Lift Consultant Brisbane: Independent Lift and Elevator Consultants

Independent lift audits, upgrade management and maintenance tenders across Brisbane, from the Gold Coast head office an hour down the M1.

The Lift Consultancy (TLC) is an independent lift and elevator consultancy advising building owners, body corporates and facility managers in Brisbane on lift maintenance contracts, lift audits, modernisation and replacement and lift design. We are not tied to any lift contractor.

We work throughout Brisbane and greater South East Queensland from our office an hour south on the Gold Coast. We advise building owners, body corporates and facility managers on vertical transportation. We do not sell, install or maintain lifts, and we take no commission from anyone who does.

Nearest officeLevel 13, 50 Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise QLD 4217 — about an hour south. We attend Brisbane sites regularly.

What we do for Brisbane 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 Brisbane buildings

Water

Brisbane has flooded twice in living memory. Lift pits are among the first parts of a building to take water and among the most expensive to reinstate, because controllers, drives and travelling cables do not tolerate immersion. What matters afterwards is whether the damage is documented properly, and whether the reinstatement is scoped by somebody who is not also quoting the work.

A split building stock

Brisbane pairs an older commercial core, much of it still running its original equipment, with a large volume of inner-city residential built far more recently. The two need entirely different conversations, and a managing agent’s portfolio very often contains both.

Constrained older cores

A lot of inner-suburb buildings were designed around lifts that are no longer made. Modernisation there is frequently a question of what can physically be achieved inside the existing shaft rather than what would be ideal on a clean sheet, and that constraint needs establishing before anyone quotes.

One compliance framework across the region

Brisbane and the Gold Coast sit under the same Queensland framework, so a portfolio spread across South East Queensland can be handled consistently rather than building by building. For managers holding property in more than one state, that is not true across the border.

Recent Brisbane work

• Sofitel Brisbane Central — lift and escalator maintenance tender, with the pre-tender condition audit and evaluation of all major contractors
• ibis Styles Brisbane Elizabeth Street — maintenance tender and contract execution, awarded to an independent contractor after a like-for-like comparison
• Sherwood Central — condition audit for the managing agent, with an extract report issued to the incumbent contractor

We name the buildings we have worked on where the client is comfortable with that. Ask us for references in your sector.

What is different about lifts in Queensland

Every passenger lift in Queensland is registrable plant under the Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 and carries a Workplace Health and Safety Queensland registration that must be renewed. We check the plant registration and the design registration on every audit, because a lift that has been modernised can quietly fall outside the design that was registered.

For bodies corporate under the Body Corporate and Community Management Act, the lift is usually the largest item in the sinking fund forecast. Where the forecast was prepared from a standard life table rather than from the lift’s actual condition, it is commonly wrong by years. Our capital planning reports are written to be handed to the body corporate manager and the forecaster.

Brisbane’s high-rise stock from the 1980s and 1990s is reaching the age where the original contractor offers a full replacement as the only option. It rarely is. See lift upgrade and modernisation.

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 from Brisbane owners and managers

Who audits lift maintenance contracts in Australia?

Independent lift consultants, working for the building owner rather than the lift company. The Lift Consultancy (TLC) reviews lift maintenance contracts before they are signed, audits the maintenance actually being carried out against what the contract requires, and runs maintenance tenders when it is time to compare. We do this across Australia, including Brisbane. We do not sell, install or maintain lifts, so the review is not tied to any contractor.

How do I choose a lift consultant for a body corporate?

Start with independence: the consultant should not sell, install or maintain lifts, and should take no commission, rebate or referral fee from anyone who does. Then ask who will actually do the work, what qualifications they hold, and whether they have advised on buildings like yours. A good consultant will also tell you honestly when you do not need one. Our guide on how to choose a lift consultant sets out the questions to ask.

What does an independent lift consultant do?

An independent lift consultant is a technical adviser who works for the building owner rather than the lift company. Depending on what is needed, that means inspecting the equipment and reporting honestly on its condition, reviewing a maintenance agreement before it is signed, specifying a modernisation or replacement so it can be tendered properly, advising on lift design for new buildings, managing the project through to handover, or giving an independent opinion in a dispute. TLC’s Managing Director, Sid Bastos, sits on Standards Australia’s vertical transportation committee.

Do you work on Brisbane buildings from the Gold Coast?

Yes. We work throughout Brisbane and greater South East Queensland from our head office in Surfers Paradise, about an hour south, and we attend Brisbane sites regularly.

Our lift pit has flooded. What should we do first?

Isolate the lift and do not attempt to run it. Then get the damage documented before anything is stripped out. Reinstatement scoped by the same party quoting the repair is a common way for a building to end up paying for more than the event actually caused.

Can you review a quotation we have already received?

Yes. Reviewing a price and obtaining comparison quotations is a large part of what we do, and it is usually the fastest way to find out whether what you have been offered is reasonable.

Are you connected to any lift company?

No. We are entirely independent. We do not install or maintain equipment and we take no commission from anyone who does.

Will insurance cover flood damage to a lift?

That depends entirely on the policy, and it is a question for your insurer or broker rather than for us. What we can do is document the damage and its cause properly, which is usually what determines how straightforward the claim turns out to be.

We manage buildings in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast. Can you cover both?

Yes, and consistently — both sit under the same Queensland requirements. Portfolio-wide reporting across South East Queensland is something we do regularly.

Do you work on heritage or older commercial buildings?

Yes. Older Brisbane commercial stock is a substantial part of our work, and the constraints of an existing shaft are usually the first thing to establish.

Do you charge travel to Brisbane?

No. Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Redcliffe and the Sunshine Coast are all local work from the Gold Coast office.

Can you deal with the body corporate manager directly?

Yes. Most Brisbane engagements come to us through the body corporate manager or the building manager, and we report to the committee in plain language.

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 toSunshine Coast, Newcastle, Adelaide, Hobart, Darwin, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands — and elsewhere on request. See where we work.