Independent lift audits, upgrade and modernisation management and maintenance contract reviews for Melbourne buildings, from our Melbourne office and with no commission from any lift company.
The Lift Consultancy (TLC) is an independent lift and elevator consultancy advising building owners, owners corporations and facility managers in Melbourne on lift maintenance contracts, lift audits, modernisation and replacement and lift design. We are not tied to any lift contractor.
We have a Melbourne office and work across the metropolitan area. We advise owners corporations, building owners, facility managers and developers on vertical transportation. We do not sell, install or maintain lifts, and we take no commission from anyone who does.
Our Melbourne officeLevel 19, 180 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
What we do for Melbourne 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 Melbourne buildings
A wave of buildings arriving at the same decision
The apartment towers built through the 2010s are reaching their first significant modernisation decisions at roughly the same time. Owners corporations are being approached with upgrade proposals and have very little basis for judging whether the scope or the price is reasonable — and the proposals tend to arrive from the party best placed to benefit from them.
Different requirements across state lines
Victorian compliance requirements are not identical to Queensland or New South Wales. A portfolio spread across states needs that difference understood rather than assumed, particularly where the same managing agent handles buildings in more than one.
Heritage and older CBD stock
Replacing equipment in a heritage building brings constraints that do not apply anywhere else — what may be altered, what has to be retained, and how much that limits the outcome that is actually achievable. Those constraints belong at the start of the conversation, not at the end.
Owners corporation decision-making
As everywhere, committees change and the history of the equipment tends to walk out the door with them. Records that belong to the building rather than the contractor make every subsequent decision cheaper and faster.
What is different about lifts in Victoria
Lifts in Victoria are registrable plant under the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017. The lift design is registered with WorkSafe Victoria and the item itself must be registered and kept registered; a lift that has been modernised can quietly drift outside the design that was registered, which we check on every audit.
Where a lift is listed as an essential safety measure under the Building Regulations 2018 — fire lifts, lift recall, emergency communication — it sits inside the building’s annual essential safety measures report. Owners sign that report every year; we regularly find it certifying a function the lift can no longer perform.
Owners corporations that are prescribed under the Owners Corporations Act 2006 must keep a maintenance plan and fund for major capital items. The lift is almost always the largest single item, and the plan is only as good as the remaining-life assessment behind it. Our condition and capital planning reports are written to slot straight into that plan.
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 Melbourne 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 Melbourne. 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 have a lift consultant in Melbourne?
Yes. Our Melbourne office is at Level 19, 180 Lonsdale Street, and we work across the metropolitan area, advising owners corporations, building owners, facility managers and developers.
We have been given an upgrade proposal. Can you tell us whether it is reasonable?
Yes. We review the scope and the pricing, and where it is useful we obtain comparison pricing so you can see the proposal in context rather than in isolation.
Does the advice change between states?
The compliance detail does. The commercial questions — what is included, what it costs, how long you are committed — are much the same wherever the building is.
Do you act for owners only?
We act for owners, managers and developers. We never act for the supply side, which is what keeps the advice worth having.
Our building is heritage listed. Can the lifts be replaced at all?
Usually something can be done, but the constraints shape the outcome and they need establishing first. What can be altered, what must be retained and what that leaves possible is the starting point, not an afterthought.
We manage buildings in Melbourne and interstate. Can you handle the portfolio?
Yes. Portfolio work across states is common for us, and the differences in requirements between jurisdictions are part of what we are engaged to keep track of.
How do we know the report is not just going to recommend the most expensive option?
Because we do not sell, install or maintain lifts and take no commission from anyone who does. There is no option we are paid more for recommending. That is the whole basis on which we work.
Do you have someone in Melbourne?
Yes. We have a Melbourne office and a consultant based there. Metropolitan site visits are booked as local work, not travel, and we cover Geelong, Ballarat and Bendigo from Melbourne.
Can you review a maintenance agreement before the owners corporation signs it?
Yes. We compare the offered agreement against what the building needs and against current market pricing, and tell the committee what to strike out. See maintenance contracts.
Our lift is 25 years old and the contractor says it needs replacing. Does it?
Sometimes. More often a staged modernisation retains the well, rails and car frame and replaces the controller, machine and doors at a fraction of the cost. We put that choice in writing with numbers. See lift upgrade and modernisation.
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 · Canberra · Perth · Auckland
We also travel toBrisbane, Sunshine Coast, Newcastle, Adelaide, Hobart, Darwin, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands — and elsewhere on request. See where we work.