We do not keep a Hobart office. We travel there for building owners, body corporates, hotel operators and facility managers across Tasmania. We do not sell, install or maintain lifts, and we take no commission from anyone who does.
We travel to HobartWe travel to Hobart for client work, most often from our Melbourne office. We will always tell you who is attending and from where before you engage us.
What we do for Hobart buildings
The services owners and managers ask for most often are maintenance auditing, reviewing a contract or quotation before it is signed, and advice on whether to modernise or replace. The full range:
- Maintenance auditing and mandatory inspections
- Witness testing and commissioning
- Due diligence and capital planning
- Modernisation and full replacement
- Tendering and contract negotiation
- Project management
- Insurance claim management
- Peer review
- Feasibility studies
- Portfolio management
- WHS compliance
- Reporting
What we see in Tasmanian buildings
A thin contractor market
Tasmania has far fewer lift contractors than the mainland capitals, and that changes the commercial position materially. Where there is little competitive tension, prices are not tested by the market and an owner has very little to compare against. Independent price comparison is worth considerably more here than in a city with a dozen contractors bidding.
Heritage everywhere
Hobart holds one of the densest concentrations of heritage building stock in the country, and a great deal of it now houses hotels, apartments and offices. Heritage listing shapes what can be altered and therefore what a lift upgrade can realistically achieve. Those constraints belong at the front of the conversation, not discovered after somebody has quoted.
Tourism-driven construction reaching its first milestones
The hotel and short-stay building of the past decade has produced a body of relatively new equipment now arriving at its first serious service and defects decisions, in buildings whose owners have not been through the cycle before.
A genuinely cold climate
Sustained low temperatures affect hydraulic oil viscosity, electronics in unheated machine rooms and door operation on cold mornings. It is a small factor individually and a persistent one across a maintenance history.
Sectors we work across
Residential and strata-titled towers, commercial office buildings, hotels and short-stay accommodation, retail centres, healthcare and aged care, education, government and local council property, and industrial facilities. The equipment differs, the commercial questions rarely do.
What independence actually means
Plenty of firms describe themselves as independent. It is worth being precise about what it means here, because the word is doing real work.
We do not sell lifts. We do not install them. We do not maintain them. We hold no agency, distributorship or referral arrangement with any manufacturer or maintenance contractor, and we take no commission, rebate or finder’s fee from anyone who does. There is no version of a recommendation from us that earns us money somewhere else.
That matters most at exactly the moments it is hardest to tell — when you are handed an upgrade proposal, when a contractor says a component is beyond repair, or when a maintenance agreement is put in front of you to sign. Our answer costs us nothing either way.
Who actually does the work
Advice is only as good as the person giving it, so it is worth knowing who is behind ours. Our team holds qualifications across both the electrical and mechanical sides of vertical transportation:
- Sidney Bastos — Managing Director. BBA and Licensed Electrical Contractor.
- Tony Berry — Director. Licensed Design Practitioner (DPVT).
- Stephen McIlroy — Mechanical Engineer, RPEQ.
- David Moors — Electrical Engineer.
- Hong Liang — Chartered Engineer, CEng FCIBSE.
- Nancy Li Liang — BEng, MBA.
You can see the full team and their backgrounds.
Accreditations and memberships
The Lift Consultancy is CM3 prequalified and Australian Owned Certified, and holds membership or accreditation with:
- Australian Elevator Association
- Lift Engineering Society of Australia
- Engineers Australia
- International Association of Elevator Engineers
- Smart Strata
- PICA Group Community Select
- Rapid Global
Common questions
You do not have a Tasmanian office. Is that a problem?
It is worth being straight about. We travel to Tasmania for client work and we will tell you who is attending and from where before you engage us. What we would not do is claim a local presence we do not have.
There are only a few contractors here. Does that affect our pricing?
Almost certainly. With limited competitive tension, prices are not being tested. Obtaining genuine comparison pricing — including from mainland contractors where that is practical — is often the single most useful thing we do in Tasmania.
Our building is heritage listed. Can the lift be replaced?
Usually something can be done, but the listing shapes the outcome. What may be altered and what must be retained needs establishing before anyone specifies or quotes.
We run a hotel. Does that change the maintenance requirement?
Yes. Luggage, concentrated check-in and check-out peaks and heavy door use all shorten component life relative to a standard residential assumption, and the agreement should reflect the actual duty.
Can you review a contract before we sign it?
Yes. Reviewing a maintenance agreement before signature is one of the highest-value things an owner can do, and it is considerably cheaper than discovering the terms later.
Are you connected to any lift company?
No. We do not sell, install or maintain lifts, we hold no supplier arrangement, and we take no commission from anyone who does.
Choosing a consultant
If you are weighing up more than one firm, we have written a plain guide to what to look for and what to ask — including the questions that separate genuine independence from the word on a website. It applies whoever you end up engaging, including if that is not us.
How to choose a lift consultant
Talk to us
Tell us what is happening with your lifts and we will point you at the right consultant. There is no charge for the initial conversation, and if you do not need us we will say so.
(07) 5509 0100 · admin@theliftc.com · Contact us
Our officesGold Coast · Sydney · Melbourne · Canberra · Perth · Auckland
We also travel toBrisbane, Sunshine Coast, Newcastle, Adelaide, Darwin, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands — and elsewhere on request. See where we work.