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Lift maintencae is expensive and can be disruptive, but breakdowns are a distater. So, when do you fix it if it aint broke?
[See the full post at: The ups and downs of strata lift maintenance]
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When our lift provider suggested a full replacement at a cost of $260k, the committee engaged an independent lift consultant. After assessing the equipment, the consultant confirmed that replacement was necessary.
However, the consultant also identified specific maintenance failures that had been causing the frequent breakdowns. Following their intervention with the service provider, call-outs were reduced to zero.
At the consultant’s suggestion, the committee further engaged them to tender the project to several companies and manage the selection process. They subsequently reported back with an assessment of the bids based on their professional experience with each firm.
Based on this advice—taking into account cost, estimated construction time, building design, and the consultant’s track record with the bidders—we accepted a tender that was $100k less than the one provided by our existing lift company (even though their new bid was significantly lower than their original quote).
The project was managed by the consultant and completed six months later, including a two-month period where the building was without a lift. Notably, the new system eliminated the need for the lift motor room above the top floor. This reclaimed space may now be used to house batteries for solar panels—but that’s a story for another time.
When our lift provider suggested a full replacement at a cost of $260k, the committee engaged an independent lift consultant. After assessing the equipment, the consultant confirmed that replacement was necessary.
However, the consultant also identified specific maintenance failures that had been causing the frequent breakdowns. Following their intervention with the service provider, call-outs were reduced to zero.
We did likewise a few years ago when we, (an 8-storey building) came to replace our 30 year old lift. We used a list consultant based in St Leonards, NSW from narrowing down just what options we needed, to running the tender, evaluating the responses and recommending who to go with and then signing off at the end of the job. He was especially useful in cutting through the red tape where lift regulations meet fire regulations, an area none of us had a clue about. Worth every penny of his fees.
I wish I knew about lift consultants when we replaced our lift a few years ago! We are a small block of six, so a new lift is a big expense for us with only six owners to bear the cost. We saved for that lift through increased levies over a three year period. One of our owners took on the price negotiations and we got the lift for $160K. Eight weeks with no lift – so difficult for the elderly people in the building. And then the new lift kept breaking down. We were so disappointed. That’s when we learned how far down the priority list we were for call-outs. Hospitals and nursing homes get first preference behind people actually stuck in a lift. Then big towers. Small blocks with elderly residents just don’t get attention. The entire service system was automated with no people to speak with. We ended up with residents lying in wait in the basement in case a technician turned up, trying to make contact with anyone who would talk with us about what was going wrong. One of our residents was getting maintenance quotes from other companies (we were still within our year of free maintenance).
Finally someone encountered an actual technician and explained how poorly the new lift was performing and he looked beyond the “get it going again” approach and discovered a serious fault with our mother-board, which was replaced (that took three months). Lift has been brilliant ever since.
At the end of our year of free maintenance, we were very reluctant to sign up with that company and suddenly actual humans started to talk to us. We were able to negotiate the pricing and the terms of the standard contract for the first 12 months and we got an exit clause added to allow us to get out of the contract without penalty if the lift continued to behave poorly (which it hasn’t). I now have email and phone contacts for actual people in our lift company.I worry about the numbers of people moving into apartments in our cities and how many of them are not equipped to manage projects of this size, fight for their rights, negotiate contracts or pay for expensive consultants and lawyers to look after their interests.