Lift LOLER Inspection

A lift LOLER inspection usually takes between one and three hours, depending on the size and complexity of the lift.

The engineer will usually need the lift taken out of normal service for part of that time. So it is worth warning building occupants in advance, especially in buildings with limited stair access.

The engineer examines the lift's mechanical, electrical and building condition, checks safety devices such as the overspeed governor and final limit switches, and reviews the lift's maintenance history.

They will usually want access to the machine room or motor room, the lift pit, and the car itself. So someone should be available to give access and answer questions about recent faults.

Once the examination is complete, the engineer records their findings and issues a report of thorough examination, usually within 28 days of the examination for lifts and sooner if a defect presents an immediate danger.

Anyone unsure what to expect can also read our wider guide to UK lift inspections, which sets the LOLER visit in context alongside servicing and PUWER checks.

Booking a lift LOLER inspection is the duty holder's responsibility, though in practice a managing agent or building manager usually arranges it on the duty holder's behalf.

The duty holder is whoever has control of the lift. Often the employer, landlord, or residents' upkeep company, depending on the building.

Safety and UK rules

Our guide to who carries this responsibility, inspections under LOLER, sets out how to spot the right party in different building types.

Many lift maintenance contracts include the LOLER thorough examination as part of the package. However, it is worth confirming this explicitly rather than assuming it.

Some maintenance providers arrange it through a separate, independent competent-person group to satisfy the independence need, and bill it as a distinct line item.

Either way, the booking should never be left to chance between two groups who both assume the other is handling it.

If you manage several lifts across a portfolio, it is worth keeping a simple schedule showing each lift's last and next examination date. So bookings do not slip past the interval.

Costs and timescales

Missing an interval by even a few weeks can create a compliance gap that is difficult to explain after an incident.

LOLER needs the examination to be done by a "competent person". Someone with the practical and theoretical knowledge and experience to examine the lift properly and spot defects.

This is a specific qualification, not a general engineering background. Most competent persons work for specialist inspection bodies or insurance-linked engineering surveyors.

Safety and UK rules

Independence is central to the value of a lift LOLER inspection. The competent person should be sufficiently separate from the day-to-day maintenance of the lift.

So that maintenance shortcomings are not simply self-certified as acceptable by the same group that done the work.

This is why many buildings use a different company for the thorough examination than for routine servicing.

Who to ask and what to expect

If your maintenance provider also does your LOLER thorough examinations, ask how independence is maintained internally — for example, through a separate surveying division with its own reporting line.

If they cannot explain this clearly, it is worth considering a really independent provider for the examination itself.

A lift LOLER inspection covers the building condition of the lift. Its guides and suspension, the drive system, the braking and overspeed protection.

The door interlocks and detection devices, the electrical safety circuits, and the general condition of the pit and headroom.

Safety and UK rules

The competent person is checking whether the lift remains fit to continue lifting people or goods safely until the next examination.

The examination also reviews the lift's maintenance records. Looking for evidence that recommended work from previous reports has actually been done.

What to check and report

A pattern of repeated, unaddressed recommendations is a red flag that the competent person will usually escalate in their report.

Readers wanting to understand where this fits alongside the parallel PUWER regime. This covers safe operation rather than lifting fitness specially.

Can compare the two in our guide to the difference between LOLER and PUWER inspections.

The report of thorough examination is a formal document, not an informal note. It identifies the lift, states the date of examination, lists any defects found, and categorises each defect by urgency.

Defects that present an existing or imminent danger must be reported at once, often by phone or email ahead of the written report.

The lift may need to be taken out of service until rectified.

Costs and timescales

Other defects are usually categorised as needing attention within a specified timescale, or noted as observations that should be monitored but do not need immediate action.

The duty holder is responsible for acting on each category appropriately. Ignoring a defect noted with a deadline is a compliance failure in its own right, separate from the underlying mechanical issue.

Safety and UK rules

If you receive a report with defects you do not understand, ask the competent person or your maintenance provider to explain them in plain terms and confirm a rectification plan with dates.

A report that simply sits in a filing cabinet unread defeats the purpose of the lift LOLER inspection entirely.

Preparing for a lift LOLER inspection is mostly about access and paperwork. Make sure the machine room, pit and any control panels are accessible and not blocked by stored items.

Have the last two or three reports of thorough examination and recent maintenance records ready for the engineer to review. This speeds up the visit and helps the engineer spot patterns over time.

Who to ask and what to expect

If your building has restricted pit access, low headroom, or any unusual configuration, it is worth flagging this to the engineer when booking so they can bring the right equipment.

Buildings with bespoke or older lifts sometimes need extra time on site. This is worth building into the schedule.

What to check and report

Once the report arrives, keep it with previous reports rather than replacing them.

Most duty holders keep records for the life of the lift, and at an absolute minimum until at least two further examinations have superseded it.

A complete run of records is what insurers, incoming managing agents and enforcing councils will ask to see, and a gap in the sequence is far more likely to raise questions than a single defect that was properly rectified.

If you are unsure how to spot the exact lift referenced on old paperwork, our guide on how to find your lift's serial number will help match records to the right unit.

The headline timescale for a lift LOLER inspection is the examination interval itself:

• Six months for lifts carrying people
• Twelve months for goods-only lifts
• Unless a written scheme of examination sets a different interval based on a risk assessment

Missing this interval, even by a short period. Creates a compliance gap that is difficult to justify afterwards.

Separately, there is a timescale for reporting:

• Any defect presenting an existing or imminent danger must be notified to the duty holder as soon as practicable
• Often the same day
• Ahead of the full written report

The complete written report of thorough examination should follow within 28 days of the examination date for most lift fittings.

A third timescale applies to rectification. The report will usually specify a period within which any non-urgent defect must be fixed. Commonly expressed in weeks or months depending on severity.

Duty holders should track these deadlines actively rather than waiting for the next planned visit. Since a missed rectification deadline is itself a compliance failure.

Receiving the report of thorough examination is not the end of the process. It is the start of the duty holder's duties under that report.

Read it in full, not just the summary page, and confirm you understand every defect listed and its assigned category and timescale.

Where a defect needs the lift to be taken out of service.

What it involves

Arrange the repair promptly and keep evidence of when the work was completed, ideally with a follow-up note from the engineer confirming the lift is fit to return to use.

Where a defect is lower priority. Schedule the work and note the planned date in your compliance file rather than leaving it open-ended.

Share the outcome with anyone who needs it — a managing agent, an insurer at renewal, or a landlord under a lease that makes them responsible for common-parts equipment.

Safety and UK rules

A lift LOLER inspection report that sits unread in an inbox gives no protection at all. Its value comes entirely from the actions taken in response to it.

Picture a managing agent responsible for six passenger lifts spread across three housing blocks. Each lift needs a lift LOLER inspection every six months.

However, if all six are booked independently as each interval falls due. The agent ends up dealing with a near-constant stream of separate visits, reports and follow-up actions throughout the year.

A more efficient approach groups lifts by site and books the same competent-person group for all six on a rolling schedule, spacing visits so no two examinations land in the same busy period.

Such as the run-up to an insurance renewal. This also makes it easier to track which reports have outstanding rectification work and which are fully closed out.

Keeping a single master schedule, even a simple spreadsheet listing each lift's serial number, last examination date, next due date and any open defects, turns a possibly chaotic multi-lift LOLER inspection programme into something that can be checked at a glance and defended easily if an insurer or enforcing authority asks for evidence of compliance.

A frequent mistake is booking the lift LOLER inspection with whoever happens to be cheapest that year, without checking they hold genuine competent-person status and enough independence from any maintenance work already done.

A low quote is no saving if the resulting report is not legally sound or misses defects a properly qualified examiner would have caught.

Another common error is letting the interval slip. Because a lift has been out of use for refit or a change of ownership.

Safety and UK rules

LOLER intervals are measured from the date of the last examination, not from when the lift resumes normal service, so a lift left idle for several months can still fall overdue for its next lift LOLER inspection.

A third mistake is reacting to a defect only when the lift next breaks down, rather than acting on the timescale stated in the report.

What to check and report

Duty holders who track rectification deadlines proactively, rather than waiting for a fault to force the issue, always avoid the compliance and safety problems that arise from ignored or forgotten recommendations.

A final mistake worth flagging is assuming that an examination arranged through a maintenance provider automatically satisfies the independence need without asking how.

Some groups run a really separate surveying arm with its own reporting line and quality checks. Others simply relabel a maintenance visit as a thorough examination.

This does not meet the intention of LOLER even if a certificate is produced.

Who to ask and what to expect

If in doubt, ask the provider to explain their independence plans in writing before the next lift LOLER inspection is due.

It is also worth briefing anyone new to a compliance role, such as a newly appointed managing agent or building manager, on what a lift LOLER inspection report actually looks like and where the current and historical copies are stored.

Compliance handovers between staff are a common point where a lift LOLER inspection schedule quietly slips. Simply because the incoming person did not know the paperwork existed or where to find it.