Why does LOLER usually not apply at home?
LOLER applies to lifting equipment provided for use at work. A stairlift bought by a homeowner for their own use in their own house is not provided for use at work and is not covered. No thorough examination is legally required, and no report has to exist. Anyone insisting a private householder is breaking the law by not having one is mistaken.
When does a home stairlift become work equipment?
When someone's employee uses it as part of their job. If carers visit and operate the stairlift or a hoist to move the person they care for, that equipment is work equipment for those carers, and their employer carries the LOLER duties — including thorough examination at six-monthly intervals, because it lifts a person. The equipment has not changed; the context has.
Who holds the duty in a care arrangement?
The employer of the people using it — the care agency or the local authority, not usually the householder. In practice this is routinely missed in domiciliary care, where a hoist or stairlift in a service user's home sits outside anyone's asset register because it belongs to the resident. HSE has been explicit that equipment used by care workers in someone's home is work equipment.
What about a stairlift or platform lift in a block of flats?
If it is in a communal area controlled by the landlord, freeholder or management company, LOLER applies for the same reason it applies to the passenger lift: people use it at work — carers, cleaners, contractors — and the landlord controls it. The six-monthly interval applies because it carries people. This catches a lot of residential blocks where the lift in the entrance hall has a maintenance contract and no thorough examination.
Does that mean a private stairlift needs no attention?
No — it means no statutory examination is required. The manufacturer's servicing recommendations still apply, the equipment still wears, and a stairlift that fails with someone on it is still dangerous. The difference is that servicing it is a sensible decision rather than a legal duty, and you should not be sold a statutory examination you do not need.
How do I tell which side of the line I am on?
Ask one question: does anybody use this as part of their work? If the answer is only ever the resident and their family, LOLER does not apply. If a carer, a cleaner, a care agency or any employee operates it in the course of their job, it does — and the duty sits with their employer, who should be asked whether an examination is in place.
Sources & Further Reading
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