Lift Safety Certificate Missing or Expired in Your Apartment Building? Here Is What to Do

Who this guide is for

This guide is for any resident, flat owner, or tenant in an apartment building who has discovered that the lift's safety certificate or licence is missing, has expired, or was never displayed, and who wants to make the building safe through the right channels. It is useful if you have noticed any of the following:

• There is no lift safety certificate or licence displayed inside or near the lift, and the society cannot show one when asked.
• The certificate or licence on display has clearly expired and has not been renewed.
• The lift breaks down often, stops between floors, has faulty doors, or has caused a scare, and you suspect maintenance and inspection have lapsed.
• The annual maintenance contract appears to have ended and no service visits are happening.

It applies both to buildings managed by a registered cooperative housing society or apartment owners' association, and to newer buildings still under the builder's control before formal handover.

Who this guide is NOT for

This guide does not cover personal injury claims after a lift accident has already caused harm. If someone has been hurt or worse, that is a matter for the police, for a personal injury or negligence claim, and possibly for a consumer complaint, and you should consult a qualified lawyer promptly while preserving all evidence. This guide also does not cover commercial buildings, factory or industrial lifts, or hoists at construction sites, which are governed by separate workplace and factory safety rules. Here we focus on the everyday situation of residents wanting a residential passenger lift to be legally licensed, inspected, and safely maintained.

What you can do this weekend

Friday evening

Walk to the lift and look for any displayed certificate, licence, or inspection sticker. Photograph whatever is there, including an expiry date if visible, or the bare wall if nothing is displayed. Note the lift's make and the manufacturer's name from the cabin plate. Check your society notice board and any resident group for the name of the maintenance contractor and the managing committee members. Write down exactly what you have seen, with the date. This becomes the starting evidence for your written request.

Saturday

Draft and submit a written request to your managing committee or, in a builder-managed building, to the builder's site office. Ask specifically for the lift licence or registration, the latest inspection or safety certificate, and the current annual maintenance contract with the most recent service reports. Use the template further down this page. Hand it over in person and get it acknowledged with a date and signature, or send it by email so there is an automatic timestamp. If the lift is visibly unsafe, add a clear line asking that it be taken out of service until inspected and certified, and keep a copy.

Sunday

Do a little homework on your state. Search for whether your state has a Lift Act or a Lift and Escalator Act and who the lift-licensing authority is, which is usually the state Lift Inspector or the Electrical Inspectorate under the Energy or Power department. Bookmark that office's page. If your state has no such law, focus your effort on the maintenance contract and the society's duty to keep the lift safe. Either way, organise your photos, your written request, and your notes into a single dated folder so you can escalate quickly if there is no response.

Documents and evidence checklist

Step-by-step action plan

Step 1 — Confirm what is missing and how serious the risk is

Check whether the certificate is simply not displayed, has expired, or never existed. Then assess the immediate safety risk. A lift that runs smoothly but has an out-of-date paper certificate is a compliance gap. A lift that jerks, stops between floors, or has faulty doors is an active danger. Separating these two helps you act proportionately, and lets you flag a genuine emergency clearly if there is one.

Step 2 — Ask the society or builder in writing for the records

Submit a dated, signed written request to the managing committee, or to the builder if the building is not yet handed over. Ask for the lift licence or registration, the latest inspection or safety certificate, and the annual maintenance contract with recent service reports. Get an acknowledgement, or send it by email. A written request creates a record and makes it far harder for anyone to claim the issue was never raised.

Step 3 — Flag any immediate danger and ask for the lift to be made safe

If the lift is unsafe to use right now, say so in writing in the same request. Ask that the lift be taken out of service until it is inspected and certified safe, rather than left running. Note any specific incident, such as a sudden drop or a door that opened between floors, with the date and time. This protects residents and creates a clear record of warning.

Step 4 — Use your member rights to inspect society records

Most state cooperative society and apartment ownership laws give members the right to inspect society records and to obtain copies of key documents such as contracts and bills, usually for a small copying charge. Use this right to obtain the lift licence, the inspection certificate, and the maintenance contract directly. If the society refuses, that refusal itself is useful evidence when you escalate to the Registrar or competent authority.

Step 5 — Escalate to the Registrar or competent authority over societies

If the managing committee does not act, escalate in writing to the office of the Registrar of Cooperative Societies, or to the competent authority under your state's apartment ownership or society law, which supervises managing committees. State that a basic safety obligation, keeping the lift licensed, inspected, and maintained, is not being met, and attach your earlier request and the breakdown log. This puts official pressure on the committee to comply.

Step 6 — Escalate to the state Lift Inspector or Electrical Inspectorate

In states that have a Lift Act or Lift and Escalator Act, the state Lift Inspector or Electrical Inspectorate is the licensing and inspection authority for lifts. Write to that office reporting that a residential lift may be operating without a current licence or inspection, give the building address and lift details, and request an inspection. This authority can inspect the lift and direct corrective action, which is exactly the outcome residents want.

Step 7 — File an RTI to confirm the licence and inspection record

If your state has a lift-licensing authority, file an RTI application with that public authority to confirm whether your building's lift is registered, the current status of its licence, and the date and findings of the last inspection. The reply is official proof of whether the lift is legal to operate. Read our guide on how to file an RTI online in India for the step-by-step process, and our CPGRAMS and RTI guide for using a government grievance portal alongside it.

Escalation ladder

Copy-paste complaint template

Replace the text in square brackets with your own details before sending.

When RTI can help

The RTI Act, 2005 applies to public authorities. In states that have a Lift Act or Lift and Escalator Act, the state Lift Inspector or the Electrical Inspectorate that licenses and inspects lifts is a public authority. This makes RTI one of the strongest tools in this situation, because it lets you obtain official records about the lift in your building. You can file an RTI application with that authority to:

• Confirm whether your building's lift is registered or licensed, and the current status and validity of that licence.
• Obtain the date and findings of the last periodic inspection, and the inspection history of the lift.
• Find out whether any notice, defect, or direction has been issued to the building regarding the lift.
• Learn the procedure and the prescribed steps for getting an unlicensed lift inspected and regularised.

Municipal and fire authorities sometimes hold related records, such as the building completion or occupancy certificate that referred to the lift, and those bodies are also public authorities you can approach through RTI. An RTI reply that the lift is not registered, or that its inspection has lapsed, is powerful evidence to put before your managing committee and the Registrar. To learn the process, see our guides on filing an RTI online and on the RTI first appeal and second appeal if your application is ignored or refused.

When RTI will not help

The society or builder: A private cooperative housing society, apartment owners' association, or private builder is not a public authority under the RTI Act, so you cannot file an RTI against them. To get the licence, inspection certificate, and maintenance contract from the society, use your member-inspection rights under your state's cooperative society or apartment ownership law, which usually let members inspect records and obtain copies. If the society refuses, escalate to the Registrar of Cooperative Societies or competent authority rather than to RTI.

States with no lift law: If your state has no dedicated Lift Act and no lift-licensing authority, there is no government office holding a lift licence to query, so RTI has nothing to surface on that point. There, the practical levers are the annual maintenance contract, the manufacturer's safety standards, and the society's general duty to keep common areas safe. You can still RTI a municipal or fire authority if it holds any relevant building record.

What RTI cannot do: RTI gives you information; it does not by itself order the lift to be repaired or the licence renewed. The information you obtain is used to push the society, the Registrar, and the lift inspectorate to act, and can support a complaint to the competent authority or a consumer or civil remedy where one is available.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Raising the issue only verbally or in a group chat. A casual message is easy to ignore and hard to prove later. Always put the request to the committee in a signed letter or an email so there is a dated record you can rely on if you need to escalate.
• Assuming every state has a compulsory lift licence. Many states do have a Lift Act, but not all. Check whether your state has a lift-licensing authority before threatening action under a law that may not apply, and lean on the maintenance contract and safety duty where there is no lift law.
• Trying to file an RTI against the society or builder. They are private bodies and not covered by the RTI Act. Use member-inspection rights for society records, and reserve RTI for the government lift inspectorate or municipal and fire authorities.
• Letting an unsafe lift keep running while paperwork is sorted out. If the lift is genuinely dangerous, ask in writing for it to be taken out of service until inspected. Do not wait for the licence renewal process to conclude before addressing an active risk.
• Not keeping a breakdown log. A clear, dated record of faults turns a vague complaint into solid evidence of a safety risk, which carries far more weight with the committee, the Registrar, and the inspectorate.
• Ignoring the maintenance contract entirely. A current annual maintenance contract with the manufacturer or an authorised service company is the everyday proof of safety. A lapsed contract is often the real problem behind a missing certificate, so always ask for it specifically.