There are many common costs that can be incurred, so read your lift agreement carefully and consider the following...

• Determine your Call Outs fees:

Call out fees can significantly affect a lift maintenance budget. Before committing to a lift maintenance agreement it is essential that the cost of business hours call out fees be clearly established. If your lift is in good condition, has been maintained and less than 8 years old, allow for two business hours call outs per year. The cost of the two call outs should then be added to the maintenance agreement costs. This will result in a more realistic number on what your maintenance agreement actually costs. Be careful with “Comprehensive “ agreements as keys down shafts, damage by removalists, flooding, acts of God, obsolete parts and power outages are just some of the exclusions, so, you will still have call out fees. After hours call outs can be expensive, ranging from $1,200 to $3,000, depending on the company. Generally speaking, there should be relatively few after hours call outs on lifts, except for emergency passenger release. Most lift owners find that they do not require after hour calls as they can generally wait until the next working day when call outs may be covered, depending on the agreement.

• Routine Quality Maintenance:

Ensure that your lift is receiving the correct number of services per year based on its use, number of trips, age and type of equipment. Lift companies can assist with this, a guide is 5000 trips between services or at least every year, but this is a guide only. Lift maintenance visits should be 45 minutes plus to allow for cleaning and adjusting of items in the shaft to prevent failures and wear and tear, not just a 10-15 minute “tick and flick” service

• Water in lift pits:

This needs to be attended to promptly to avoid corrosion of critical items such as steel ropes, rams etc.. The attached images show a cracking example of not attending to water in the pit. Some lift companies have pumps with every maintenance van to promptly pump out pits and negate the need for the cost and hassle of coordinating a plumber and the lift company! Some lift companies also assist after flooding with corrosion prevention by promptly spaying pit items with WD40 on several visits. This can save many thousands of dollars.

The water damage in the sample images could have been easily prevented . Neglecting a lift like this can be very expensive as well as it being taken out of service until it was made safe:

• Building occupiers and lift user agreements:

Body Corporate managers or OC’s can make, in writing, all building occupiers and users aware of the costs associated with misuse of the lift by cleaners, removalists and delivery services. The majority of after hour call outs and door and cabin damage that our company experiences are caused by removalists. They just don’t seem to care. This potential cost can be noted in rental agreements and be a part of a bond arrangement? After-hours cleaning services commonly have their power leads and cleaning items in doorways as the close. This sometimes traps the cleaner as well, so at least there is a learning experience!

• Power supply

Power supply to buildings in Melbourne is becoming increasing unreliable. Power interruptions are among the leading and, if not, the leading cause of lift outages and passenger entrapments. The cost of emergency call outs to passengers after hours can be mitigated by ensuring battery back/uninterrupted power supplies are checked regularly, this is a part of every quality lift service.

I trust that the above few simple points can save you many thousands of dollars per year, it is also nice for lift companies when lifts are looked after!

Published: February 13, 2026