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Integrity Lift Compliance
Knowledge Base

Who Examines Hired or Leased Lifting Equipment?

The common assumption is that hired plant is the hire company's problem. It is partly theirs and partly yours, and the part that is yours is the part that gets missed. LOLER places duties on whoever has control of the equipment, which on a hire site includes you.

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

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Who holds the duty on hired plant?

LOLER applies to employers and to anyone who has control of lifting equipment, to the extent of their control. A hire company controls the equipment's condition when it leaves the depot and its examination history. You control how it is used, assembled and maintained on your site. Both sit inside the regulations, and neither position cancels the other.

What should arrive with the machine?

A current Report of Thorough Examination. Check the date on it, not just its existence — a report for a MEWP is valid for six months because it lifts people, and hire fleets turn over quickly enough that a report can be close to expiry on arrival. If a machine arrives without one, it should not go into service.

Does the report cover the whole hire period?

Only if the hire ends before the report does. On a long hire the six or twelve months will run out mid-contract, and at that point the examination falls to whoever has control — frequently the hirer, unless the contract puts it elsewhere. Long-hire plant sitting on a site for a year is one of the most common ways a certificate quietly lapses.

What about equipment assembled on site?

Regulation 9(2) requires a thorough examination after installation and before first use where the safety of the equipment depends on the installation conditions, and again after assembly at each new site. A tower crane or a mast climber moved between sites needs examining at each one. That is a site duty, not a depot duty, and it is the one most often overlooked.

Can I use hired plant without seeing the report?

Regulation 9(4) says lifting equipment obtained from another business must not be used unless it is accompanied by physical evidence that its last thorough examination has been carried out. In practice that means the report, or something traceable to it. "The hire company said it was fine" is not physical evidence, and it is not a position you would want to defend after an incident.

What should a hire contract say?

It should say who examines the equipment during the hire, at what intervals, and who holds the reports. Contracts frequently say nothing, and silence defaults to whoever has control — which is you. Reading that clause before the plant arrives is considerably cheaper than discovering it afterwards.

Sources & Further Reading

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Related Knowledge

What Is a LOLER Inspection?
A LOLER inspection — properly a thorough examination — is a systematic engineering assessment of lifting equipment by a competent person, to establish whether it is safe to remain in service. It is not a visual walk-round and it is not a service visit. This is what one actually involves.
Read article
How Often Are LOLER Inspections Required?
Six months for equipment that lifts people and for lifting accessories, twelve months for everything else, or in line with a written examination scheme drawn up by a competent person. That is the whole rule. What catches duty-holders out is rarely the interval itself — it is when the clock starts, what resets it, and the examinations that fall outside the cycle altogether.
Read article
Can Equipment Be Used Without LOLER?
No. Lifting equipment that falls within LOLER must be thoroughly examined before first use where required and then at the set intervals. Once an examination date has passed there is no current evidence the equipment is safe, there is no grace period, and it should be taken out of use until it has been examined.
Read article