Every lift in a managed building is on some kind of maintenance contract. Far fewer property managers can say with confidence what that contract actually buys them, or whether the visits being signed off are doing the job. This guide sets out what good planned maintenance looks like, so you can tell whether yours is genuine or just a tick on a sheet.
What planned preventative maintenance is for
Planned preventative maintenance, usually shortened to PPM, is the routine servicing that keeps a lift safe and reliable day to day. Its purpose is to catch wear and small faults early, adjust and lubricate the moving parts, and keep the safety systems working as designed, so the lift does not deteriorate into breakdowns and call-outs. It is the difference between a lift that quietly works and one that lurches from one fault to the next. Good PPM is the cheapest reliability you can buy, because the repair you prevent is always cheaper than the one you react to.
How often a lift should be serviced
There is no single correct number of visits a year. The right frequency depends on how hard the lift works and what it carries. A lift in a busy residential block running hundreds of journeys a day needs servicing more often than a lightly used lift in a small office. The factors a competent contractor weighs are the usage level, the age and condition of the equipment, the environment it works in, and the consequences of it failing, for example whether it is the only accessible route into a building.
The professional standard most reputable contractors work to is SFG20, the recognised benchmark for building maintenance schedules, which sets out task by task what should be done and how often. The point is that frequency should be justified by the lift in front of you, not pulled from thin air. If your contract specifies the same number of visits for every lift regardless of how hard each one works, that is worth questioning.
What a real maintenance visit includes
A genuine service visit is hands on and takes time. While the exact tasks vary by lift type and the SFG20 schedule, a proper visit covers the same broad ground.
- Doors. The busiest and most fault prone part of the lift. Operators, tracks, safety edges and interlocks checked, cleaned and adjusted.
- Safety gear. The components that stop the lift safely in a fault condition, inspected and confirmed to be working.
- Levelling. Confirming the car stops accurately at each landing, with no step at the threshold.
- The emergency phone. A test of the autodialler so a trapped passenger can reach a person. This is easy to skip and important not to.
- Lubrication and adjustment. The routine care that keeps the ride smooth and the wear slow.
- Controller and drive checks. Looking for the early signs of the intermittent faults that turn into breakdowns.
The visit should end with a clear record of what was done, what was found, and anything that needs attention. Catching wear at this stage is exactly what stops it becoming the kind of fault we describe in our guide to common lift faults.
PPM and LOLER are not the same thing
This is the distinction property managers most often blur. Maintenance keeps the lift running well. The LOLER thorough examination is a separate, independent check that the lift is safe to use, carried out by a competent person who is independent of the servicing. A well maintained lift can still need its thorough examination, and passing one does not mean the lift has been maintained. You need both, performed separately, ideally by different parties. Our LOLER inspections guide explains the examination side in full.
Maintenance is the contractor keeping your lift in good order. The thorough examination is an independent expert confirming it is safe. Treating one as a substitute for the other is the single most common compliance mistake we see.
What good reporting looks like
If you cannot see what was done, you cannot tell whether maintenance is happening. Good reporting is specific. It records the date, the engineer, the tasks completed, the condition found, and any recommendations, with photographs where they help. It flags anything urgent clearly rather than burying it. And it lives somewhere you can find it, not in an email thread or a folder in a motor room. Reporting you have to chase is a sign of a contractor who would rather you did not look too closely.
Signs your PPM is really box-ticking
Some warning signs that the maintenance is thinner than the invoice suggests.
- Visits that are suspiciously quick, with the engineer in and out in minutes.
- Identical reports each time, as if copied, with nothing ever found or recommended.
- The same faults recurring between visits, suggesting the cause is never addressed.
- Reports that are vague, late, or only appear when you ask.
- The emergency phone never mentioned, despite being a required check.
If several of these ring true, the maintenance may be costing you the reliability it is supposed to buy. That is often the moment property managers decide to look elsewhere, which we cover in our guide to switching lift maintenance provider.
Maintenance and the lifecycle
Good maintenance also buys you time on the bigger decisions. A well serviced lift ages more slowly and gives clearer warning when it is genuinely reaching the end of its economic life, rather than failing suddenly. When the balance does start to tip towards modernisation, that decision is best made on evidence from a consistent maintenance record. Our framework on repair or replace walks through how to make that call, and our modernisation service covers the work itself.
Where Durant Lifts fits in
We provide planned lift maintenance across London, Kent and the South East, working to SFG20 schedules with frequencies matched to how each lift is used. Every visit produces a clear, photographed report in Durant OS, so you can see exactly what was done and what was found without chasing anyone. If you are not sure your current maintenance is doing its job, we are happy to review a few of your recent reports and tell you plainly. See our maintenance service for how we work.
Not sure your lift maintenance is doing its job?
Send us a few recent service reports and we will tell you plainly whether they show real maintenance or box-ticking. Honest advice, no obligation.
