Lesson 2 of 7Safety and the law
Who is responsible for a lift.
Several people can have legal duties for the same lift. Who they are depends on the building, who controls the lift and what the leases and contracts say. This lesson explains who does what.
One lift, several duty holders.
No law names a single person as responsible for a lift. Different laws give people duties because of their role: the employer whose staff use the lift, whoever controls the building or the lift, the companies hired to work on it and, for fire and building safety, the responsible person and the accountable person. In a small building these may all be the same person. In a large one they rarely are.
HSE’s word for the person responsible for lifting equipment, such as a lift, is the dutyholder.
HSE guidance
The dutyholder is “the person responsible for the lifting equipment. Usually this is the employer or self-employed person. It is not necessarily always the employer; it may be a building owner, person in charge of the equipment or a hire company.”
Owner or landlord
Whoever owns or runs a building usually holds the main duties for its lift. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, anyone who controls non-domestic premises, or a lift in them, to any extent must take reasonable measures to make sure it is safe, so far as is reasonably practicable. A lease that makes a landlord responsible for repairs counts as control.
HSE’s guidance says the owner of an office block who provides a lift for the people working there has a duty under LOLER to keep it safe and have it thoroughly examined.
Employers
LOLER and PUWER apply to employers whose staff use a lift at work, and to anyone else who controls it, to the extent of their control. So a business whose staff use a lift in a building it rents can have duties as well as the landlord.
Employers who share a workplace must co-operate with each other and co-ordinate what they do to comply with the law.
Managing agent
A managing agent acts for the owner under a contract. Where the contract makes the agent responsible for maintaining or repairing the lift, the law treats the agent as having control of it to that extent, so the agent has duties too.
Appointing an agent does not end the owner’s own duties. Owners should check that the agent has a maintenance contractor and a competent person in place, and that defects are being put right.
Maintenance contractor
The maintenance contractor services and repairs the lift under its contract. It has its own duties for the safety of its engineers and of anyone affected by its work, and the contract may make it responsible for keeping the lift in repair.
Routine maintenance is not a thorough examination, and the contractor does not take over the dutyholder’s duties.
Competent person
The competent person carries out the thorough examinations that LOLER requires, reports any defects to the dutyholder and, if a defect is dangerous, tells the enforcing authority.
The dutyholder chooses them. HSE advises that they should not be the person who carries out the lift’s routine maintenance, because they would be assessing their own work.
Responsible person
Under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, which applies in England and Wales, the responsible person for a workplace is the employer. For other premises, such as the shared parts of a block of flats, it is whoever controls them in connection with a business, or otherwise the owner.
The responsible person must keep facilities for firefighters, such as firefighting lifts, maintained and in good working order. In England, the responsible person for a high-rise block of flats must also check its firefighting and evacuation lifts every month.
Accountable person
In higher-risk buildings in England, the Building Safety Act 2022 adds accountable persons: those who own the common parts, or have a repairing obligation for them. They must assess and manage the risks of fire spreading and of structural failure in their part of the building.
These duties sit alongside the duties for keeping the lift safe to use. They do not replace them.
Residents and other users
People who use a lift help keep it safe by reporting faults, damage and misuse to whoever manages the building.
Never try to free people trapped in a lift yourself. Use the lift alarm or call the maintenance provider, and call 999 if anyone is in danger.
Duties follow control.
Most lift law turns on control. LOLER applies to employers whose staff use lifting equipment at work, and to anyone else who has control of the equipment, or of the way it is used, to the extent of that control. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 does the same for anyone who controls non-domestic premises and the plant in them, such as a lift.
Leases and contracts help decide who has control. Under the 1974 Act, an obligation under a contract or tenancy to maintain or repair premises, or for the safety of the plant in them, counts as control, as far as the obligation goes.
The law
“Where a person has, by virtue of any contract or tenancy, an obligation of any extent in relation to … the maintenance or repair of any premises … that person shall be treated … as being a person who has control of the matters to which his obligation extends.”
Fire safety law in England and Wales works the same way: a contract or tenancy that makes someone responsible for maintaining, repairing or keeping premises safe gives them fire safety duties to the same extent. So to know who holds which duties in a building, start with its leases and contracts.
Where duties are shared, the law expects people to work together. Employers who share a workplace, such as an office block let to several businesses, must co-operate and co-ordinate the measures they take. Responsible persons who share premises must do the same for fire safety.
You can hire out the work, not the duty.
Most dutyholders hire specialists: a maintenance contractor to service and repair the lift, and a competent person to carry out its thorough examinations. That is normal and sensible. But hiring them does not pass on the duty to make sure the lift is maintained, examined and put right.
HSE guidance
“As the dutyholder you are legally responsible for ensuring that the lift is safe to use and that it is thoroughly examined.”
HSE lists the dutyholder’s responsibilities as:
- Maintaining the lift so that it is safe to use
- Choosing and instructing the competent person
- Making sure the lift is examined at the intervals the law sets, or as a competent person’s examination scheme sets out
- Telling the competent person about changes in how the lift is used that may affect their assessment
- Giving the competent person the relevant documents, such as the manufacturer’s instructions and the maintenance records
- Acting promptly to put defects right
- Making sure the paperwork meets the regulations, and keeping records
| Task | Who holds the duty | Who often does the work |
|---|---|---|
| Maintain the lift so it is safe to use | The dutyholder | A lift maintenance contractor |
| Have the lift thoroughly examined | The dutyholder | A competent person who does not maintain the lift |
| Put defects right | The dutyholder | The maintenance contractor, once instructed |
| Keep the records | The dutyholder | Often a managing agent, using reports from the contractor and the examiner |
| Report a dangerous occurrence, such as the failure of a load-bearing part of a lift | The employer of an injured worker, or otherwise the business in control of the premises | The same person, or someone acting for them |
| Check firefighting and evacuation lifts every month in a high-rise block of flats in England | The responsible person | Often a lift contractor |
A maintenance contractor also has its own duties, for the safety of its engineers and anyone affected by its work. But routine maintenance is not a thorough examination, and a maintenance contract does not take over the dutyholder’s duties. Our guide to lift maintenance contracts explains what a contract should cover.
Who usually holds the duties.
The pattern changes with the building. This table shows the usual position, but the leases and contracts decide in each case.
| Building | Who usually holds the duties | Main laws |
|---|---|---|
| An office or shop the occupier owns | The occupier, as the employer and as the person in control of the building | The 1974 Act, LOLER, PUWER and fire safety law |
| An office block let to several businesses | The owner or landlord who provides the lift, and each employer whose staff use it, to the extent of their control | The 1974 Act, LOLER, PUWER and fire safety law |
| A block of flats | The freeholder or landlord, or a management company or right to manage company, depending on the leases | Section 4 of the 1974 Act, fire safety law for the shared parts, and the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 for service charges |
| A higher-risk block of flats in England | As for a block of flats, with accountable persons and a principal accountable person | As for a block of flats, plus the Building Safety Act 2022 and the Fire Safety (England) Regulations 2022 |
| A hospital or care home | The organisation that runs it, such as an NHS trust or the owner of the care home | The 1974 Act, LOLER, PUWER and fire safety law |
| A private home | The homeowner, in practice. LOLER does not apply to equipment someone buys for their own use at home, but an employer whose staff use the lift, such as a care provider, must still protect them | The 1974 Act, for employers of people who work in the home |
HSE’s guidance gives two examples. The owner of an office block who provides a lift for the people working there “has a duty under LOLER to ensure that the passenger lift is safe to use and that it receives periodic thorough examinations and, where appropriate, inspections.” A lift in a block of flats, by contrast, is mainly for the residents, so it is not work equipment. It should meet section 4 of the 1974 Act instead, and following LOLER and PUWER will probably satisfy that duty. Our lesson on passenger lift regulations explains the difference.
Blocks of flats.
In a block of flats, the lift is usually one of the common parts that the freeholder or landlord, or a management company or right to manage company, must repair under the leases. The leaseholders usually pay for it through the service charge. A managing agent often runs the lift contracts, acting for whoever holds the repairing obligation.
Consulting leaseholders
In England, a landlord must consult the leaseholders before carrying out works that would cost any one of them more than £250, such as modernising a lift. The same applies before entering into an agreement lasting more than a year that would cost any leaseholder more than £100 in a year, which can include a lift maintenance contract. This is often called section 20 consultation. If the landlord does not consult, and a tribunal does not excuse it, the amount it can recover from each leaseholder is capped at those amounts. Our guide to lift maintenance contracts and section 20 explains when consultation applies to a maintenance contract.
Higher-risk buildings in England
A higher-risk building is one in England at least 18 metres high or with at least 7 storeys that contains at least 2 residential units. Its accountable persons are those who own its common parts, or have a repairing obligation for them. The common parts include “any part of the building provided for the use, benefit and enjoyment of the residents of more than one residential unit”, which covers a lift that serves more than one flat.
Accountable persons must assess the risks of fire spreading and of structural failure in their part of the building, and take all reasonable steps to prevent them and to reduce the harm if they happen. Where there is more than one, the principal accountable person is the one responsible for the structure and exterior, and commits an offence if the building is occupied but not registered. Our lesson on fire safety duties for lifts covers what this means for lifts.
Choosing the competent person.
The dutyholder chooses the competent person who carries out the thorough examinations. HSE says they need enough technical and practical knowledge of the lift to find defects and judge how serious they are, and enough independence to judge it objectively.
HSE guidance
“It is also important that the competent person is sufficiently independent and impartial to allow them to make an objective assessment of the lift. For this reason, it is not advisable for the same person who performs routine maintenance to carry out the thorough examination, as they are then responsible for assessing their own work.”
The competent person can come from an outside company or from your own organisation. HSE’s guidance says an in-house examiner needs the “genuine authority and independence” to make sure examinations are carried out properly and that recommendations are made “without fear or favour”. It adds that accreditation by UKAS to BS EN ISO/IEC 17020 is an indication of an inspection body’s competence, and that most insurance companies can recommend accredited inspecting organisations.
If we maintain your lift, we work alongside your competent person: we arrange access, provide the maintenance records and carry out the repairs you approve. Our guide to LOLER inspections for property managers covers the paperwork that most often goes missing.
Questions to settle for your building.
Whether you own a building, manage one or have just taken one on, these questions show who holds which duties and whether anything has been missed.
- Who has control of each lift under the leases, and under any management contract?
- Who appoints the maintenance contractor, and what does the contract cover?
- Who appoints the competent person, and is the examiner independent of the maintenance contractor?
- Who receives the examination reports, and who approves and pays for repairs?
- Where are the lift’s records kept, and who keeps them up to date?
- Who reports incidents under RIDDOR, and, in a high-rise block of flats in England, who reports lift faults to the fire and rescue service?
- If several people hold duties, how do they share information and agree who does what?
Our compliance resources list the documents to keep for each lift.
Not legal advice
This lesson explains the law in plain English. Leases and contracts differ, so for decisions about a particular building, take legal advice, and rely on your competent person for the lift itself.
Check your understanding.
Three quick questions on this lesson. Choose an answer to check it, or open the answer below each question.
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A lease makes a landlord responsible for repairing a lift. How does health and safety law treat that?
Show the answer
A. As control of the lift, to the extent of the repair obligation. The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 treats anyone with a maintenance or repair obligation under a contract or tenancy as having control of the matters the obligation covers, so the duties follow that control.
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You hire a maintenance contractor and an inspection body. Who must make sure the defects in the examination report are put right?
Show the answer
C. The dutyholder, such as the owner or whoever controls the lift. Hiring specialists does not hand over the legal duty. HSE lists acting promptly to remedy defects among the dutyholder’s responsibilities, so the dutyholder must instruct the repairs and check they are done.
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Why does HSE advise against a lift’s maintenance engineer carrying out its thorough examination?
Show the answer
B. They would be assessing their own work. HSE says the competent person should be independent and impartial enough to assess the lift objectively. LOLER does not expressly forbid the maintainer examining the lift, but HSE advises against it because they would be assessing their own work.
Sources.
The primary sources for this lesson. We checked them when the lesson was last updated on 18 October 2026. How we research and check our lessons.
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Questions about your lift duties?
Talk to us about maintaining your lifts, arranging their examinations and putting defects right.
Common questions.
Quick answers to common questions about this topic.
Who is responsible for lift maintenance in a block of flats?
Usually the freeholder or landlord, or a management company or right to manage company, depending on what the leases say. HSE says a lift in a block of flats is not work equipment, so LOLER does not apply to it, but it should meet section 4 of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and following LOLER and PUWER will probably satisfy that duty. Leaseholders usually pay through the service charge.
Is the lift maintenance company responsible for my lift?
Not on its own. A maintenance contractor has duties for the work it does, and its contract may make it responsible for keeping the lift in repair. But the owner, or whoever controls the lift, keeps its own duties, including making sure the lift is thoroughly examined by a competent person and that defects are put right.
Can the maintenance company carry out the LOLER thorough examination?
LOLER does not expressly forbid it, but HSE advises against it. Its guidance says the competent person should not normally be the person who carries out the routine maintenance, because they would be assessing their own work. HSE notes that most insurance companies can recommend accredited inspecting organisations.
Who is the dutyholder for a lift in an office building?
If the business that occupies the building owns it, that business. If the building is let, HSE says the owner who provides a lift for the people working there has a duty under LOLER to keep it safe and have it thoroughly examined. Employers whose staff use the lift can have duties too, so the landlord and tenants should agree who arranges maintenance and examinations.
What is an accountable person?
Under the Building Safety Act 2022, an accountable person owns, or has a repairing obligation for, the common parts of a higher-risk building in England: one at least 18 metres high or with at least 7 storeys that contains at least 2 residential units. Accountable persons must assess and manage the risks of fire spreading and of structural failure.