Housing Authority needs to elevate lift and escalator maintenance

The Housing Authority needs to continue enhancing the serviceability and the monitoring measures of lifts and escalators, said the Audit Commission in a report.

The Housing Department was criticized in the watchdog’s latest report for lacking oversight over lift maintenance and repairs, with the report noting some lifts were out of service for up to 89 days when they malfunctioned.

Currently, maintenance services of lifts are outsourced to contractors, with the contractors responsible for the upkeep and repair of the lifts in the Housing Department's non-residential buildings and public housing.

Over 32,900 lift failures occurred between 2020 and the end of April this year, 219 of those occurrences included suspensions lasting longer than two days.

According to the watchdog's investigation, seven of the lifts broke down twice in less than six months and were out of service for longer than two days. Three of them were also out of service between 72 and 89 days.

Additionally, the office examined the duration of service suspensions for the 238 lifts that had lift modernization projects finished between 2018–19 and 2022–23, with the audit revealing that most projects failed to complete on schedule.

It found that 188 lifts had been out of service between 7.5 and 10.5 months, and 49 lifts had been out of service between 10.5 and 14.5 months.

Of the 238 lifts, 190 had not resumed service by the scheduled completion dates specified in the contracts, which led to delays in service resumption ranging from two to 169 days.

“(The Housing Authority) needs to enhance documentation of the justifications in determining the priority of lift replacement works,” the watchdog said.