If you own, manage or operate a lift in the UK, you are a duty-holder under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998 (LOLER). The regulation is short, the consequences of getting it wrong are not. Here is the working summary every property manager and facilities lead should know.
What LOLER actually requires
LOLER is concerned with the safe use of lifting equipment — including passenger lifts, goods lifts, platform lifts and dumb-waiters. It applies whenever lifting equipment is used at work, which captures virtually every lift in a commercial, residential-block or public building.
The regulation requires that lifting equipment is strong, stable, suitable, properly installed, safely positioned and clearly marked. Then comes the part most duty-holders are aware of: the Thorough Examination.
Thorough Examination intervals
The standard intervals are:
- Every 6 months — for lifts carrying people
- Every 12 months — for lifts carrying only goods
- After substantial modification or following exceptional circumstances
Who can do a Thorough Examination?
It must be carried out by a Competent Person — defined as an engineer with the practical and theoretical knowledge to detect defects and assess their importance. In practice, this is almost always provided by an independent inspection body (often via your insurer), not by your maintenance contractor. The two roles must be independent.
The maintenance contractor's role is to keep the lift in safe working order, action remedial works arising from the Thorough Examination, and provide planned preventative maintenance. We do not perform the Thorough Examination ourselves — but we work hand-in-hand with your inspecting engineer.
Defects: A, B and C reports
Reports typically grade defects by urgency. Category A or 'imminent risk of serious injury' findings require the lift to be taken out of service immediately. The inspector is also obliged to notify the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) under RIDDOR.
Category B and C findings have stated remediation timescales — and missing those timescales is what tends to attract enforcement action. Treating a defect report as a tracked workstream, not a filing exercise, is the single most useful thing duty-holders can do.
Practical checklist for duty-holders
- Confirm in writing who your Competent Person is and at what interval they inspect.
- Keep the most recent Thorough Examination report on or near the lift.
- Track every reported defect with an owner, target date and evidence of completion.
- Make sure your maintenance contract includes the labour to clear common Category B/C items.
- Review your portfolio annually — defect patterns often reveal modernisation candidates.
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