Embodiments of the present invention provide a fault handling method, apparatus and system, and relate to the field of communications, where the method includes: detecting, by a lower-layer fault management system, a fault alarm status in a lower-layer service; obtaining, by means of query by the lower-layer fault management system, according to the fault alarm status and a service dependence relationship table stored in a system, an affected higher-layer service; sending, by the lower-layer fault management system, a fault notification message to a higher-layer fault management system corresponding to the affected higher-layer service; and determining, by the higher-layer fault management system, according to the fault notification message whether a higher-layer service in which a fault occurs needs to be handled.