Posted By Phil Rose
In the past our service engineers would come up with seemingly endless lists of mods etc to our lifts every year. It was difficult to determine what were genuinely necessary and which were, lets say, nice little earners for the company. So, to cut along story we appointed an independent engineer to advise us. He did a thorough review of the lifts and the engineers reports and determined that many of the suggested works were not necessary or a legal requirement. We and then had a meeting with the lift company that resulted in amongst other things a reduction in the contract price and an acceptance that quite a number of the recommended mods were not necessary. You may want to try a similar approach, or even without the independent engineer, ask them in and query each mod and ask whether it is a legal requirement etc.

I have been trying to post a response to you since yesterday – hope this is in time to be some help!
Your lift service people have the best intentions, and their proposals are the usual safety enhancements. However, they may not all be necessary/essential. Without knowing your lift, I must qualify my advice a little!
IF your lift is a completely new installation which was commissioned within the last 5 years then it will have a CE mark to show it complied with the Lifts Regulations (the law) and this usually means it met the requirements of BS EN 81-1 or 81-2 (1 Electric Lift, 2 Hydraulic Lift) which is a Harmonised European Standard.
BS 7255 is a (national) Code of Practice for Safe Working on Lifts. It recommends best practices to provide the safest practicable working environment. It was issued in 2001 and makes recommendations over and above the requirements of BS EN 81. It is common for the British Lift companies to advise compliance with BS 7255.
To address each of your points:
Pit stop switch – You should already have this, the recommendation may be due to interpretation of code requirements. You could ask why they want to change? (Which part of BS7255:2001?)
Landing barrier – This is a good thing to have, without doubt! However, whether the owner/occupier or the lift service company should supply a barrier is currently a matter of debate! Barriers are mentioned in Section 4 of BS 7255 which covers the responsibilities of the owner, and so this is interpreted as the owner should supply! You could ask whether their mechanics carry barriers in their vans for jobsites where the owner does not supply?
Pit prop with electrical interlock – This is from Annex B of BS7255 “Suggested improvements for consideration by the owner with particular reference to safe working on lifts” (If your lift is hydraulic, it probably already has some form of pit prop but without interlock. If it is electric, it is not usual to have a prop.)
BS EN 81-28 Auto dialler. – You should already have something to enable communication in the event of an alarm? It was a requirement of BS EN 81-1 (and 81-2) clause 14.2.3. BS EN 81-28 (dated 2003) superseded the requirements and essentially gave more detail and specification. You could ask why, what improvement/benefit?
If you need any more help, let me have contact details and I will see what I can do!