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BASE Lift Services
Passenger-lift engineering · OEM-independent · UK-wide

Independent passenger lift service for every major UK manufacturer.

BASE's passenger-lift engineering team services traction, hydraulic, and MRL passenger lifts across London and the UK — all major OEMs including Otis, Kone, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp, Orona, Stannah, Mitsubishi. Independent of any manufacturer, BS EN 81-20 compliant, full LOLER 1998 coverage.

Book a service review 020 3435 6838
Two teams, one standard

What passenger lift brands does BASE service?

BASE's passenger-lift team services every major OEM sold into the UK — Otis, Kone, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp (TK Elevator), Orona, Mitsubishi, Stannah — plus the British boutique manufacturers (Express, Pickerings, Apex, Hammond & Champness, Evans Lifts) and the rebranded OEM units behind older nameplates. The passenger team operates alongside our platform-lift team under one engineering standard. Most independent contractors are platform OR passenger; BASE runs both, which is the point.

Our heritage discipline

Platform-lift team

BASE's heritage discipline is platform lifts — accessibility lifts for care homes, listed homes, schools and step-free residential retrofits. Years of focused engineering on small-travel, low-load lifts built our service standard. Most UK independents stay here, because passenger-lift work is a different regulatory regime and a different parts ecosystem.

  • BS EN 81-41 platform standard
  • LOLER 12-monthly cycle
  • Self-supporting and shafted
Platform-lift specialism
Our expanded discipline

Passenger-lift team

The passenger-lift team operates alongside the platform team under one engineering standard. Dedicated passenger engineers, dedicated parts stock, dedicated 24/7 callout — for mid-rise residential, offices, hospitals, hotels, retail and mixed-use buildings. Most independent contractors are platform OR passenger. BASE does both, which is why we are the OEM-independent option for portfolio owners who do not want two contractors.

  • BS EN 81-20 / 81-50 passenger standard
  • LOLER 6-monthly cycle
  • Traction, hydraulic and MRL drives
You are here — passenger lifts
All services Lift maintenance 24/7 repair Lift modernisation LOLER inspections Residential sector All brands Stannah service
Passenger discipline · in numbers

One independent team, every major UK manufacturer.

7+
Major OEMs serviced — Otis · Kone · Schindler · TK · Orona · Mitsubishi · Stannah
81-20
BS EN 81 series — passenger lift design + commissioning
6mo
LOLER 1998 thorough-examination cycle (passenger)
24/7
Emergency call-out — passenger entrapment + breakdown
Drive families we service

Traction, hydraulic, and MRL — under one BS EN regime.

UK passenger lifts split into three drive families. Traction with a top machine room is the pre-2005 stock; hydraulic is the low-rise commercial and residential default; MRL (machine-room-less traction) is the new-build default since the mid-2000s. All three sit under BS EN 81-20:2020 for safety and BS EN 81-50:2020 for component design. Our engineers carry the diagnostic kit for every family across every major OEM.

  • Traction BS EN 81-20

    Geared or gearless rope-and-counterweight drive in a dedicated machine room. The mid- and high-rise default. Smooth ride, fast travel, long service life. Most pre-2005 UK passenger lifts are traction with a top machine room; the modernisation path is usually a gearless retrofit rather than a full replacement.

    Typical use
    Travel
    Mid + high-rise
    ≤ 60 m
  • Hydraulic BS EN 81-20

    Oil-pressure ram drive — quiet, smooth, modest pit and headroom requirements. The default for low-rise commercial and residential passenger lifts up to roughly six floors. Common across UK offices, care homes, hotels and mid-rise apartment blocks. Hydraulic units forgive imperfect shafts and irregular floor-to-floor spacing.

    Typical use
    Travel
    Low-rise · Retrofit
    ≤ 18 m
  • Traction (MRL) BS EN 81-20

    Machine-room-less permanent-magnet gearless drive — drive unit lives inside the shaft head. Energy-efficient, regenerative options, no separate machine room footprint. The new-build commercial and mid-rise residential default since the mid-2000s. Otis Gen2, Kone MonoSpace, Schindler 3300/5500, TK evolution all sit here.

    Typical use
    Travel
    New-build · Mid-rise
    ≤ 45 m
Residential
Mid-rise

Apartment blocks, mansion blocks, mixed-tenure buildings — service contracts with managing agents

Offices
Workplace

Single-tenant and multi-tenant office buildings, traction and MRL fleets

Hospitals + hotels
High-cycle

High duty-cycle passenger lifts under heavy daily use — service tuned for availability

Retail + mixed-use
Public-realm

Department stores, shopping centres, mixed-use schemes — public-access compliance evidence in the maintenance file

Five service disciplines, one passenger team.

01 · Maintenance

Planned-preventative visits on the BS EN 13015 cadence with paired LOLER thorough examination.

Maintenance
02 · Repair

24/7 emergency call-out — entrapments, breakdowns, intermittents. 60-minute target inside the M25.

Repair
03 · Modernisation

Drive replacements, controller upgrades, regenerative retrofits and door / fixture refurbishment.

Modernisation
04 · Installation

New passenger-lift installation, survey-led, 12-20 weeks from contract, BS EN 81-20 commissioning.

Installation
05 · LOLER inspection

Independent thorough examination on the six-monthly passenger cycle — separable from the contract.

LOLER
Passenger lifts — common questions

What managing agents and facilities heads ask before contract.

What passenger lift brands does BASE service?
Every major passenger-lift OEM sold into the UK, plus the boutique British manufacturers. The core list: Otis, Kone, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp (now TK Elevator), Orona, Mitsubishi and Stannah. Beyond that we cover Express, Pickerings, Apex, Hammond & Champness, Evans Lifts, and the OEM-rebranded units that sit behind unfamiliar nameplates in older buildings. Our engineers carry the diagnostic kit and the parts contacts for all of them. We are independent of every manufacturer — we do not sell their service contracts, we do not take commission, and our engineers do not rotate between brand silos. One team, every brand.
How is the passenger-lift team different from the platform-lift team?
They operate side-by-side under one engineering standard, but they are two distinct engineering disciplines. Platform lifts (the BASE heritage discipline) are accessibility-focused, low-travel, low-load, and certified under BS EN 81-41 with a 12-monthly LOLER cycle. Passenger lifts are full vertical-transport units — traction or hydraulic, higher travel, higher load, certified under BS EN 81-20 with a 6-monthly LOLER cycle. Different parts ecosystems, different OEMs, different statutory regimes. Most independent contractors specialise in one or the other. BASE runs both teams in parallel so a portfolio owner with a mixed fleet does not need two contractors.
What services do you provide for passenger lifts?
Five disciplines. Maintenance — planned-preventative service visits on the BS EN 13015 cadence, with LOLER thorough examinations every six months. Repair — 24/7 emergency call-out for entrapments, breakdowns and intermittent faults, plus mid-cycle component replacement. Modernisation — drive replacements, controller upgrades, door and fixture refurbishment, regenerative-drive retrofits where the business case stacks. Installation — survey-led new-lift installation on 12-20 week programmes to BS EN 81-20 commissioning. Inspection — LOLER 1998 thorough examinations by an independent competent person, decoupled from the maintenance contract where the building wants the separation. Every discipline runs out of the same passenger-lift engineering team.
Which BS EN standards apply to passenger lifts in the UK?
Two principal documents. BS EN 81-20:2020 is the safety standard for the construction and installation of lifts carrying persons or persons and goods — it governs car design, door operation, safety circuits, brakes, governors, levelling, emergency lowering, intercom and battery backup. BS EN 81-50:2020 is the companion design-rules document covering calculations, examinations and tests of lift components — rails, ropes, brakes, buffers, governors and safety gear. Together they form the BS EN 81 series for passenger lifts and replace the older BS EN 81-1 (traction) and BS EN 81-2 (hydraulic) standards. LOLER 1998 then sits on top as the statutory thorough-examination regime — six-monthly for passenger lifts that carry people.
What is the difference between traction, hydraulic and MRL passenger lifts?
Three drive families. Traction (geared or gearless) uses a counterweight, ropes and a sheave driven by a motor in a dedicated machine room — the default for mid- and high-rise pre-2005 UK passenger lifts. Hydraulic uses an oil-pressure ram pushing the car directly — the default for low-rise commercial and residential up to roughly six floors, quiet, smooth, and forgiving of imperfect shafts. MRL (machine-room-less) is a traction-family drive with a permanent-magnet gearless motor mounted inside the shaft head, removing the separate machine room — the new-build default since the mid-2000s and the modernisation target for older traction lifts where the machine room can be reclaimed. Our team services all three families across every major OEM.
What building types do you cover?
Mid-rise residential apartment blocks (including mansion blocks and mixed-tenure stock), single-tenant and multi-tenant offices, hospitals, hotels, retail (department stores, shopping centres), and mixed-use schemes. The common thread is high duty-cycle passenger transport — buildings where lift availability is critical and downtime has a daily cost. Our service contracts are tuned for availability rather than for cheap unit price, which is why portfolio managing agents pick us where the OEM offered a cheaper headline number on paper.
Why pick an independent rather than the OEM for passenger lifts?
Three reasons. First, independence on parts — we source from the manufacturer when their part is best, from the open market when an equivalent is cheaper, and from our own stock when downtime needs to drop to hours. The OEM only sells you their part. Second, independence on the maintenance / inspection split — we are happy for the LOLER thorough examination to be done by a competent person from a separate company, which preserves the regulatory intent. Most OEM contracts bundle them, which doesn't. Third, the engineering team is permanent, not call-centre-rotated — the engineer who attended last quarter is the engineer who attends this quarter, and they remember the lift.
Do you cover emergency call-outs for passenger-lift entrapments?
Yes, 24/7. Passenger entrapment is the highest-priority callout we handle. Target response inside the M25 is 60 minutes from call to engineer on site; UK-wide is 2-4 hours depending on geography. Most entrapments are released in under 30 minutes from arrival — door-zone fault, safety-circuit trip, or a stuck contactor. The same call kicks off the underlying-cause diagnostic so the lift doesn't trip again the same way the following week. See our repair page for the full SLA.
Take over your passenger-lift contract

Send us the OEM number. We'll match the service and beat the price.

Otis, Kone, Schindler, ThyssenKrupp, Orona, Mitsubishi or Stannah — we take over passenger-lift contracts from the manufacturer routinely. Independent parts sourcing, the same engineering team every visit, and the LOLER thorough examination separable from the maintenance contract if you want it. Send us the current contract and we'll quote like-for-like inside two weeks.

Request a passenger-lift quote Call 020 3435 6838

Or email enquiries@baselifts.co.uk