect exists; if it does, work through the dropdowns for part, sub-part, condition, and remedy.⁴

Pay the filing fee at the end. Under 1 RCNY §103-02, the filing is deemed accepted only when the fee and any civil penalties due are paid. If payment is later dishonored, the filing is invalid and the owner may receive a failure-to-file violation as if nothing had been submitted.⁸

Deadlines and the Hard Cutoffs

The 21-day submission window applies to Category 1, Category 3, and Category 5 reports.⁸ After that, late fees accrue each month. Two hard cutoffs end the ability to file at all:

Category 1 (annual no-load test, performed between January 1 and December 31): Reports not submitted by January 21 of the following year will not be accepted, and failure-to-file violations will be issued.¹
Category 5 (full-load test, every five years from the month of the last Category 5 or the new elevator’s Certificate of Compliance): Reports not submitted by the 21st day of the month following the five-year anniversary will not be accepted, and failure-to-file violations will be issued.¹

Late Fees and Failure-to-File Penalties

Charges run per device, per month, and scale by building type and test category:¹

Residential (occupancy group J), Category 1: $50 per month late, capped at $600 per year per device. Failure to file carries a $1,000 penalty.
Non-residential (occupancy group A), Category 1: $150 per month late, capped at $1,800 per year per device. Failure to file is $3,000.
Category 5, any building type: $250 per month late, capped at $3,000 per year per device. Failure to file is $5,000.

These numbers are per device. A commercial building with four elevators that misses its Category 5 cutoff is looking at up to $20,000 in failure-to-file penalties before any monthly late fees are counted.

If the Inspection Found Defects

Filing the ELV3 is only the first step when results are unsatisfactory. The owner has 90 days from the inspection date to correct the defects, and a separate Affirmation of Correction must be filed within 14 days of the repairs being finished. The total window from inspection to accepted correction filing is 104 days. Blow past it and Failure to Correct (FTC) violations will be issued.¹⁸

The Affirmation of Correction is form ELV29, filed through the same DOB NOW: Safety portal. You attach a copy of the original ELV3 and certify that every unsatisfactory item has been corrected. False certification on the ELV29 is a criminal misdemeanor under NYC Administrative Code §§28-203.1.1 and 28-211.1, punishable by up to one year of imprisonment, a fine of up to $25,000, or both, with a separate civil penalty of up to $25,000.⁹

FTC penalties track the late-filing structure: $1,000 for residential Category 1 defects, $3,000 for non-residential Category 1 defects, and $3,000 for periodic inspection defects. Monthly late fees of $50 (residential) or $150 (non-residential) continue to accrue on top of the base FTC penalty.¹

Common Rejections and What to Keep

Filings tend to get kicked back for mismatched Device IDs, missing witnessing agency information, or incomplete defect entries. If yours is rejected, fix the problem and resubmit quickly, because the 21-day clock runs from the test date, not from the rejection notice.

Keep the acceptance confirmations accessible. A building with satisfactory results needs the accepted ELV3 on file. A building with defects needs both the accepted ELV3 and the accepted ELV29 to show full compliance. After each inspection or test, the inspector must also affix the inspection date and signature over a stamp identifying the approved agency on the Inspection Certificate issued by the department, and install a metal test tag in the machine room.²

1
NYC Buildings. Elevator Compliance
2
NYC Department of Buildings. NYC ELV3 Elevator Inspection Form Instructions
3
New York City Buildings. NYC ELV3 Elevator Inspection/Test Report
4
NYC Department of Buildings. DOB NOW Safety Elevator Compliance Filings Industry User Manual
5
NYC Department of Buildings. DOB Building Information Search
6
NYC Administrative Code. Article 304 – Periodic Inspection of Elevators
7
NYC.gov. DOB NOW Safety for Elevator Compliance Filings FAQs
8
NYC.gov. 1 RCNY 103-02
9
NYC.gov. ELV29 Elevator Affirmation of Correction