What Hoist Inspection Services Actually Are
Hoist inspection services are legal safety checks. A competent person examines the hoist, its supports. Its ropes or chains, its brakes and its safety devices.
They then write a report of thorough examination. The report says what was found, what needs fixing and by when. It is a legal document, not a job card.
The duty comes from the Lifting Operations and Lifting Equipment Regulations 1998. Our LOLER rules guide sets out the full framework. The short version is simple.
If a hoist is used at work, someone has control of it. That person must make sure it is examined at set intervals by someone qualified to do the work.
Hoists come in many shapes. Builders' hoists on scaffolds, patient hoists in care homes, small goods hoists in kitchens, chain hoists in workshops and shaft-mounted hoists inside lift wells are all covered.
The interval and the detail change with the type. The duty does not.
Who Needs Hoist Inspection Services
The duty sits with whoever controls the hoist day to day. In a workplace that is usually the employer. In a managed building it is often the freeholder or a residents' upkeep company.
A managing agent can book the visit and keep the file. However, the legal duty stays with the party in control.
What it involves
Our guide on who is responsible for inspections under LOLER works through the common building types.
Contractors on site have their own duties. A hire company must supply a hoist with a current report. The site operator must keep it examined while it is in use.
What to check and report
Hire paperwork often shows the date of the last examination, so check that date on supply rather than after the hoist is built and working.
Care providers should treat patient hoists as people-carrying equipment. That puts them on the shorter interval and makes slings part of the check. Slings wear quickly and are usually examined at the same visit.
Missing them is one of the most common gaps we see reported.
Small firms are not exempt because the equipment is small.
A single chain block over a workshop bench, a kitchen dumb waiter or a roof hoist above a shop all count as lifting equipment at work.
The examination for a modest hoist is short and inexpensive. The report is the only evidence you will have that the check was done at all.
Where several groups share a site, name one of them as the party arranging the examination and share the report with the others.
Shared yards, shared loading bays and buildings mid-refit are the classic cases where two parties each assume the other has booked the visit. The equipment quietly runs past its due date.
What Happens on the Day
A typical visit runs in a set order. The competent person reads the equipment record and the last report. They check the marked safe working load.
They look at the structure, the guides. The ropes or chains and the anchor points. They test the brake and the emergency stop.
Safety and UK rules
They finish with the safety devices that stop the hoist if something fails.
Some checks need the hoist out of use for a short period. Plan for that.
A goods hoist in a busy kitchen or a builders' hoist on a live site should be booked at a quiet hour and taken out of service properly, with signage at every landing.
Never work around a hoist that has been isolated for examination.
What to check and report
The visit ends with a verbal summary and, shortly after, the written report.
If the competent person finds a defect that could cause danger, they must tell you without delay and notify the enforcing authority in the cases the rules set out.
Treat any such call as a stop-use instruction until you are told otherwise.
Intervals, Records and Written Schemes
Hoists that lift people are normally examined every six months. Hoists that lift only goods are normally examined every twelve months.
A written scheme of examination drawn up by a competent person can set different intervals where the use pattern justifies it.
Any exceptional event — an overload, an impact, a long period out of use, a move to a new site. Triggers an extra examination before the hoist goes back into service.
What to check and report
Records matter as much as the visit. Keep the last two reports for each hoist. The current written scheme if you have one.
The service log and a note of every defect and how it was closed out.
A one-page summary per hoist is the single most useful document to hand a new agent, a new insurer or an inspector.
Safety and UK rules
The parallel duty under PUWER covers suitability, maintenance and training. Our PUWER inspection guide explains how the two regimes sit together. A valid hoist inspection report does not close out PUWER duties, and PUWER checks do not replace a thorough examination.
Choosing a Hoist Inspection Provider
Ask three questions before you book. Who is the competent person, and what are their qualifications for this type of hoist? How independent are they from the company that maintains the equipment?
What does the report look like, and how quickly will you get it? A provider who answers all three clearly is usually a safe choice.
Independence is a judgement, not a rule. The point is that the person writing the report should be free to say the equipment is unfit without damaging their own commercial interest.
Many building owners use their maintenance company for servicing and a separate insurance-linked surveyor for the examination. Others use one provider with a documented internal separation.
Compare like with like on price. A quote that covers the examination, the report. Sling checks and a defect list is not like a quote that covers an attendance only.
Our inspection cost guide covers the usual UK ranges. lift inspections compared shows how examinations, servicing and repairs differ.
Keeping Hoists Inspection Ready
Most defects found at examination were visible weeks earlier. Train the people who use the hoist to report what they see and hear. A new rattle, a chain that jumps.
A control that needs a second press, a load light that stays on, oil on the floor beneath a ram. All of these belong in the log. Reporting is safe.
Investigating inside the equipment is not.
Keep the safe working load plate readable and keep it accurate. If the hoist has been modified, the plate and the written scheme both need to reflect the change.
An unreadable plate is a straightforward finding at examination and an easy one to prevent.
If you manage a hoist inside a lift well, read our companion guide to lift shaft hoists. Shaft-mounted equipment brings extra questions about access. Isolation and who is allowed near the well.
Who to ask and what to expect
Never enter a shaft or a pit to look at a hoist yourself. Describe what you have seen from a safe position and ask a lift engineer to attend.
Where you are starting from nothing — a portfolio taken over with no records. Book a fresh examination on every hoist and rebuild the file from those reports.
It is cheaper than guessing, and it gives you a clean date to schedule the next round from.
Costs, Scheduling and Common Mistakes
Price depends on the type of hoist. How many you have on one site. How much access preparation is needed and how many parts come with each unit.
A single small goods hoist examined on its own costs more per unit than ten hoists examined in one visit.
Who to ask and what to expect
If you manage several buildings, ask for a portfolio schedule rather than booking each one separately as it falls due.
Planning is where most compliance gaps start. Put every hoist on one calendar with the due month, not the due day, and book six weeks ahead.
Equipment that comes and goes — hire hoists, patient hoists moved between rooms, hoists stored over winter. Needs a line on that calendar too.
Because the interval keeps running whether the equipment is in use or not.
What to check and report
Three mistakes come up again and again. The first is treating a service sheet as an examination report. They look nothing alike and only one satisfies the duty.
The second is filing the report without reading the defect list. So an action item sits open for months.
The third is losing the trail at handover, when a new agent, insurer or maintenance provider arrives and nobody passes on the file.
A fourth, quieter mistake is examining the hoist but not the parts. Slings, chains, shackles and hooks are lifting parts with their own records.
A report that covers the hoist alone leaves half the equipment undocumented. It is usually the parts that fail first because they take the wear.
Costs and timescales
Where a defect is found, agree the response in writing on the day. Note what was found, whether the hoist stays in service, who is fixing it. The date the fix will be confirmed.
That single note turns an open finding into a closed one and gives you a clean answer if anyone asks later.
Prefer to Talk It Through?
Some things are quicker on a call. Book a free 30-minute slot with Lukasz Zelezny and bring your questions — no forms, no waiting for a reply.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a hoist inspection the same as a service?
No. A service keeps the hoist working — lubrication, adjustment, replacing worn parts. A thorough examination is an independent safety assessment that produces a written report.
You normally need both, and a full service history does not satisfy the examination duty.
- How often do hoist inspection services need to happen?
Every six months for hoists used to lift people, and every twelve months for goods-only hoists, unless a written scheme of examination drawn up by a competent person sets a different interval.
An extra examination is needed after any event likely to have affected safety, such as an overload or a move to a new site.
- Who can carry out a hoist thorough examination?
A competent person: someone with the training, knowledge and experience for that type of equipment. Enough independence to give a honest opinion.
Many owners use an insurance-linked engineering surveyor or a specialist inspection body separate from their maintenance provider.
- What should I do if the report lists a dangerous defect?
Stop using the hoist, make sure it cannot be used by anyone else, and contact your maintenance provider straight away. Record the date, the defect and the action taken.
Do not try to assess or repair the equipment yourself. Do not put it back in service until a qualified engineer confirms it is safe.
- Do hire hoists still need inspecting on my site?
Yes. The hire company must supply equipment with a current report. However, once the hoist is in use on your site the duty to keep it examined sits with whoever controls it there.
Check the date of the last examination on supply and diary the next one.
Still unsure? Put it in an email.
Describe what you can see or hear from where you normally stand. We read every message, and we will tell you plainly whether it is something to report to your lift company or something already covered here.
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