Comparative review of lift maintenance regulations in Beijing, Hong Kong, and London

Abstract

Lifts, or elevators, are transportation facilities that are indispensable for countless end users in high-rise buildings. They require proper maintenance to ensure safe operation. In addition to technological applications, effective management and legislative controls play a crucial role in ensuring lift safety. Given the limited understanding of an optimal regulatory model for governing lift maintenance, a cross-discipline comparative study was conducted to examine lift maintenance regulations in regions with different legal systems. Following a systematic and comparative review approach, this study focused on regulatory controls across civil and common law jurisdictions, specifically Beijing, Hong Kong, and London. Relevant statutes and publications were searched from engineering, law and management databases, which included Scopus, JSTOR, Lexis+, Lexis China, Lexis Advance Hong Kong, and Westlaw Asia. Through scrutinizing the retrieved documents, key features of the regulations were identified and compared in terms of lift classifications, types and frequencies of mandatory maintenance works, qualifications for authorized parties, and legal liabilities for non-compliance. Validated by industry experts, the results reveal both similarities and differences in the regulations among the three jurisdictions. While these findings serve as valuable references for policymakers in formulating optimal legislative controls to enhance lift safety in the future, further research could expand the scope of this study to examine the regulations in other regions and investigate the effectiveness of existing statutory controls on lift maintenance.