In Shanghai, where there are many high-rise buildings, more than 30000 elevators have been in service for more than 15 years. According to the three-year action plan for building a "beautiful home" in the city's residential quarters, by 2020, Shanghai will fully realize remote monitoring of elevators in old residential buildings that have been used for more than 15 years.

In fact, the problem of old elevators that Shanghai faces also exists in other cities. The first commercial housing districts built after the housing reform in 1998 are now 20 years old and have entered the ranks of old residential districts. Before the housing reform, the elevator maintenance of high-rise residential buildings with unit dormitory style was naturally paid by the unit. Now, the problem of who should pay for the elevator maintenance and replacement in new residential areas is simple and complex.

To put it simply, because the elevator in the residential building is jointly owned by the owners of the community, its maintenance should naturally be paid by the public maintenance fund. It's complicated. It's also complicated here. It's not easy to draw public maintenance funds to repair elevators.

First of all, not every community has this fund. After the housing reform, some old communities have decentralized property rights and have not paid the public maintenance fund. For newly built commercial housing communities, although buyers will pay this fund when they first purchase a house, the premise for withdrawing the public maintenance fund is that the community organizes the construction industry committee, and the withdrawal is approved by most owners.

In reality, some residential areas have been built for many years, and the industry committee is either delayed or inefficient. Even if there is an industry committee in some communities, the industry committee also intends to draw public maintenance funds to overhaul elevators, but it is often difficult to make progress because of the owners' voting empowerment, relevant department approval, specific project implementation and other issues. After all, for the owners who work part-time from the industry committee, they are unable to complete complex administrative approval, capital supervision and project supervision.

Elevator safety is critical to the lives of residents. While continuing to promote the work of the community industry committee, relevant parties should simplify the procedures for withdrawing public maintenance funds, and explore the organization, supervision and support mechanism of residential community maintenance projects, including elevator maintenance and replacement. Moreover, relevant departments can participate in the project in the form of "government purchasing services", so as to make up for the lack of project implementation capacity of the industry committee and the lack of public maintenance funds in capital expenditure. In the formation process of this virtuous circle mechanism, relevant legislative departments, housing management departments, community organizations, property companies, industry committees and even owners themselves should do their part.

      (The article in this column was originally published by China Industrial Network. If it is reproduced by online media, the source must be indicated as "China Industrial Network". If it is reproduced by print media, it must be authorized by China Industrial Network.)