Quick answer
Nine UK stairlift sellers publish a removal price, and the median of the lowest price each one advertises is £100, from pages read on 5 October 2026.
Their starting prices run from £60 to £150. Where a seller prices both types, a curved stairlift costs about £50 more to take out than a straight one, and the highest published figure we found is around £350 for a curved lift.
Removal can be free, but every free offer we read comes with a condition: the lift has to be young enough to resell, a brand the dealer wants, or swapped for a new lift from the same company. On buy-back, only one company publishes a price list, and its best offer is £200.
As a budget, allow £150 to £300 including VAT. That is the removal figure used across this site, and most published prices sit at or below the bottom of it.
Most people looking this up have a lift that nobody needs any more, often after a death or a move into care. The two questions are usually the same ones: what will it cost to get it out, and is it worth anything? We read the removal and buy-back pages of 44 UK stairlift manufacturers, installers, dealers and removal firms to answer both with prices that sellers have actually put in writing, each linked to its source.
What UK sellers charge to remove a stairlift
These are all the stairlift removal prices we could find published on a UK seller’s own website. Each figure was read on the seller’s live page on 5 October 2026. Prices include VAT unless the seller says otherwise.
| Seller | Area | Straight | Curved | What the price covers | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| We Buy Any Stairlift | England, Scotland and Wales | From £60, maximum £300 (inc VAT), any type | Removal and disposal; free if they can buy or recycle the lift; no removal of lifts over 20 years old | [source] | |
| PC Mobility Services | South Wales, Bristol, Gloucester | From £70 for non-running or damaged lifts | Working Acorn and Brooks lifts aged 7 or over removed free; up to 6 years old they buy them | [source] | |
| Stairlifts Wales | South Wales and Bristol | £95 / £125 / £150 | £150 / £190 / £200 | Labour and disposal; the three prices are for up to 20, 20 to 40 and 40 to 60 miles away; outdoor £195 to £250; VAT not charged | [source] |
| Carelift Services | Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire | Under £100 | Hourly rate | A standard straight lift in most cases; free if the lift meets their buy-back criteria | [source] |
| Anglian Lifts | Peterborough | £100 to £150 | £150 to £300 | Given as a general range, on a page dated October 2023 | [source] |
| Stairlift Experts | London | From £125, or around £200 | Up to £350 | Charged when the lift is too old or unwanted to buy back. Two pages on the same site give different figures, so both are shown | [source 1] [source 2] |
| Midland Stairlifts | Ilkeston, Derbyshire | £130 | £170 | Removal and disposal | [source] |
| 1st Choice Stairlifts | Wiltshire, Dorset and Hampshire | £150 plus VAT | £250 plus VAT | Removal and disposal of a lift too old or worn to reuse; free if it can be refurbished or used for parts | [source] |
| Stairlift Removals (Wholesale Stairlifts Services Ltd) | UK-wide, based in Leeds | £150 | £200, plus £100 above 3 floors | Recycling or disposal; final price depends on rail length and access; outdoor £250 | [source] |
Last verified: October 2026. All nine pages read on 5 October 2026.
Laid out like that, the spread is narrower than the guides suggest. Six of the nine sellers start below £130. The six that price straight and curved lifts separately charge a median of £52.50 more for the curved one, because a curved rail comes out in sections and takes longer to dismantle and carry.
Distance matters more than most pages admit. Stairlifts Wales is the only seller to print it, and its price for a straight lift rises from £95 to £150 between a home 20 miles away and one 60 miles away.
One more firm, Magic Mobility, prices removal from £99 on a page last updated in September 2020, which is too old to count. The other 33 firms we checked publish no removal price at all. That includes every national manufacturer we could read: Acorn, Handicare, TK Home Solutions, Otolift, Brooks, Access BDD and Platinum each describe a removal service, or say they will not buy back, without printing a figure. Stannah’s website would not load for us. Halton describes “free stairlift removal in many cases” and gives no number. Third-party cost guides fill the gap with ranges of their own; Checkatrade’s, last updated in May 2024, gives £100 to £150 for a straight lift and £150 to £300 for a curved one, which matches what sellers publish today.
When stairlift removal is free
Free removal is common in adverts and conditional in the small print. More than a dozen of the sellers we checked advertise it, and every one attaches a condition or says only that it applies “in some cases”. Some examples:
- Budget Stairlifts Scotland removes straight lifts free within 10 miles of Wishaw, and charges for curved lifts and longer journeys.
- Prestige Stairlifts will remove Acorn and Brooks straight lifts, and Stannah curved and Flow lifts, for nothing if the lift is under 4 years old and Prestige installed it. Older lifts carry “a small removal fee”.
- Millercare removes free when it buys the lift back, which it does only for Stannah lifts under 5 years old, in working order, in the North West of England.
- PC Mobility Services removes working Acorn and Brooks lifts aged 7 or over free of charge, and 1st Choice and We Buy Any Stairlift waive the fee when a lift can be refurbished, recycled or resold.
- Halton says removal is free “in many cases” and does not say which.
- Handicare offers removal of its own models under six years old through its removal page, with no price shown, and Age UK, whose stairlifts Handicare supplies, says there is a charge for taking a lift out so new carpets can be fitted.
A firm will take a lift away for nothing when it can sell it on, and charges when it cannot. Straight lifts from the big brands, a few years old and serviced, are the ones dealers want. A curved rail is made to measure for one staircase, so it usually has no second life and nearly always costs money to remove.
If the stairlift is rented, removal is normally part of the deal, because the rental company owns the lift. Several rental firms in our UK Stairlift Price Tracker include removal in the upfront fee. Check the agreement before you pay anyone else to take it out.
What a used stairlift is worth: buy-back offers
Buy-back is where the market is least open. Only one company in the UK publishes a buy-back price list, and it is a short one.
| Company | Published buy-back policy | Source |
|---|---|---|
| TK Home Solutions | Curved: £200 if under 12 months old, £100 at 12 to 24 months. Straight: £100 under 12 months, £50 at 12 to 24 months. Only for lifts it supplied and serviced, after an inspection. Nothing published beyond 24 months | [source] |
| Associated Stairlifts | Up to £500, depending on age and condition; valuation from photos | [source] |
| Stannah | Told Which? in 2020 that buy-back “could be as little as 5 to 10%” of the original value | [source] |
| Acorn | Does not buy back unwanted stairlifts, as its UK customer page says | [source] |
| Handicare (and Age UK) | Does not repurchase stairlifts, “as the product is bespoke to you and your property” | [source] |
| We Buy Any Stairlift, Millercare, PC Mobility, Halton | Buy some used lifts and quote case by case; none publishes a figure. We Buy Any Stairlift will not buy lifts over 10 years old | [source] |
Last verified: October 2026.
Set the TK Home Solutions schedule against its own prices and the scale of the loss becomes clear. The company advertises straight stairlifts from £1,715 and curved from £5,972 on the same page. Its best buy-back offer, £100 for a straight lift less than a year old, is 5.8% of that cheapest straight price. For a curved lift the best offer of £200 is 3.3% of the cheapest curved one. After two years the published offer stops altogether.
Owners notice. In a Which? survey, 33% of the 159 people who had received a buy-back quote were dissatisfied with it, and Which? found offers ranging from nothing to the full price for a lift owned only a very short time.
Selling privately usually gets more. A straight lift from a mainstream brand that is a few years old and has a service history is what dealers and private buyers want. We cover the routes in where to sell a used stairlift, and what different ages and types fetch in how much a second-hand stairlift is worth.
Replacing an old stairlift? Have the removal priced in
If you are taking out an old lift to fit a new one, for a different staircase, a curved rail or a newer model, you should not need two separate jobs. Ask every installer who quotes for the new lift to include taking out the old one, and to put it in writing. Installers who are competing for a new order have every reason to agree, and a removal that would cost £100 to £250 on its own is easy for an installer to absorb inside a new-lift price.
No UK company publishes a part-exchange value for an old stairlift against a new one, so treat any trade-in figure as part of the negotiation and compare the final price, after the trade-in and with removal included, across at least three quotes.
Get quotes for a new stairlift, with the old one taken out
Compare up to three UK installers, and ask each to include removing your old lift. It takes a minute and there is no obligation. If you only need the old lift removed or want to sell it, choose that option in the form.
What a professional removal involves
The engineer switches off and unplugs the lift, takes off the seat and carriage, then unbolts the rail from the stair treads. Stairlifts are fixed to the stairs, not the wall, so what is left is a row of small screw holes in the treads. Most firms take those away with the lift and dispose of the batteries properly; fewer fill the holes, so ask. A straight removal usually takes one to two hours, and a curved one can take up to four.
Doing it yourself is possible but heavy and awkward, and the batteries have to go to a proper recycling point. Our guide to removing a stairlift yourself covers what is involved, and does stairlift removal damage the stairs covers what the treads will look like afterwards.
Before you book a removal
- Check whether the lift is rented. If it is, the rental company should collect it.
- Find the make, model and year, usually on a label under the seat or on the carriage, and any service records.
- Ask the original installer first whether it buys back. TK Home Solutions customers have a published offer for the first two years.
- Send photos to two or three local removal firms and ask for a fixed price that includes disposal.
- If you are replacing the lift, get the removal written into the new quote.
- Ask whether the screw holes in the treads will be filled.
How we compiled these figures
On 5 October 2026 we read the removal, buy-back and FAQ pages of 44 UK stairlift manufacturers, installers, dealers and removal specialists, found by searching for removal and buy-back services across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and by checking every national brand. A price counts only if the seller prints it on its own website. Nine sellers do. For the median we took the lowest removal price each of the nine advertises (£60, £70, £95, under £100, £100, £125, £130, £150 plus VAT and £150), which puts the middle value at £100 however you treat VAT or the “under £100” figure. The curved premium is the median gap between straight and curved prices at the six sellers that publish both. Two firms were left out: a house-clearance company whose prices are for van loads instead of stairlifts, and Magic Mobility, whose price page was last updated in 2020. Stannah’s site would not load, and Age UK Mobility’s removal advice pages now return “page not found”. The method follows the one behind our price tracker, and the budget figure of £150 to £300 is the same one used in our running costs report.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to remove a stairlift in the UK? Nine UK sellers publish a removal price, and the median of their lowest advertised prices is £100 (pages read 5 October 2026). Straight stairlifts start at £60 to £150 depending on the seller, curved lifts cost about £50 more, and the highest published figure is around £350 for a curved lift. Budget £150 to £300 including VAT.
Is stairlift removal ever free? Yes, but always with a condition. Firms remove a lift free when they can resell or recycle it, which usually means a straight lift from Acorn, Brooks or Stannah that is a few years old and working. Rented stairlifts are collected by the rental company.
Will the company that sold me my stairlift buy it back? Usually not for much, if at all. Acorn and Handicare say they do not buy back. TK Home Solutions publishes £50 to £200 for its own lifts up to two years old. Stannah told Which? that buy-back can be as little as 5 to 10% of the original value.
How much is a used stairlift worth? The only published buy-back price list in the UK tops out at £200, and one dealer advertises up to £500. Private sales of young straight lifts from popular brands usually fetch more than a buy-back offer. Curved lifts are made for one staircase and rarely have resale value.
Why does a curved stairlift cost more to remove? The rail is longer, comes in several bent sections and takes longer to unbolt and carry out. At the six sellers that price both, curved removal costs a median £52.50 more than straight.
Can I get my old stairlift removed when I buy a new one? Yes. Ask each installer to include removing the old lift in the price of the new one, in writing. An installer competing for the order has good reason to agree. No UK company publishes a part-exchange value, so compare total prices.
How long does stairlift removal take? One to two hours for a straight stairlift and up to four for a curved one, according to the installers we checked.
Do I need to fill the holes after a stairlift is removed? The rail is screwed into the stair treads, so small holes are left. Some removal firms fill them; many do not, so ask when you book.
