A useful consultancy brief starts with the decision you need to make: repair, modernise, replace, or understand the service you already receive.
Advice across the life of a lift.
Depending on the brief, a consultant may assess existing equipment, help write a specification, compare tenders or oversee a project. New-building work can also involve planning lift numbers, capacity and passenger movement.
For an existing building, the value is often a clear account of the options and their implications: what can be retained, what needs work, and which decisions affect future support.
Make the appointment specific.
Ask for the scope in writing. A condition review, a tender specification and project supervision are different commissions. Agree the equipment covered, access needed, records to be reviewed and the form of the final report.
If independence is important to the appointment, ask about links to suppliers or contractors and how potential conflicts are handled. The job title alone does not answer that question.
Consultancy, contracting and examination.
A contractor carries out agreed engineering work. A consultant may help the client define or oversee that work. A LOLER examiner has a separate role in assessing equipment and reporting findings.
Do not assume that a consultancy report includes a thorough examination. HSE describes the competence and independence required for examination. Our LOLER engineer guide explains that role in more detail.
Prepare a useful brief.
- Describe the decision you need help making.
- List the lifts, locations and known operating problems.
- Share available service records and examination reports.
- Explain access restrictions and the impact of downtime on occupants.
- State whether you need options, a specification, tender comparisons or oversight.
- Ask how findings, exclusions and recommended priorities will be presented.
Where Forge fits.
Forge provides engineering and maintenance support. Our inspections can help record equipment condition, while our modernisation service deals with improvements to existing lifts.
Where you have appointed a consultant, share the relevant brief or specification when requesting work from us. That gives both parties a clearer basis for discussing scope and exclusions.
We arrange or introduce independent third-party LOLER examination providers; we do not carry out those examinations in-house.