A lift in an apartment building is high-risk equipment, and the owner - that is, the co-owners - is responsible for it. What this means for the board: when the lift needs an inspection, how the decision is made, how long it all takes and where the schedule usually slips.
The owner. In an apartment building that means the co-owners represented by the OSBB - or the building manager, if the building has been handed over to one under a contract. A contract with a maintenance company does not transfer this responsibility: it allocates the work, not the status.
The Rules for the Construction and Safe Operation of Lifts - NPAOP 0.00-1.02-08, approved by Order No. 190 of the State Committee for Industrial Safety, Labour Protection and Mining Supervision (Derzhhirpromnahliad) of 01.09.2008 - cover the entire life of the equipment after delivery: installation, operation, repair, reconstruction and modernization. The Technical Regulation on Lifts and Safety Components for Lifts (Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine Resolution No. 438 of 21.06.2017) applies at a different stage - when new equipment is placed on the market. Buying a new lift? Look at the Regulation. Living with one that is already installed? Look at the Rules.
For the board this means three things: there must be a contract with a specialized organization from the first day of operation, a specific, named person is appointed by order, and that person completes occupational safety training with a knowledge test. More on the acts themselves in our legislation guide.
The twenty-five years everyone mentions are stated in the equipment passport as the designated service life. This is not a date after which the lift is switched off - it is the point after which further operation is decided not by the board or the maintenance company but by an expert inspection. The inspection is carried out by a specialized organization, and the procedure for conducting it and issuing the report is set by methodology OMD 33497324.005-2014.
The report answers whether further operation is possible, for how long and on what conditions - as a rule, with a list of mandatory replacements. Until you have it, any cost estimate is guesswork, and it is too early to put one to the general meeting.
Modernization is enough when the shaft, guide rails and load-bearing steelwork are in satisfactory condition, the traction machine still has service life left, and the problem lies in an outdated controller, the doors or the car finishes. Full replacement is justified when the mechanical parts themselves are worn out: if the traction machine, car and counterweight have all reached their limit at the same time, modernization comes to 70-80% of the cost of a new lift. A separate case is discontinued equipment, for which spare parts are effectively unavailable. We do not install or offer equipment from Russia or Belarus - this narrows the choice of manufacturers but settles the spare-parts question for years ahead.
Selection criteria and timescales by stage are covered in the article "Modernization or full lift replacement", and the scope of work on the "Lift modernization and replacement" service page.
The sequence here is not a formality: until you have the passport and the inspection report, the rest of the conversation is about figures plucked out of thin air.
The longest stage is not the work in the building but manufacturing and delivering the equipment: roughly two to four months. Dismantling takes three to seven days and installation two to four weeks. Overall, it comes to about three to five months from order to start-up, and the general meeting should be planned with that in mind.
Next comes the pit. For the board this is the most unpleasant line in the estimate, because the pit cannot be seen from the entrance: you raised money for a lift, and now you also have to pay for waterproofing. While there is water standing in the pit, there is no point installing new equipment - it will start rusting within the first season. The same goes for a shallow pit and low headroom: then either the pit is deepened or a model with a reduced rated speed is chosen.
And the building is occupied - that is not a technical problem but an organizational one. Nobody needs to move out: the work takes place within the shaft and the machine room. But if the entrance has only one lift and there are elderly people or a bedridden patient on the upper floors, everyone will feel the period without the lift. That is why residents must know the dates in advance, and it is better if the board announces them rather than the crew on the day of dismantling.
A site survey and cost calculation before any commitment. The calculation is itemized: equipment, dismantling, installation, building work, commissioning. With a document like this you can go to the general meeting - the co-owners see exactly what the money is being collected for and are less likely to ask "where did the money go".
For OSBBs and housing cooperatives we also prepare a defect report and cost estimate - without them you cannot apply for co-financing. Programme requirements change every year, so we check the form before submission rather than reusing last year's.
You don't have to take our word for it: 163 signed contracts with 42 clients since 2016 are publicly available in the Prozorro register. Housing accounts for 70 of them: the district administrations of Lviv City Council and the City Council's Department of Housing and Infrastructure.
Scope of work, shaft survey, selection to fit the existing dimensions.
Selection criteria and timescales by stage - ahead of the co-owners' meeting.
What NPAOP, the Technical Regulation and building codes require.
Scheduled inspections, emergency call-outs, record keeping.
Because the contractor can be changed, but the owner cannot. The Rules for the Construction and Safe Operation of Lifts (NPAOP 0.00-1.02-08) place the operating duties on the owner - the co-owners represented by the OSBB, or the building manager if the building has been handed over to one under a contract. When an inspection comes, the conversation starts with you, and it is you who then shows whom you hired and what they did. That is why the order appointing the responsible person and that person's training are the first things inspectors ask to see.
Not replace it - have it inspected first. Twenty-five years is the typical designated service life stated in the equipment passport, and once it has expired the lift cannot simply carry on running as before: an expert inspection is required. The report will state whether further operation is possible, for how long and on what conditions - usually with a list of mandatory replacements. The board then chooses between modernization and replacement based on the condition of the traction machine, guide rails, car and shaft, not on age.
Dismantling the old lift takes three to seven days, installing the new one two to four weeks, and commissioning and testing another three to seven days. In total, the work in the shaft takes roughly three to six weeks. Nobody needs to move out: everything happens within the shaft and the machine room. But if the entrance has only one lift, everyone will feel this period, so we agree the schedule before we start. Let us know in advance about residents who will find it hard to manage without the lift.
Because the lift is not what drives the total. The lift itself costs roughly the same everywhere, but drying out the pit, upgrading the power supply or selecting equipment for a shaft that does not match the drawings costs a different amount every time, and that only becomes clear on site. So we come out and measure first, and only then name a figure; the survey is free. The board can also get a benchmark on its own: our contracts with Lviv's district administrations are publicly available in the Prozorro register, together with the scope of work and the amount.
The lift is put into operation by the owner with the participation of the installation company, following the procedure set by occupational safety legislation and with registration at the state supervisory authority. The OSBB needs to provide an order appointing the responsible person, a maintenance contract and an accepted set of documents: the passport, the declaration of conformity for the new equipment, as-built documentation and measurement reports. One more condition that people tend to remember last is working two-way communication with the car. Without it the lift will not be allowed into service.
No, and it has nothing to do with your electrician's qualifications. Installation, repair, modernization and maintenance of a lift are carried out by an organization that has the right to do this work, the proper equipment and certified personnel. The board can perfectly well keep the machine room and its approaches in order itself, keep a log of service requests and make sure the doors are not propped open with a brick and that water from mopping the stairs is not poured into the shaft. Anything inside the control cabinet or the shaft is not your area.
When replacing individual lift components is enough, and when a new lift is cheaper. Decision criteria, timelines and what happens to the shaft.
5 min readWhat to do when a lift stops: how to act inside the car, why you must not open the doors, who is authorised to carry out a rescue, and what the homeowners' association (OSBB) can do to stop it happening again.
9 min readSend us the address, the number of floors and how many lifts there are per entrance. An engineer will come out for a site survey and bring a cost calculation you can take to the general meeting.
Or just give us a call: +38 (050) 585-39-28 ·+38 (063) 283-31-48 ·+38 (096) 901-76-50
