Monthly service, annual inspection. A passenger lift has a routine maintenance visit under its contract every month, including a test call from the emergency phone in the car to the monitoring service, a fuller six-monthly inspection of ropes, safety gear, brake and door locks, and an annual inspection by an accredited lift inspector with a certificate issued and kept. In New South Wales the item registration of the lift with SafeWork NSW expires one year after grant and is renewed annually; other states register plant for five years. A five-yearly condition assessment plans rope, sheave, motor and control replacements.
The intervals
| Interval | What happens | Who |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | Routine maintenance visit under the contract: guide rails, sheaves and safety gear lubricated, door operator and door detection adjusted, machine room and pit checked, logbook entries. A busy building runs monthly; a quiet one may agree a longer interval with the contractor. | Lift maintenance contractor |
| Monthly | Emergency phone in the car test-called to the monitoring service and the result recorded. The check most often missed and the one that matters in an entrapment. | Owner or staff, or the contractor |
| Six-monthly | Fuller inspection: suspension ropes or chains for wear, broken wires and lubrication; safety gear; buffers; brake; every electrical safety device and door lock; motor condition. | Lift maintenance contractor |
| Annual | Inspection by an accredited lift inspector: safety gear drop test, machine brake, door locks and interlocks, overspeed governor, buffers and the emergency systems; annual inspection certificate issued and kept. In New South Wales the item registration is renewed with SafeWork NSW before it expires. | Accredited lift inspector; owner for the registration |
| Five-yearly | Condition assessment of ropes, sheaves, motor, brake, control gear and landing assemblies, to plan replacements and any modernisation. | Lift consultant or contractor |
Who does it and what to keep
The lift maintenance contractor does the monthly and six-monthly work and keeps the logbook in the machine room. The annual inspection is by an accredited inspector independent of the routine work, and the certificate is kept with the building's plant records. The person with management or control of the building holds the registration: the number is displayed at the lift, the renewal is lodged before expiry, and a change of that person is notified to the regulator. The records are the logbook, the monthly service reports, the emergency phone test log, the annual certificates and the registration.
The rule behind the interval
The model Work Health and Safety Regulations require passenger and goods lifts to be registered as items of plant, maintained and inspected by a competent person, with records kept. New South Wales renews item registration annually under its regulation; most other states and territories issue five-year registrations. AS 1735 is the design and installation series the lift was built to; the maintenance intervals are set by the contract and the industry's practice, not by a single standard.
Common questions
Does a small goods lift or a platform lift have the same duties?
A goods lift is registrable plant with the same annual inspection. Whether a small service lift or a platform lift is registrable depends on the state and the unit; the maintenance rhythm is still monthly to six-monthly and an annual safety certificate is the norm. Confirm with the regulator for the state the building is in.
What if the annual inspection finds a defect?
The inspector's report lists it with a deadline. A defect that affects safety takes the lift out of service until repaired; the certificate is issued after the repair is verified.
Put it in the register
An interval only holds when the asset is listed with its tasks, its contractor and where the record lives. Standara's library carries this asset with the tasks above attached, so adding it to a site's register produces the year's schedule, the monthly to-do list and the completion record the auditor or insurer asks for. The fuller picture, with the neighbouring assets and the rule behind each interval, is in the Lift maintenance schedule.
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- A worked example: one club's register, planner and records for a year
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