A semiconductor element drive apparatus for driving first and second semiconductor elements connected to a half-bridge circuit at respectively an upper-level side and a lower-level side of the half-bridge circuit. The semiconductor element drive apparatus includes a high-side circuit and a low-side circuit for respectively driving the first and second semiconductor elements. The high-side circuit includes a voltage drop detection unit that detects an abnormal voltage drop of a voltage of a main power supply, a pulse generation circuit that generates a pulse signal, a frequency of which is decreased in response to the abnormal voltage drop detected by the voltage drop detection unit, and a level-down circuit that receives the pulse signal from the pulse generation circuit, generates an abnormality signal, and transmits the abnormality signal to the low-side circuit, to thereby notify the low-side circuit of the abnormal voltage drop in the high-side circuit.