Lift Maintenance Professional Indemnity Insurance in Türkiye

Where Does the Requirement Come From?

The source is the Lift Operation and Maintenance Regulation (Asansör İşletme ve Bakım Yönetmeliği), issued by the Ministry of Industry and Technology and published in the Official Gazette of 6 April 2019, No. 30737. The twelfth paragraph of Article 13, which sets the conditions for authorised services, requires the authorised service to hold professional indemnity insurance covering claims for loss brought by the building manager and other third parties arising from professional errors or omissions in the maintenance, repair and servicing it provides.

The same paragraph does not freeze the minimum sum. It provides that the value valid for the following year is increased by the revaluation rate determined and announced for that year under Law No. 213. At renewal, therefore, the figure to check is not last year's limit but the amount applicable for the year in question; the current value should be read from the official text of the regulation.

The cover does not stand alone either. The first paragraph of the same article requires a TSE Service Adequacy Certificate under standard TS 12255 for the central and regional service, and the thirteenth paragraph provides that applications to the Turkish Standards Institution are assessed against the requirements of this article as well as the standard. The policy is part of the certification file; its absence stops being a commercial exposure and becomes a certificate exposure.

The regulation rests on Presidential Decree No. 1 and on Laws No. 4703 and No. 1705, and Article 17 sets administrative sanctions by reference to those laws. The amending regulation of 11 July 2021 did not touch this paragraph.

Which Policy Is Compulsory, and Which One Gets Confused With It?

Three separate policies are habitually mentioned in the same breath, and one is regularly taken for another. Their policyholders, their legal bases and the claims they answer are all different. The confusion usually surfaces once a claim file is opened: a demand has arrived, a policy exists, and it is not the policy that answers the demand.

What the Professional Indemnity Policy Does and Does Not Answer

The policy is written on the Professional Indemnity Insurance General Conditions published in the Official Gazette of 26 May 2013, No. 28658. Article A.1 defines two constructions. Under the first, cover responds to loss arising from an event occurring during the policy period where compensation is demanded during or after that period. Under the second, it responds only to claims that can be brought during the policy period in respect of an event occurring before or during it. The parties may choose one or agree both.

In lift work that choice is not a technical footnote. A maintenance error rarely shows up in the same month; it surfaces months or years later as an accident. The construction decides which year's policy the accident falls into.

The last paragraph of A.1 closes another gap: where the cover is bought for the liability of the business, then unless otherwise agreed it also answers for the liability of the insured's representative and of the people employed in the business. Article A.2 draws the territorial limit at professional activity performed within Türkiye; work abroad has to be agreed separately.

The situations in Article A.3 are excluded and cannot be bought back:

• Claims arising from activity outside the professional activity defined in the policy and bounded by legal and ethical rules
• Any event or conduct caused intentionally by the insured while performing the professional activity
• Events occurring while the insured or its staff are under the influence of alcohol, drugs or narcotics during the professional activity

When Does the Lift Accident Policy Respond?

The general conditions of the second policy have been in force since 1 October 1984 and still set the same frame. Article 1 limits the cover to lifts that are under permanent maintenance by contract and whose make, type, manner of use, carrying capacity and address are stated in the policy. Two practical consequences follow: without a maintenance contract the cover becomes arguable, and the policy is specific to the lift, so an incorrect address or technical description creates a problem at the moment of loss.

The second paragraph of the same article puts court costs and attorney fees on the insurer, but where the compensation awarded exceeds the sum insured the insurer contributes only in proportion to that sum.

Article 2 lists the exclusions. They include events caused intentionally, claims resting on a contract or special agreement that exceed the measure of the insured's statutory liability, loss caused solely by exceeding the carrying capacity, physical loss caused by fire, lightning, explosion, flood, earthquake or an external cause, strike and lockout, and damage arising from acts of terrorism. One item deserves particular attention: claims by persons bound to the insured by a service or agency relationship, and by the insured's family members, are also outside the cover. When the technician on site is injured, this is not the policy to look at.

Post-loss duties sit in Article 8: written notice to the insurer within five days of becoming aware of the event, salvage and protection measures taken as if uninsured, collection of documents showing the circumstances of the accident, immediate transmission of any notices and summonses received, and a power of attorney to the lawyer nominated by the insurer if proceedings begin. Article 9 forbids admitting a claim or paying the injured party without the insurer's express consent. All claims under the contract are time-barred after ten years under Article 15.

Must the Building Buy Insurance?

Article 14 of the regulation lists the building manager's duties: to have the lift maintained and pay for that maintenance so that it runs safely, to keep the lift running safely and continuously for accessibility, and to report any dangerous condition to the party holding the maintenance contract and take the necessary safety measures until it is attended to.

No insurance duty appears in that article. The third-party lift accident policy is therefore not a regulatory obligation on the building side; it is voluntary. The absence of a duty to insure, however, is not the absence of liability. After an accident the claim is also directed at the building manager, and without a policy it is met directly.

In practice this cover usually arises from contract rather than from regulation. A management plan, a decision of the owners, or a lease or operating agreement may require the policy to be produced; where such a clause exists, the source of the obligation is the signed text.

What to Check Before Buying

Two policies can look alike on paper and behave differently at the moment of loss. The difference is read in the construction and scope lines, not the premium line. Checking these six headings before renewal removes most of the surprises from a claim file:

RYL Sigorta Aracılık Hizmetleri Limited Şirketi is an insurance agency. We prepare quotations from the insurers we act for according to the number of maintenance contracts, the characteristics of the lifts and the structure of your field teams, and we set construction, limit and scope side by side. The policy is issued by the insurance company, and the indemnity is paid by the insurance company.

To discuss the right cover for your firm, complete the quotation form.

• Construction: which limb of A.1 the policy was written on, and which one suits errors that surface late
• Limit: whether the minimum sum required by the regulation is met at the value applicable for the year
• Activity wording: whether the professional activity stated in the policy covers maintenance, repair and servicing in full, and whether installation work is separately defined
• Staff: whether the business-liability construction has been chosen so that technicians' liability is included
• Territory: whether work abroad has been separately agreed under A.2
• The second policy: whether the address and technical details on the building-side accident policy match the lifts under maintenance contract

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Lift Operation and Maintenance Regulation (Official Gazette, 6 April 2019, No. 30737)
• Lift Operation and Maintenance Regulation — consolidated text (Legislation Information System)
• Third-Party Liability Insurance for Lift Accidents, General Conditions (SEDDK)
• Professional Indemnity Insurance General Conditions (SEDDK)
• Regulation Amending the Lift Operation and Maintenance Regulation (11 July 2021)

This article is for information only; the scope of cover is set by the policy’s specific and general terms.