How much does it cost to rent a stairlift?
£349 to install it, then £50 a month. Both figures exclude VAT, and most of our customers pay no VAT at all. The minimum hire is six months.
What the monthly payment covers
The £50 a month is not just the hire of the equipment. It includes servicing for as long as you have it, breakdown cover, and no call out charges while you are renting. If something goes wrong at nine on a Sunday evening, you ring the same number and we come out. There is nothing extra to pay for that.
It also includes taking the stairlift away at the end. We do not charge for collection and we do not charge for removal.
The £349 installation covers delivery, fitting and setting the rail to your staircase. Most straight stairlifts take a couple of hours to fit.
Why there is a six month minimum
Fitting a stairlift is most of the work. The rail has to be cut to your staircase, the fitting is a two hour job with two engineers, and it all has to come out again afterwards. Below six months the sums do not work for either side, and we would rather be straight about that than quote you a monthly figure that only makes sense if you keep it for two years.
After the first six months you keep it for as long as you need it. Give us a call when you want it gone.
Most people pay no VAT
Stairlifts supplied to someone who is chronically sick or disabled are zero rated for VAT. That is not a discount we are offering, it is how the tax works, and it covers the large majority of people who rent one from us.
There is a short declaration to sign confirming the stairlift is for someone who qualifies and that it is for personal or domestic use. We send it out, you sign it, and that is the end of it. If you do not qualify, VAT is added at the standard rate and we will tell you before you commit to anything.
What it works out at over time
Six months is £649. Twelve months is £949. Both excluding VAT, and both including all the servicing and breakdown cover.
That is worth comparing against buying. A refurbished straight stairlift starts at £1,349 fitted, so somewhere around the two year mark buying becomes the cheaper option. If you already know the stairlift is permanent, buying usually makes more sense. If you are not sure, renting buys you time to find out without committing several thousand pounds.
When renting is the right answer
Most of the stairlifts we rent out fall into one of three situations.
- Somebody is recovering from an operation, most often a hip or a knee, and needs help on the stairs for a few months rather than for good.
- A family is not yet sure what happens next. Sometimes the honest position is that nobody knows whether Mum will still be in the house in a year, and spending three thousand pounds on that basis feels wrong.
- Someone is coming home from hospital sooner than expected and the stairs are the only thing standing in the way of it.
In all three, renting solves the immediate problem without anyone having to make a permanent decision under pressure.
What we need from you
One measurement. Taken from the nose of the top step, which is the front edge where it overhangs the step below, down the slope of the stairs resting on the front edge of every step, to where it meets the floor at the bottom. In millimetres.
The rail is cut to that measurement, so it has to be right. If you would rather not measure it yourself, we will come and do it.
One thing to check first
We rent straight stairlifts only, meaning a staircase that runs in one flight with no bends, turns or half landings. A curved staircase needs a rail made for that particular staircase, which is not something we hire out.
If your stairs curve, we can still help if you already have a stairlift that needs servicing or repair. We work on any make, straight or curved, whoever fitted it.
Getting a price
Our online quote form will give you a figure in a couple of minutes. Nothing is charged online and no payment is taken until we have spoken to you and you are happy with everything.