How often should a lift be serviced? Two cadences, running in parallel.
Reviewed by
Ralph Humphrey,
Technical Director · Last reviewed May 2026
Every UK lift runs on two service cadences at once. The statutory LOLER thorough examination falls every six months on a lift carrying people and every twelve months on goods-only equipment, performed by an independent competent person. Alongside it, routine maintenance runs four to twelve visits a year, sized to the lift and its usage.
Two gold marks at month 0 and month 6 — the LOLER thorough examinations carried out by an independent competent person, six months apart, on any lift that carries people. The ten mid-blue marks in between are routine maintenance visits on a monthly cadence — what a high-intensity passenger lift in a hospital or busy office typically sees. A quieter residential lift sits on the same gold cadence but drops to four routine visits a year.
The cycle exists because LOLER and routine maintenance solve different problems. LOLER is the statutory audit — independent, formal, certified. Routine maintenance is the daily reality — the lubrication, adjustment, and consumable-replacement work that keeps the lift inside its operating envelope so the audit goes smoothly. Servicing both well means understanding both cadences and keeping them organisationally separate.
What does the six-month LOLER beat actually look like on a working lift?
On the day a thorough examination is due, the independent competent person arrives separately from the routine maintenance engineer. A passenger lift is half a day; a platform lift two to three hours. The cab, doors, pit, headroom, and machine room are all in scope.
The cadence below is statutory; the maintenance visits in between are what stop a LOLER finding from happening in the first place.
Decision tree
Routine, statutory, or escalation — work it out in four questions.
Most service-frequency questions are not "how often" — they are "which cadence does this lift sit on, and who carries out the visit". The four questions below resolve that for any lift, hoist, or piece of lifting equipment in the UK.
01
Is the lift in use at work, or carrying people?
Yes
LOLER 1998 applies. Move to the next question.
No
PUWER alone may apply — routine cadence still recommended, no statutory thorough examination required.
02
Does the lift carry people (passenger, platform, accessibility) or just goods?
Yes
Carries people → LOLER thorough examination every 6 months.
No
Goods-only → LOLER thorough examination every 12 months.
03
Is the issue mechanical/performance, or a safety-system / examination failure?
Yes
Safety / examination failure → escalate to a competent person, withdraw from service if needed.
No
Performance / wear → routine maintenance visit by the service engineer.
04
Has the lift seen a major repair, modification, or incident?
Yes
Trigger an interim thorough examination by a competent person before returning to service.
No
Continue the published cadence; record the visit either way.
Two cadences
Routine maintenance vs LOLER thorough examination.
The most common service-frequency mistake on a UK lift is collapsing the two cadences into one. Routine maintenance is performed by the service engineer who looks after the lift week to week — typically the company you have a maintenance contract with. The work is preventive: lubrication, adjustment, replacement of consumables (rope dressing, brake pads, contactors, door sensors), response to fault codes, and the manufacturer-recommended interval tasks that come from the original service schedule. SAFed (the Safety Assessment Federation) publishes routine-maintenance guidance that aligns with BS EN 13015 — the European standard for the maintenance of lifts and escalators.
A LOLER thorough examination is something else entirely. It is a one-off statutory inspection performed by an independent competent person — organisationally separate from the maintenance team — who tests the lift against the relevant BS EN engineering standards (BS EN 81-20 / 50 for passenger lifts, BS EN 81-41 for platform lifts) and issues a Regulation 10 report inside five working days with any defects graded Immediate, Within Timeframe, or Observation. HSE INDG422 is explicit that the same engineer should not perform both routine maintenance and the thorough examination on the same lift. That independence is the regulatory point.
Passenger, platform, goods, hoist — how the cycle differs.
The statutory LOLER cycle bifurcates on a single test: does the lift carry people. Passenger lifts, platform lifts, and accessibility lifts all sit on the six-month cycle because a person rides in the cab. Goods-only lifts sit on the twelve-month cycle because nothing alive is on board. A goods-passenger lift (where an attendant can ride with the load) reverts to the six-month cycle the moment a person is permitted aboard.
Hoists sit in a slightly different bucket. The base manufacturer position — across construction, manufacturing, and warehousing hoists — is that hoists should be serviced at least once a year to ensure they are in good working condition. The exact frequency depends on the type of hoist, its usage, and the manufacturer's recommendations. Where the hoist is used at work to lift people or in a high-risk environment, the LOLER 6-month thorough examination cycle applies in addition. The manufacturer service interval and the statutory examination interval run in parallel and are not interchangeable.
Other lifting equipment — chain blocks, lever hoists, runway beams, slings, eyebolts, lifting accessories — sits under the wider LOLER envelope and is typically inspected at least every six months under Regulation 9, with annual minimum for items that do not lift people. A competent person, trained and qualified to assess the condition of the equipment and identify any potential hazards, must perform the inspection. The /services/inspections/loler/ page describes how BASE delivers the inspection visit itself.
For a full breakdown of lift types and the BS EN standard each is built to, read the lift-types reference.
Usage intensity
Light-duty home lift vs hospital lift vs warehouse goods lift.
The LOLER cadence does not move with usage. Six months is six months whether the lift runs 200 trips a day or twenty. Routine maintenance absolutely should. A typical BASE-managed install splits roughly into three tiers:
Light-duty (home lift, small private platform lift, low-traffic residential passenger lift): 2 – 4 routine visits per year. Mechanical wear is low; the visit list is dominated by lubrication, door-system checks, and the manufacturer's annual service tasks.
Standard commercial (small office passenger lift, care-home platform lift, low-traffic goods lift): 4 – 6 visits per year. Adds quarterly preventive work — controller diagnostic pulls, full landing-door inspection, levelling and brake-performance verification.
High-intensity / high-risk (hospital passenger lift, busy retail or transport lift, warehouse goods lift, work-environment hoist): 8 – 12 visits per year. Monthly cadence, often with on-call preventive callouts. This is also the tier where condition monitoring and remote telemetry pay back, because the cost of an unplanned outage is highest.
BASE prices routine cadence from a site survey rather than a fixed tier list because two lifts of the same model in different buildings can rationally sit on very different schedules. The site survey for a maintenance contract takes 90 minutes; the resulting proposal lays out the recommended visit count, the parts-inclusion scope, and the response SLA against a fixed annual figure. Maintenance contract structure is documented here.
Between LOLER dates
What preventive maintenance actually does in the six-month gap.
Between LOLER thorough examinations the lift is not idle, and neither is the routine maintenance schedule. The point of the six-month gap is not "nothing happens" — it is "the day-to-day reliability and safety of the lift is managed by the maintenance team, so the next thorough examination reads as a confirmation rather than a triage". Regular servicing helps to prevent accidents and injuries: a lift that is not properly maintained can malfunction, leading to dangerous situations for users and damage to the building. By having the lift serviced regularly, the maintenance team catches potential issues before they become serious problems and extends the lifespan of the equipment.
What a routine visit typically covers: lubrication and adjustment of moving parts (guide rails, sheaves, door tracks, ramp / barrier mechanisms on platform lifts), inspection of the suspension system (steel ropes on passenger lifts; screw, chain, or hydraulic ram on platform lifts), brake performance verification, controller diagnostic, door-system safety-edge and light-curtain check, levelling accuracy at every landing, and the manufacturer's interval-specific tasks (oil change on a hydraulic, drive-nut wear measurement on a screw-driven platform lift, brake-pad service on a traction passenger lift). Every visit ends with a maintenance record — that documentation can demonstrate compliance with regulations and provides a history of the equipment's maintenance and inspection.
Lifting equipment should also be inspected after any significant event that could affect its safety — a major repair or modification, an accident, or a near miss. That inspection is carried out by a competent person, sitting outside the routine cadence, and is documented in the same record system as the scheduled examinations. Inspections overview describes how BASE delivers both scheduled and event-driven examinations.
Cost vs frequency
The trade-off between visit count and uptime.
Frequency is the single biggest cost variable on a maintenance contract, ahead of parts inclusion and response SLA. A 12-visit-a-year contract on a busy passenger lift is roughly double the annual cost of a 4-visit contract on the same lift, all else equal. The trade-off is operational: the higher-frequency contract surfaces preventive work earlier, reduces emergency call-out cost, and extends the lift's service life. By keeping all components well-maintained, premature wear and tear is prevented, reducing the need for costly repairs or replacements down the line.
Where it gets interesting is the total-cost calculation. A high-traffic passenger lift on a 4-visit contract that experiences three unplanned outages a year, each requiring an emergency call-out, has often paid more across the year than an 8-visit contract that suppresses those outages entirely. The way BASE writes a proposal is to model both — published visit count plus expected emergency-callout count, with the latter declining as the former increases — so the buyer can pick the point on the curve that matches their tolerance for downtime. The lift maintenance cost guide walks the pricing variables in detail.
LOLER thorough examinations are priced separately from the maintenance contract because the two services must remain organisationally separate. Independent competent-person work is invoiced per visit (passenger lift roughly half a day on site; platform lift two to three hours), with the report issued inside the statutory five-working-day window. Back to the knowledge base.
Frequency FAQ
The questions a property manager asks before signing the contract.
How often should a passenger lift be serviced?
There are two cadences that apply at the same time. The LOLER 1998 statutory cadence is a thorough examination every six months on a lift that carries people, carried out by an independent competent person. Alongside that, a routine maintenance schedule typically runs four to twelve visits a year depending on usage intensity, age, and the manufacturer's recommended service intervals — heavy-duty office or hospital lifts at the top of that range, lightly used residential lifts at the bottom. The two cadences are separate, run by separate organisations, and should never collapse into one.
How often should a platform lift or accessibility lift be serviced?
Same statutory cadence as passenger lifts because they carry people: LOLER thorough examination every six months by an independent competent person. Routine maintenance is lighter than on a traction passenger lift — typically two to four visits a year on a low-travel domestic or care-home platform lift, four to six on a busier commercial install. BS EN 81-41 (the platform-lift design standard) governs the engineering checks, and the manufacturer's guidelines often specify additional brand-specific tasks (drive nut wear, ramp / barrier interlocks, controlled descent verification).
How often should a goods lift be serviced?
A goods-only lift (no person on board, ever) sits on the 12-month LOLER thorough examination cycle rather than the 6-month cycle. Routine maintenance still runs at the same kind of cadence as a small platform lift — two to four visits a year — because the mechanical wear is similar even though the statutory examination is annual. If a goods lift can also carry an attendant (a goods-passenger lift), it reverts to the 6-month cycle.
How often should a hoist be serviced?
In general, hoists should be serviced at least once a year. The exact frequency depends on the type of hoist, its usage, and the manufacturer's recommendations. A hoist used in a high-risk environment — construction, manufacturing, warehousing — should be inspected at least every six months by a competent person, often more frequently, and that aligns with the LOLER 6-month cycle for lifting equipment used at work where there is a risk to people. Routine servicing in between catches potential issues before they become serious problems and extends the hoist's lifespan. Trained professionals familiar with hoist maintenance should carry out the inspections.
How often should lifting equipment be inspected?
Most lifting equipment should be inspected at least once a year by a competent person under LOLER 1998. More frequent inspections are required for certain types — cranes, hoists, and any lifting equipment carrying people — which fall on the 6-month cycle. Lifting equipment must also be inspected after any significant event that could affect its safety: a major repair or modification, an accident, or a near miss. The competent person who performs the inspection must be trained and qualified to assess the condition of the equipment and identify any potential hazards. Detailed records of all inspections and maintenance activities should be kept — that documentation demonstrates compliance and gives the next examiner a baseline.
Does usage intensity change the service frequency?
Yes, materially. A lift in a 600-bed hospital running 18 hours a day will see 8–12 routine visits a year; the same model in a quiet residential block of flats might sit on 2–4 visits a year. The statutory LOLER cadence does not move with usage — 6 months is 6 months whether the lift moves 200 times a day or 20 — but the routine maintenance plan absolutely should. BASE prices routine cadence from a site survey rather than a standard tier list, because two lifts of the same model in different buildings can rationally sit on very different schedules.
What is the difference between routine maintenance and a LOLER thorough examination?
Routine maintenance is performed by the service engineer who looks after the lift week to week — lubrication, adjustment, replacement of consumables, response to fault codes, and preventive work informed by the manufacturer's service schedule. A LOLER thorough examination is a one-off statutory inspection performed by an independent competent person, organisationally separate from the maintenance team, who tests the lift against the relevant BS EN standards and issues a Regulation 10 report with any defects graded Immediate, Within Timeframe, or Observation. HSE INDG422 is explicit that the same engineer should not perform both roles on the same lift — that separation is the point.
When do you escalate from routine maintenance to a thorough examination?
Four triggers: (1) a scheduled LOLER date arriving — passenger / platform / accessibility every 6 months, goods-only every 12 months, (2) a major repair or modification that changes the lift's operating envelope, (3) an accident or near-miss involving the lift, (4) a defect surfaced during routine maintenance that the service engineer cannot definitively clear as safe without an independent check. In each case the lift gets booked into the competent-person diary, the routine team holds tools off the lift until the examination is complete, and a Regulation 10 report is issued inside five working days.
Does the cost of a maintenance contract change with frequency?
Yes — frequency is the single biggest cost variable on a maintenance contract, ahead of parts inclusion and response SLA. A contract with 12 routine visits a year on a busy passenger lift is roughly double the annual cost of a 4-visit contract on the same lift, all else equal. The trade-off is operational uptime: the higher-frequency contract surfaces preventive work earlier, reduces call-out costs, and extends the lift's service life. The /knowledge/lift-maintenance-cost/ guide breaks down the pricing variables in detail. LOLER thorough examination is priced separately from the maintenance contract because the two services must be organisationally separate.
Routine maintenance count, manufacturer-specific tasks, LOLER thorough examination diary, parts-inclusion scope — written into a single annual plan against a fixed price, after a 90-minute site survey by a senior engineer. No tier list, no call-centre script.
