TÜV SÜD improves LOLER compliance for Orbit Housing Group

CLIENT NAME: ORBIT GROUP 

TÜV SÜD improves loler compliance for affordable housing group

Industry: Real Estate

Dates: 2021 - Present

Services Provided: LOLER Inspection, Lift Consultancy

Orbit Group is one of the UK’s largest developers of affordable housing managing around 45,000 affordable
homes in the east and south-east of England and the Midlands. Each year they build around 1,500 new
affordable homes with over 100,000 people living in an Orbit home.

In early 2021, Orbit Group approached TÜV SÜD as they wished to understand the type of services we were able to offer within the Real Estate sector. Their main interest was our LOLER Inspection Services as at the time they were not satisfied by the level of service from their current provider.

After initial discussions, TÜV SÜD were brought in to assist with a small number of emergency and ad-hoc LOLER inspections of some of the domestic lifting equipment located within Orbit tenanted properties. This trial run was a resounding success and Orbit were able to become 100% compliant with the regulations along with their incumbent provider.

After several months assisting with the required LOLER Inspections, Orbit entered a 1-year contract to manage the entire portfolio of lifting equipment across all Orbit properties covering both Domestic Units and Passenger Lifts.

Here is a snapshot of KPIs covering compliance released by Orbit which illustrates our performance during a large part of that initial year.

Michael Hargreaves, Inspection Service Technical Director at TÜV SÜD, explained:

“Our ongoing success is because we pride ourselves on working differently to other industry providers. We believe in growing and nurturing our relationship with all our clients and our philosophy is to provide a hands-on approach to managing the contract with a dedicated admin team working on the contract daily. We are always readily available to respond to any queries or emergencies as they arise and deal with them efficiently and in a timely manner.“

By working closely with Orbit, we were able to deliver additional value by developing new processes which deliver compliance whilst also providing a more efficient and cost-effective way of working.

For example, our IT system and infrastructure enables us to better plan workloads and routes resulting in a higher rate of successful visits. This means we are more productive and we provide efficiency and accuracy for our clients. As we spend less time doing repeat visits, we are able to waive any extra costs normally associated with repeat/missed visits. By passing these savings and goodwill onto Orbit, we hope to further strengthen our excellent working relationship.

Our ongoing commitment has allowed our reputation for excellence in the lift Industry to grow. This has resulted in Orbit Group also employing the services supplied by TÜV SÜD’s Lift Consultancy Services team.

Orbit’s initial contract for LOLER Inspection Services ran until March 2022 but they have now extended for a further year until March 2023. We look forward to continuing to support Orbit Group for many years to come.

Judith Wilkinson, Property Safety Officer at Orbit said:

"We started working with TÜV SÜD, at fairly short notice, in January 2021; initially to inspect our domestic properties. In April, at even shorter notice (about 14 days!) we asked TÜV SÜD to take over the whole portfolio of domestic and communal properties – approximately 475 sites and 635 individual pieces of equipment. We have been delighted by the hard work and dedication TÜV SÜD has demonstrated in supporting our ambition to achieve 100% KPIs each month (i.e. inspection of everything on the list for that month).

First of all, performance has been excellent – in eleven out of the last 16 months you have achieved 100% KPIs. In the other months, you have never achieved less than 98.4% - and we do understand how the current supply problem in obtaining parts for repairs has had a knock-on effect on your capacity to complete inspections. We also believe the standard of inspections is very high and we are delighted with the number of defects that are found during inspection! It means we can take action to keep customers safe and mobile.

Second, we find TÜV SÜD’s approach to communications outstanding. Replies to email queries are always prompt and the team demonstrates attention to detail, awareness of the wider context in which we all operate and an enthusiasm to work collaboratively with us at every meeting.

We look forward to continuing our partnership with TÜV SÜD into the future.” 

Find out more about our LOLER inspection services.