Lift maintenance obligations: contract and visits

A lift is subject to strict maintenance obligations, because a failure puts people's safety at stake. Owner, managing agent or landlord, whoever is responsible for the appliance must ensure it is regularly serviced by a professional, and be able to prove it.

A mandatory maintenance contract

Every lift must be covered by a maintenance contract with a qualified company. This contract covers a minimum set of services defined by regulation: periodic checks, cleaning, adjustments, and the repair or replacement of certain parts. The owner cannot opt out of it, even for a rarely used appliance.

Regular visits

Maintenance relies on periodic visits to the appliance, at close intervals, during which the technician checks that the safety components work properly and carries out adjustments. Breakdown call-outs are added to this, with a duty to release a person trapped in the car quickly.

The owner's obligations

• take out and maintain a compliant maintenance contract;
• have the appliance's periodic technical inspection carried out;
• keep an up-to-date maintenance log;
• have the necessary safety works carried out.

Tracking, the weak spot of a fleet

For a landlord or a local authority managing several dozen appliances, the difficulty is not maintenance itself but the overall picture: which appliance is out of service, which has an overdue inspection, which contract is about to expire. Without a clear inventory, the information is scattered across providers and buildings.

The case of landlords and local authorities

For a social landlord or a local authority, a lift is not just a technical obligation: it is an essential service to residents, in particular older people and those with reduced mobility. A prolonged breakdown strands tenants on their floor. The quality of maintenance and the speed of repair then become a social issue as much as a regulatory one. Managing a fleet spread across many buildings means tracking, in one place, the contracts, breakdowns and response times of each provider, so as to keep your commitments to users.

Breakdowns and releasing trapped people

Beyond scheduled maintenance, the company must handle breakdowns and, above all, quickly release a person trapped in the car. This point is essential: an appliance stopped with an occupant is an emergency. The contract sets out the response times, and tracking breakdowns makes it possible to check they are met. An appliance that regularly traps users calls for action, not just a one-off repair.

Safety parts and their replacement

A lift relies on safety components whose wear is normal: ropes, safety gear, brakes, doors. Checking and replacing them in time is at the heart of maintenance. Keeping a record of these replacements, part by part, sheds light on the appliance's real condition and prepares investment decisions far better than a simple hunch about its age.

Safety upgrade works

As regulations evolved, older lifts had to undergo safety upgrade works, to fit the appliances with devices protecting users and technicians. Depending on the age and history of an appliance, these obligations may still apply. Knowing, for each lift, which works have been carried out and which remain to be done avoids blind spots, especially when taking over the management of a fleet whose history is unknown.

Tracking your lifts with KARTES

KARTES lists every lift on a map, with its building, its provider, its deadlines and the history of its interventions and breakdowns. You track the availability of your fleet, you anticipate inspections and you keep proof of maintenance, from the field to the dashboard.

Key points

• Every lift must be covered by a maintenance contract with a professional.
• Periodic visits check the safety components and handle breakdowns.
• The owner keeps a maintenance log and has the technical inspection carried out.
• Across a fleet, the overall view of deadlines is the real challenge.