If you are thinking about getting independent advice on your lifts, these are the questions I would ask anyone offering it, including us. They are not trick questions. They are the things a committee or a building manager actually needs to know before handing over a contract and three invoices, and a good adviser will be glad you asked.
Ask them by email, so the answers are in writing and can sit with the building's records.
1. Which side of the industry have you worked on?
Lift contracts are written by people who have spent years inside the industry, and they are easiest to read by someone who has too. Ask where the adviser's experience comes from: service, sales, modernisation, or all three, and for how long. Ask whether they have managed maintenance contracts from the lift company's side, because that is where the pricing models and the exclusions come from.
Our answer: 18 years in the lift industry, service and upgrades, starting at Otis in the UK and most recently as Queensland Service Branch Manager at Otis. We have written the contracts and priced the work. That is what we bring to your side of the table.
2. Do you have any commercial ties to lift companies?
Independent advice is only useful if it is actually independent. The question to ask is simple: does the adviser have any commercial relationship with any lift company, and do they sell equipment or carry out repairs themselves? Either can be a perfectly reasonable business. It just means the advice has more than one audience.
Our answer: none. We do not sell equipment, we do not carry out repairs, and we only ever work for buildings.
3. What do I actually receive?
Ask to see a sample report before anything is signed. What you are looking for is whether the findings point at something you can check. "This charge looks high" gives the committee an opinion to argue about. "This charge is for work included under clause 4.2" gives the committee a paragraph anyone can look up, and a fair question to put to the lift company.
Our answer: every finding in a Lift Savings Report is tied to the clause, the invoice line or the service record it came from, so the committee can verify it without us in the room.
4. How do you charge?
Whatever the model, ask for the fee in writing before the work starts, so the number is known and there is nothing to discuss afterwards. Ask what is included in that fee and what would cost extra. Ask whether the first look is free, and what happens if it finds nothing.
Two things worth knowing about audit fees in particular. First, if an audit or a condition report is described as "included in the contract", there is still a fee for it. It is built into the contract price, the same way the visits are. Ask what that part of the price is, so you can decide whether it is worth having. Occasionally an adviser will carry out an audit of the equipment without making the fee clear beforehand. It is not common, but it is worth ruling out with one question: is there a separate fee for auditing the lifts, and what is it?
Second, the lifts do not need a full audit every year. How often one is done, and whether one is done at all, is the building's decision and nobody else's. A good adviser will tell you when an audit is likely to pay for itself, for example before a renewal, before a modernisation quote is accepted, or when the callback log starts to grow, and will be just as clear about when it is not needed.
Our answer: fixed fees, agreed upfront. The Lift Savings Report on one building's contract and last three invoices is free, with findings inside three business days, and it is yours to keep whether or not we work together afterwards.
5. What happens after the report?
A report is the start of a conversation with the lift company, not the end of one. Ask who handles that conversation: the invoicing queries, the renewal, the quote for the upgrade that comes in next year. Ask who you will actually be speaking to, and how quickly.
Our answer: you can use the platform yourself, or we can manage the whole lift portfolio for you as a fixed monthly fee and handle the back and forth with the lift company. Either way you speak directly to the founder, whenever you want to.
Ask everyone, including us
Put these five questions to us. Put them to anyone else you are considering as well. The answers are worth more than any brochure, because a brochure is written for every building and these answers are written for yours.
The Lift Savings Report is the easiest way to check us: one building's contract and last three invoices, findings inside three business days, and every finding tied to the clause it came from.
Get the free Lift Savings Report