Charging Tenant For Service Elevator Service Call

[Christine Swaidan]

A tenant along with 2 children became stuck in an elevator on our property. They used the phone in the elevator to contact the service. 911 was also dispatched. After the technician got the door open he saw that the emergency stop had been pulled out which caused the door not to open. Technician pushed the stop in, checked everything and did not do any repairs. On the invoice I received it says "misuse". I spoke directly to the service technician yesterday and he said that he 99.9% sure this was simple user area. The incident happened in November but I just got the invoice and there have been no further incidents. Unfortunately the hourly cost is $593 dollars and I was charged for two hours so this was a pricy mistake (they charge for travel time). Is there any reason why I should not request the tenant reimburse me? She is a new tenant, just moved in November 2. She is low income and did not have the best credit score so I collected a larger deposit than normal. If she decided to leave over this am I able to use her deposit to reimburse the elevator bill.

[Amit Kal]

Kids do stupid things. I can totally see that the mom did not want to further complicate the situation by pushing any buttons that could further cause them to be stuck for longer. Why was the technician that they called from the elevator not able to see that the emergency stop button was pushed and ask them to turn that off so the elevator can resume normal service?
In any case, sure you can talk to the lady and her kids and let them know that they need to be more careful in the elevator next time. But the bill should stay with you and you should see if there is anything you can do to upgrade the signage in the elevator as well as the remote diagnostic support that you receive when that button is pushed.