How to Procure Lift Maintenance for Your Building

A lift that stops unexpectedly at 8.30am can affect far more than passenger convenience. It can disrupt access to clinical departments, teaching spaces, offices, retail floors or upper-level plant areas, while creating avoidable pressure for building teams. Knowing how to procure lift maintenance properly gives you a clearer route to reliable service, controlled costs and accountable performance.

For commercial and public-sector buildings, procurement should not be treated as a simple exercise in comparing annual prices. The right maintenance arrangement must reflect the lift type, building use, passenger volumes, equipment condition and the consequences of downtime.

Start with a clear maintenance requirement

Before approaching lift companies, establish what is installed and how it is being used. A passenger lift in a busy hospital or transport-facing public building has very different operational demands from a lightly used traction lift in a small office. Goods lifts, accessibility lifts and evacuation lifts may also require specific attention because the consequences of failure can be more significant.

Create an accurate asset register for every item of vertical transportation equipment. This should identify the manufacturer, model, installation date, controller type, drive system, capacity, number of floors served and any known faults or recurring issues. Include details of previous modernisation works, recent repairs and outstanding recommendations.

It is also useful to record operating patterns. Consider peak traffic periods, whether the lift supports public access, whether it forms part of an evacuation strategy and whether a failure would restrict access to essential services. This information allows prospective providers to recommend a maintenance frequency and service level based on risk rather than assumptions.

A site survey is often worthwhile where records are incomplete, the equipment is ageing or a new managing agent has taken responsibility for the building. It can reveal concerns that are not obvious from service reports, such as obsolete control components, poor ride quality, levelling issues, water ingress or inadequate access to machinery spaces.

How to procure lift maintenance on the right basis

A well-written specification makes tender responses easier to compare. It also reduces the risk of appointing a contractor whose low price is based on an insufficient service visit schedule, exclusions that only emerge after appointment, or a limited ability to attend faults.

Your specification should define the assets covered, expected maintenance visit frequency, service hours, emergency call-out arrangements and reporting requirements. Be specific about whether you require planned preventative maintenance only, or a comprehensive agreement that includes defined labour and replacement parts.

There is no single correct contract model. A basic maintenance agreement may suit newer equipment with a clear repair budget and low operational criticality. A comprehensive agreement can provide greater budget certainty for older or heavily used lifts, although it will normally contain exclusions for items such as vandalism, misuse, water damage, major modernisation works or non-standard components.

Ask bidders to state exclusions plainly. A contract that appears competitive can become poor value if call-out labour, travel, major components or out-of-hours attendance are charged separately at high rates. Equally, the most inclusive contract is not automatically the best option if its cost exceeds the realistic risk of repair.

For larger portfolios or higher-risk sites, procurement documents should also address:

• response times for trapped passengers, complete shutdowns and non-critical faults;
• planned maintenance attendance, including the expected duration and tasks undertaken;
• named escalation contacts and arrangements for out-of-hours emergencies;
• reporting on defects, lifecycle risks and recommendations for modernisation; and
• performance measures, including attendance, repeat faults, downtime and first-time fix rates.

These requirements encourage bidders to describe how service will be delivered, not simply what it will cost.

Assess competence, coverage and technical capability

Lift maintenance is a specialist engineering service. Price matters, but technical capability, local engineering resource and quality control are equally important. The contractor should be able to maintain the specific technologies on site, whether these are traction lifts with machine-room-less drives, conventional machine-room installations, hydraulic lifts or more specialised goods and evacuation lift systems.

Ask how the provider manages equipment from different manufacturers. An independent lift company may be well placed to support mixed estates, but it should demonstrate access to suitable technical information, diagnostic capability and reliable supply routes for parts. Where proprietary components are involved, clarify how repairs will be managed if an original manufacturer part is required.

Competence should be evidenced through relevant accreditations, insurance, training arrangements, safety systems and experience in comparable building environments. Healthcare, education, industrial and public-sector premises can involve particular restrictions around access, infection control, safeguarding, working hours or permit procedures. A capable contractor will ask about these matters before work begins.

Also consider engineering coverage. A national contact centre is useful, but it does not by itself guarantee rapid attendance. Ask where engineers are based, how emergency calls are allocated and what contingency arrangements apply during high demand, holidays or severe weather.

Separate maintenance from statutory examination

A common procurement error is to assume that a thorough examination replaces routine maintenance. It does not. Maintenance is the planned engineering work intended to keep the lift operating safely and reliably. A thorough examination is an independent statutory inspection carried out at prescribed intervals under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998.

The two functions should remain distinct to preserve independence. Your maintenance provider should, however, be able to respond constructively to examination findings, provide quotations for remedial works and confirm when defects have been rectified.

When reviewing tender responses, ask how the contractor will manage defect notifications. The best process is transparent: a clear report, an explanation of the risk, a prioritised recommendation and an itemised quotation where repair work falls outside the agreement. This helps facilities teams make informed decisions and maintain an auditable record.

Compare proposals beyond the annual fee

A procurement decision should account for the likely whole-life cost of the service, rather than the annual maintenance charge alone. Compare the number of planned visits, what each visit includes, call-out rates, labour charges, parts cover, response commitments and contract exclusions.

Pay close attention to vague wording such as “parts included where necessary” or “subject to fair wear and tear”. Ask for definitions. If a contractor offers a comprehensive package, establish whether high-value items such as controllers, door operators, ropes, hydraulic equipment and variable-speed drives are included, capped or excluded.

Request sample service reports and defect quotations. These documents show how clearly the provider communicates with clients. A useful report should confirm attendance, list checks completed, record faults found, identify actions taken and distinguish between urgent safety issues, reliability concerns and longer-term improvement recommendations.

References can be valuable where they relate to similar building types and equipment. Rather than asking only whether the client was satisfied, ask about response times, communication during disruptions, quality of engineers’ reports and how the provider handled recurring faults.

Put mobilisation and performance management in place

The contract award is the start of the working relationship, not the end of procurement. A structured mobilisation period should include a full asset review, transfer of existing records, confirmation of emergency contacts and agreement on site access procedures. The incoming provider should inspect each lift and establish a baseline condition report, particularly where responsibility is transferring from another contractor.

Hold regular review meetings for critical sites or multi-building portfolios. Use them to review call-outs, breakdown causes, maintenance attendance, outstanding defects and recurring issues. If a lift has repeated door faults or intermittent controller errors, ask for root-cause analysis rather than accepting repeated reactive repairs.

Modernisation planning should form part of these discussions. Maintenance can extend serviceable life, but it cannot indefinitely overcome obsolete controls, unavailable components or equipment that no longer meets operational demands. A planned refurbishment programme is often less disruptive and easier to budget for than repeated emergency repairs.

Swallow Lifts supports commercial clients with maintenance arrangements tailored to the equipment, building operation and service expectations of each site. The right approach is one that gives your team clear information, dependable engineering support and confidence that lift risks are being managed before they affect the people who rely on the building.

A good procurement process leaves you with more than a signed contract. It gives you a maintenance partner that understands the role each lift plays in your operation and provides the evidence needed to make timely, defensible decisions.