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Integrity Lift Compliance

Knowledge Base

LOLER Grey Areas: When Does LOLER Apply?

LOLER covers lifting equipment used at work, and most cases are clear: a lift in an office, a hoist in a care home. The grey areas are equipment in someone's home, equipment one organisation supplies and another's staff use, and lifts that only residents, the public or volunteers ride. For each, this guide sets out where the line sits, what HSE says, and the safe course where the law is unsettled. It also clears up a common mix-up over what counts as lifting equipment.

Written and reviewed by Mark Crowley, Director, Integrity Lift Compliance Ltd — 26+ years hands-on lifting equipment engineering — NHS, commercial and industrial estates

Published 24 October 2026

LOLER grey areas at a glance
Situation	Does LOLER apply?	The safe course
A stairlift, home lift or hoist the family owns and only the family uses	No	Service it as the maker recommends
Agency carers use the family's own hoist or stairlift	No duty on the family	The agency must make sure it is safe, so expect to be asked for evidence
A hoist a council, NHS service or care provider supplies for paid carers	Yes	Examine it and its slings at least every six months
Equipment loaned solely for the person, their family or unpaid carers	No, during that loan	Follow LOLER anyway: HSE says it applies to most loans in practice
A carer the person employs directly uses a hoist	Possibly	Treat it as in scope and examine it every six months
A social landlord's stairlift or through-floor lift in a tenant's home	Unsettled	Six-monthly examination
A lift that only the public uses	May not	Follow LOLER's regime to meet the general duty
A lift in a hall run only by volunteers	Not normally, but premises duties apply	Keep the lift safe; a six-monthly examination shows it
A communal lift in a block of flats	Yes, in almost every block	Examine it at least every six months
An escalator or moving walkway	No: the Workplace Regulations and PUWER	Thorough examination, normally every six months

What decides whether LOLER applies?

Two things: whether it is lifting equipment, and whether it is used at work. LOLER covers work equipment for lifting or lowering loads, and work equipment means any machinery, appliance, apparatus, tool or installation for use at work, even if it is not used only for work. Its duties fall on employers, the self-employed, and anyone who controls the equipment in connection with a business or other undertaking, whether for profit or not. Where LOLER does not apply, the general duties in the Health and Safety at Work Act often still do, and HSE's guidance points to LOLER's regime as the usual way to meet them.

Do carers using a family's own hoist or stairlift bring it under LOLER?

Not for the family. HSE's guidance is that a person's own equipment is not supplied for use at work, so they have no duties under LOLER even when an agency's carers use it. The duty that remains is the agency's, to keep its staff safe: HSE says it must either supply suitable alternative equipment or take adequate steps to make sure the person's equipment is properly maintained and safe to use, and that the care contract should set out who is responsible for what. In practice that usually means the agency asking for evidence of servicing and a recent examination.

What about a hoist or stairlift loaned by the council or NHS?

It depends who it is for. HSE's guidance is that equipment loaned solely for the person, their family or unpaid carers is not work equipment while it is on that loan, so LOLER does not apply, though the provider still has a general duty under section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act to provide and maintain it safely, usually met by following LOLER's principles. Equipment supplied for paid carers to use is work equipment, and LOLER applies. HSE adds that in practice LOLER will apply to most loans, because a provider often cannot tell whether equipment is only being used privately, and a hoist on a short private loan may go next to someone whose carers are paid.

What if someone employs their own carer?

Then they are an employer, and what matters is what the carer does. Health and safety law generally does not cover someone employed as a domestic servant in a private household, and HSE says a person who employs carers for general personal care is unlikely to have duties under it, even when a council provides the money through direct payments. Hoisting is different: HSE says employing carers for tasks such as hoisting may bring duties, and LOLER could then apply to the hoist. HSE adds that a council making direct payments may keep some duties of its own, and should share any relevant risk assessments with the person. Because the position is unsettled, the safe course is to treat the hoist and its slings as in scope and have them examined at least every six months.

Does a social landlord's stairlift in a tenant's home need LOLER?

This is one of the least settled cases. A stairlift or through-floor lift that a council or housing association installs in a tenant's home is there for the tenant's own use, which points away from LOLER, much as HSE treats equipment loaned solely for private use. But the landlord usually keeps ownership of it and responsibility for it, so it still has a general duty not to put the tenant at risk, and paid carers using the lift would strengthen the case for LOLER. Practice varies: some social landlords give through-floor lifts a six-monthly thorough examination and service stairlifts every six months, while others treat stairlifts in homes as outside LOLER and service them once a year. Where ownership has passed to the tenant, as with some grant-funded stairlifts, maintaining it may fall to the tenant instead. For a landlord that keeps responsibility, six-monthly examination is the safe course and the easiest to defend.

Does a lift that only the public uses need LOLER?

Possibly not, but that is rarely the end of it. HSE says LOLER may not apply to a lift used only by the public, and gives public areas of a shopping centre as an example. An employer that operates or controls such a lift still has a duty under section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act to the people it does not employ, and HSE suggests that a regime of maintenance, inspection and examination like LOLER's may well be what that duty requires. For a stairlift the public uses, it says maintenance, inspection and a six-monthly thorough examination may be enough to meet it. Insurers may ask for the same standard.

What about a church, charity or village hall run by volunteers?

An organisation with even one employee is covered by health and safety law, and its duties extend to its volunteers. A group run only by volunteers is not normally covered, with one important exception: HSE says a committee that controls premises such as a village or community hall has duties even if it employs nobody, and must take reasonable steps to make sure the building and any equipment provided in it are safe. A lift in the hall is part of that, and a six-monthly thorough examination is the clearest way to show it is safe.

What about a lift in a block of flats where nobody works?

LOLER applies to a communal lift in almost every block of flats, because cleaners, caretakers and contractors use it at work and the freeholder or management company controls it. Even where nobody is based in the building, the Court of Appeal has held that the common parts are non-domestic premises under section 4 of the Health and Safety at Work Act, so whoever controls them must take reasonable steps to keep the lift safe. Either way, a thorough examination at least every six months is the accepted standard.

Is an escalator covered by LOLER?

No. An escalator carries people between floors, but HSE's guidance is that LOLER does not apply to escalators or moving walkways. They come under regulation 19 of the Workplace Regulations, which requires them to function safely, and under PUWER as work equipment. Guidelines drawn up in consultation with HSE recommend a thorough examination normally every six months. The opposite mistake happens too: vacuum lifters, manipulators and lifting trolleys look nothing like a crane, but if they lift a load at work they are lifting equipment.

If LOLER does not apply, does the equipment need anything?

Yes. The maker's servicing schedule still applies, the equipment still wears, and a stairlift or hoist that fails with someone on it is just as dangerous whether or not the law calls it work equipment. Where a general duty applies instead of LOLER, a regular thorough examination, six-monthly for anything that lifts people, is usually the simplest way to show it has been met. And where the position is unclear, as it often is in the cases above, treating the equipment as in scope is the answer nobody will question later.

Sources & Further Reading

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Related Knowledge

Does LOLER Apply to a Stairlift in a Private Home?

For most householders the answer is no, and nobody tells them so. LOLER covers lifting equipment provided for use at work. A stairlift a homeowner bought for their own use is not work equipment, and HSE's guidance is that the householder has no LOLER duties even when visiting carers use it. What changes the answer is who supplied it, and for whom.

Does a Lift in a Block of Flats Need LOLER?

Yes, in almost every block, and it is a duty many blocks miss. A lift in the common parts is lifting equipment that people use at work, so LOLER applies to whoever controls it, and because it carries people it needs a thorough examination by a competent person at least every six months. A maintenance contract does not count as that examination unless it includes one.

PUWER covers all work equipment and sets the general duties: suitable, maintained, inspected where it can deteriorate, guarded and used by trained people. LOLER adds specific duties for equipment that lifts, including a thorough examination at fixed intervals with a prescribed written report. Lifting equipment is covered by both; other work equipment comes under PUWER but not LOLER.