Moving slender elastic elements such as ropes, cables and belts are pivotal components of vertical transportation systems such as traction elevators. Their lengths vary within the host building structure during the elevator operation which results in the change of the mass and stiffness characteristics of the system. The structure of modern high-rise buildings is flexible and when subjected to loads due to strong winds and earthquakes it vibrates at low frequencies. The inertial load induced by the building motion excites the flexible components of the elevator system. The compensating ropes due to their lower tension are particularly affected and undergo large dynamic deformations. The paper focuses on the presentation of the non-stationary model of a building-compensating rope system and on the analysis to predict its dynamic response. The excitation mechanism is represented by a harmonic process and the results of computer simulations to predict transient resonance response are presented. The analysis of the simulation results leads to recommendations concerning the selection of the weight of the compensation assembly to minimize the effects of an adverse dynamic response of the system. The scenario when the excitation is represented as a narrow-band stochastic process with the state vector governed by stochastic equations is then discussed and the stochastic differential equations governing the second-order statistical moments of the state vector are developed