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BASE Lift Services
Planned preventive maintenance · Platform & passenger · UK-wide

Independent lift maintenance contracts.
Platform & passenger. Written scope, measurable SLA.

BASE provides preventive maintenance contracts for platform and passenger lifts across London and the UK. Standard and Comprehensive tiers, both with measurable response-time SLAs and LOLER inclusion options. Directly-employed engineers, written scope, transparent annual pricing — no surprise call-out fees, no OEM upsell pressure, no parts-margin agenda behind the recommendation.

Request a maintenance contract quote Call 020 3435 6838
4–12
Visits per year (use-case dependent)
4 hr
M25 SLA on Comprehensive
12+
Platform & passenger brands covered
The visit cycle

What does a lift maintenance contract include?

A planned preventive cycle of engineer visits across the year, each working through the same five disciplines in the same order: lubrication and wear inspection, drive and control checks, door and safety-circuit testing, emergency-lowering verification, and a final ride-quality check. Every visit closes with a written engineer report uploaded to the building portal the same day. The frequency and the SLA on top of the cycle are what change between contract tiers and lift types.

  1. 01

    Lubrication & wear inspection

    Greasing of guide shoes, sheave bearings, screw-drive nuts (Aritco / Cibes / Kalea), door rollers and hinges. Photographed wear measurements on drive components, brake linings and ropes against the previous visit baseline.

  2. 02

    Drive & control system verification

    Drive-belt tension, motor current draw, inverter output, control PCB diagnostics, terminal-board torque checks. On hydraulic systems, ram condition, pump pressure, valve calibration and oil level / contamination check.

  3. 03

    Door & safety circuit testing

    Door interlocks tested individually at every floor, photocell alignment, gate edges, overload sensors, emergency-stop circuit, alarm bell, two-way voice link, slack-rope and broken-rope contacts. Every safety device is exercised, not just visually inspected.

  4. 04

    Emergency lowering & rescue verification

    Manual lowering procedure exercised under controlled conditions. Battery-backed emergency descent tested on platform lifts (BS EN 81-41). Hand-winding kit checked on traction passenger lifts. Rescue instructions verified against the current building responsible-person record.

  5. 05

    Ride-quality & report

    Full-travel ride check at empty and rated load. Levelling accuracy at every landing, door open/close timings, call-response, in-car lighting and emergency lighting. Visit closed with a written engineer report logged against the lift history — uploaded to the building portal the same day.

Visit frequency & pricing

How many visits, what response time, what the contract costs.

Two tiers — Standard (labour) and Comprehensive (all-inclusive with 4-hour SLA) — sized to the lift type and use case. The full line-by-line inclusion matrix lives on the maintenance contracts comparison page; rough annual brackets are below for budgeting. Bundle the LOLER thorough examination into the same contract if you want a single point of compliance accountability.

Visit frequency by lift type

Platform lift — single user, residential

Visits / yr
4 / year
Response SLA
Next working day (Std) · 24 hr (Comp)
LOLER cycle
12-month cycle

Platform lift — commercial / school / care home

Visits / yr
4–6 / year
Response SLA
Next working day (Std) · 4 hr M25 (Comp)
LOLER cycle
6-month cycle (carries passengers)

Passenger lift — low-rise residential

Visits / yr
6 / year
Response SLA
Next working day (Std) · 4 hr M25 (Comp)
LOLER cycle
6-month cycle

Passenger lift — office / mid-use commercial

Visits / yr
6–8 / year
Response SLA
Same day (Std) · 4 hr M25 (Comp)
LOLER cycle
6-month cycle

Passenger lift — heavy-use (hotel / retail / hospital)

Visits / yr
8–12 / year
Response SLA
Same day (Std) · 4 hr UK-wide (Comp)
LOLER cycle
6-month cycle
Annual contract pricing — rough brackets

How much does a lift maintenance contract cost?

Annual contract pricing varies by lift type, visit frequency and contract tier. Brackets below are typical for the UK market in 2026. Every quote is fixed-price for the contract term and written down before signature.

Platform lift — Standard contract

£400–£700 / yr

Labour, planned visits, written reports. Parts billed separately.

Platform lift — Comprehensive contract

£900–£1,500 / yr

Labour + parts + 24/7 call-out cover + LOLER coordination.

Passenger lift (1 car, low-rise) — Standard

£600–£1,000 / yr

Labour and planned visits. Parts and OOH call-out billed separately.

Passenger lift (1 car, low-rise) — Comprehensive

£1,400–£2,400 / yr

4-hour M25 SLA, parts and labour, LOLER bundled.

Heavy-use / multi-car passenger

Quoted individually

Visit count and SLA set by traffic study and LOLER cycle.

For deeper cost detail on platform lifts specifically, see our lift maintenance cost guide. For the contract-tier inclusion matrix line by line, see the maintenance contracts page.

Included & chargeable

What sits inside the contract — and what doesn't.

Standard contracts cover the planned cycle and labour. Comprehensive contracts wrap parts, call-out and LOLER coordination into the same fixed fee. A short list of items sits outside both — capital modernisation, drive replacement, ropes — quoted as separate projects so the annual fee stays a known number.

Included in the contract

  • Planned engineer visits (per contract frequency)
  • Lubrication & wear inspection
  • Drive & control system checks
  • Door interlock & safety circuit testing
  • Emergency lowering verification
  • Ride-quality check at empty & rated load
  • Written engineer report uploaded same day
  • Maintenance history & compliance trail
  • Comprehensive: parts (excl. major consumables)
  • Comprehensive: 24/7 call-out cover
  • Comprehensive: LOLER coordination bundled
  • Fixed-price for the contract term

Chargeable / out of scope

  • Parts (Standard contract only)
  • Consumables on Comp: ropes, hydraulic oil change, full battery packs
  • Out-of-hours premium (Standard contract)
  • Bank-holiday call-out premium (both tiers)
  • Capital modernisation work (separate project quote)
  • Drive or cabin replacement (modernisation scope)
  • Damage beyond fair wear & tear
  • LOLER thorough examination fee (independent inspector)
Independent vs OEM

Why independent maintenance differs from OEM maintenance.

An OEM contractor maintains the lift it sold you and earns more revenue when that lift is replaced — there's a structural incentive to recommend modernisation or replacement at end-of-warranty. An independent maintainer like BASE has no parts margin paid back by a manufacturer and no installation sales pipeline behind the recommendation. Repair-vs-replace is written honestly because we earn the same fee either way.

Independent service of UK lifts is legal under LOLER 1998 and almost always carries a faster response window than the OEM contract. The maintenance history travels with the lift — we onboard maintenance log-books from any previous contractor and pick up the cycle from the next visit.

Related service pages

Platform-lift maintenance by brand

Aritco maintenance Cibes maintenance Stannah maintenance Gartec maintenance Kalea maintenance Vimec maintenance Pollock maintenance Dalby maintenance Motala maintenance Nami maintenance NTD maintenance Phoenix maintenance
Maintenance — common questions

What people ask before they sign a maintenance contract.

What does a lift maintenance contract include?
A planned preventive cycle of engineer visits across the year — lubrication, wear inspection, drive checks, control-system verification, door and safety circuit testing, emergency-lowering verification, and a ride-quality check. Every visit closes with a written engineer report logged against the lift's history. Standard contracts cover labour; Comprehensive contracts cover labour, parts, emergency call-out and bundle the annual LOLER thorough examination. Both tiers carry a written response-time SLA.
How many maintenance visits per year does my lift need?
Four visits per year is the typical baseline for a single-user platform lift (BS EN 81-41), and the floor for any lift carrying passengers in a non-residential building. Passenger lifts in residential blocks usually sit at six visits per year. Heavy-use passenger lifts in offices, hotels, retail, healthcare and high-rise residential typically need eight to twelve visits per year. Visit frequency is set by use case and the manufacturer's recommendation, then written into the contract — see our guide to lift servicing frequency for the full matrix.
How much does a lift maintenance contract cost per year?
Rough annual brackets: platform lifts on a Standard contract typically run £400–£700/yr, on Comprehensive £900–£1,500/yr. Passenger lifts (one car, low-rise) typically run £600–£1,000/yr Standard, £1,400–£2,400/yr Comprehensive. Heavy-use or multi-car passenger lifts and LOLER-bundled packages quote individually. Every contract is fixed-price for the term, written down before signature, no surprise call-out fees on Comprehensive.
What is the response-time SLA on a maintenance contract?
Standard contracts include a next-working-day response on a non-urgent fault, inside-24-hours on a stoppage. Comprehensive contracts include a 4-hour M25 response on a stoppage and same-day attendance UK-wide, 24/7 for trapped-passenger scenarios. Out-of-hours call-outs are included on Comprehensive (premium rate only on bank holidays); Standard contracts bill out-of-hours at a published hourly rate, with no minimum-charge inflation.
Can the LOLER thorough examination be bundled into the contract?
Yes. LOLER inspection is a separate statutory duty — the inspector must be independent of the maintaining contractor — but we coordinate the appointment and the post-inspection remedial works through your contract. Comprehensive bundles the LOLER coordination and the remedial labour; Standard bundles the coordination only. See our LOLER inspections guide for the cycle (12-month for goods-only platform lifts, 6-month for any lift carrying passengers).
What is the difference between independent maintenance and OEM maintenance?
An OEM (the original manufacturer) maintains the lifts it sold you and earns more when those lifts are replaced. The commercial incentive is to recommend replacement at end-of-warranty. An independent maintainer like BASE has no parts margin paid back by a manufacturer and no installation sales pipeline — repair-vs-replace recommendations are written honestly because we earn the same fee either way. Independent service of UK lifts is legal under the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998, and almost always carries a faster response window than the OEM contract.
What is included in the contract versus chargeable?
Standard includes labour on all planned visits, written reports, parts diagnosis and the response-time SLA. Parts, emergency call-out attendance fees and out-of-hours premiums are billed separately at published rates. Comprehensive includes all of Standard plus parts (excluding consumables wear: ropes, hydraulic oil scheduled changes, full battery replacements), unlimited emergency call-out attendance, and bundled LOLER coordination. Capital items — full modernisation, drive replacement, cabin refurbishment — are outside both tiers and quoted as a separate project.
Do you cover all platform lift brands?
Yes. The full UK platform-lift field — Aritco, Cibes, Stannah, Gartec, Kalea, Vimec, Pollock, Dalby, Motala, Nami, NTD and Phoenix — sits inside our maintenance coverage, with parts stock for each. Most contracts we take over were previously held by the OEM or by a national contractor; transferring the maintenance history is part of the onboarding visit.
Switching contractor, or covering a new lift?

A senior engineer reviews every maintenance enquiry. No call-centre triage.

Send the lift type, age, brand and use case — we'll come back with a written contract scope, a fixed annual fee, and the response-time SLA in writing. Switching from an OEM or national contractor is a single onboarding visit; the maintenance history travels with the lift.

Request a maintenance contract quote Call 020 3435 6838

Or email enquiries@baselifts.co.uk