- This topic has 5 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 8 months ago by .
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Anyone living in an old, converted warehouse which still has an old lift? Our lift is very old but still functioning and we have an ongoing service agreement with performance guarantee. Unfortunately, we had a change of attitude by the current service company and they find all kind of excuses why the lift needs to be replaced including difficulty [sourcing] spare parts. In today’s environment with 3D parts manufacturing this should not be such an issue. I am sure that there are technician out there with knowledge and appreciation of old lifts. Any leads would be greatly appreciated. We are in Melbourne, Victoria.
- This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by .
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Remember that lifts are regulated by law.
Whilst what you suggest ie manufacturing spare parts is feasible, you would find it hard to find anyone to “stand by” such a fix, considering there are severe penalties for both the lift owner (you) and the maintenance company should an accident occur.
Lifts are expensive, but so are the penalties for not maintaining them.
You can always get a second or third opinion from other lift maintenance companies, but if any of them are recommending upgrade or replacement, you’d be wise to heed their advice.
It might be worth approaching lift maintenance companies and asking them if they can keep the lift running for the next five or six years while you raise the funds for a refurb – the contract for which they will be guaranteed.
Just bear in mind that if the lift starts to fail and that affects the access to apartments, your owners corp could be up to pay compensation to owners of tenanted flats (as per this story).
Doing nothing now could turn out to be a false economy in the future.
The opinions offered in these Forum posts and replies are not intended to be taken as legal advice. Readers with serious issues should consult experienced strata lawyers.
The lift crowd are right in saying the various older parts are becoming often near impossible to source, and certainly compared to modern plug and play like technology they are much more of a hassle and time consuming to up-keep. I wonder if there was any way to know who was replacing their lift before yours which might be available and from which you could commandeer parts?
In my experience lift maintenance is quite the closed shop to an almost mafioso level of arrangement between providers so going elsewhere is unlikely to address your issue. I imagine your annual budget must need consider servicing the current lift but also allocating future funds to totally upgrading or replacing the lift? There’s no cheap way around it unfortunately.
You might also get an audit and a report on the lift from professional lift consultants (just google “lift consultants” for your location). In NSW we’ve gotten quotes for auditing and then preparing a report on the lift from “AAA Lift Consultants” and “JCA Lift Consultants” who might have a Melbourne branch, or can recommend someone. The cost for an audit of our lift and a report was quoted between around $1k to $2.5k, which is reasonable, when you consider the cost of replacing a lift.
I’m new to the forum and want to chime in. It’s always interesting to hear about the unique challenges of maintaining and repairing older buildings and equipment.
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