Comparing stair lift quotes and your consumer rights in Portugal

You asked several companies for quotes and the papers do not look alike: one includes the installation, another does not. This guide gives a table to compare them on equal terms and sums up what Portuguese consumer law guarantees when you buy and have a stair lift or a platform installed.

Updated on 3 November 2026. General information, not legal advice. For a specific case, speak to the Direção-Geral do Consumidor (the national consumer authority) or a lawyer.

The essentials

• One quote can only be compared with another if both say the same things. The table below is our practical advice, not law.
• Before you sign, the company must give you the total price including taxes, the payment terms, the deadlines and the warranty (Lei n.º 24/96, article 8).
• Contract signed at home: 30 days to withdraw without giving a reason (Decreto-Lei n.º 24/2014, article 10), except for made-to-measure goods (article 17).
• Three-year legal warranty from delivery; the seller is liable. If the seller installs, delivery only counts once the installation is finished (Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021, articles 11 and 12).
• Defect: free repair or replacement; if that fails, a price reduction or the end of the contract.

Table to compare quotes

Ask each company for a written, itemised quote and fill in one column per company. Without measurements of your stairs, a quote cannot be compared: see how to measure the stairs.

What to compare	A	B	C
Model and type (straight or curved, chair or platform)
Included: rail, chair, installation, removal of old equipment, power connection
Visit and measurements (who measured, is it in writing?)
Delivery and installation date
Total price with VAT and the VAT rate on the invoice
Payment: deposit, instalments, balance, credit
Warranty: what it covers, how long, who provides it
Maintenance: basis of the price, visits per year, response time
Power cut: battery, what happens halfway up the stairs
Training for the user and the family
Documents: manual in Portuguese, written warranty, invoice
Right to withdraw: is there one? in how many days?

On VAT, see VAT and income tax; on financial help, who pays. To choose the type, use the tool.

What the company must tell you

The Consumer Protection Act (article 8(1)) requires clear information, during negotiations and at signing, on the main features, the identity of the company, the total price with fees and taxes, payment, performance and deadline, complaints and the consumer arbitration centres, automatic renewal (if any) and the warranty with its duration, plus after-sales service.

The information must be in Portuguese, and what a brochure promises becomes part of the contract (article 7(3) and (5)): keep it. Away from the shop, Decreto-Lei n.º 24/2014 requires a written contract, in Portuguese, with that information and a signed copy for you; without it the contract is void (article 9). The company must prove it informed you (article 4(8)).

Decreto-Lei n.º 57/2008 treats as unfair any practice that distorts the behaviour of people made vulnerable by age or illness (article 6(a)), and treats as aggressive insisting on home visits after you ask the seller not to come back (article 12(b)).

Signed at home: can you withdraw?

Decreto-Lei n.º 24/2014 covers contracts signed with both parties present away from the company’s premises, such as in your home, even if you asked for the visit (article 3(i)).

• Period: 14 days, or 30 if you signed at home or on a trip organised by the company (article 10(1)).
• If the company did not tell you about this right, the period is extended by 12 months (article 10(2)).
• A clear statement sent in time is enough, but you must prove it (article 11): use registered post or email.
• The company refunds within 14 days; if it fails, it must repay double (article 12).

The exception that matters: there is no withdrawal for “goods made to the consumer’s specifications or clearly personalised” (article 17(1)©), that is, a thing that is not prefabricated and is made from your own choice (article 3(b)). A rail designed for a curved staircase may be claimed by the company as such a case; a standard model, in principle, not. The company must say beforehand if there is no right of withdrawal (article 4(1)(p)): ask for it in writing. If you signed in the company’s shop, this law gives no withdrawal right; ask whether the company offers one.

After installation: the legal warranty

Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021 applies to purchases from a professional and to goods supplied with a service (article 3(1)).

• Three years from delivery (article 12(1)).
• Installation: the item counts as delivered when the seller’s installation is finished (article 11(2)); incorrect installation is a defect (article 9).
• Two years of presumption: a defect that appears in that time is presumed to have existed at delivery; afterwards you must prove it (article 13). Report it by a means that leaves proof (article 12(5)).
• Rights: repair or replacement, your choice unless impossible; then a price reduction or the end of the contract (article 15). Repair is free, normally within 30 days, and adds six months of warranty, up to four times (article 18).
• You may withhold the rest of the price until the company complies (article 15(7)). The right lapses two years after you report the defect (article 17).
• Clauses limiting these rights are void (article 51). A commercial warranty is an extra and does not remove the legal one (article 43).

Maintenance is a service that this decree does not regulate: read the contract for its duration and renewal.

If there is a problem

The Direção-Geral do Consumidor recommends: first contact the company by a means that leaves proof, with a deadline to answer; then a municipal consumer information centre or a consumer dispute arbitration centre.

The complaints book (Decreto-Lei n.º 156/2005) exists on paper and in electronic form, the latter compulsory for suppliers (article 2(2)). The company answers an electronic complaint within 15 working days (article 5-B). If it refuses the book, you may call the police (article 3(4)).

What we could not confirm

• Whether a made-to-measure rail for a curved staircase is a “made to specifications” good under article 17: we found no official guidance or decisions on stair lifts.
• Whether, in an equipment-plus-installation contract, the withdrawal period runs from signing or from delivery, and whether the exclusion of contracts on immovable property (article 2(3)(d)) covers this installation.
• Whether the installation labour alone follows Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021 or the works-contract rules of the Civil Code (we did not read it).
• The consolidated laws were read at the Procuradoria-Geral Distrital de Lisboa; the Diário da República portal did not open outside a browser.

Sources (read on 3 November 2026)

• Decreto-Lei n.º 84/2021, Diário da República, series 1, no. 202, 18-10-2021 (articles 3, 9, 11 to 13, 15, 17, 18, 43, 51): https://files.dre.pt/1s/2021/10/20200/0000400029.pdf. Consolidated, no amendments: https://pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=3471&tabela=leis
• Decreto-Lei n.º 24/2014, republished in Lei n.º 10/2023, Diário da República, series 1, no. 45, 03-03-2023 (articles 2 to 4, 9 to 12, 15, 17): https://files.dre.pt/1s/2023/03/04500/0001100039.pdf. Latest version: https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=2062&tabela=leis
• Lei n.º 24/96, consolidated up to Lei n.º 28/2023 (articles 7, 8): https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=726&tabela=leis
• Decreto-Lei n.º 57/2008, consolidated (articles 6, 12): https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=1067&tabela=leis
• Decreto-Lei n.º 156/2005, consolidated up to Decreto-Lei n.º 102/2026 (articles 2, 3, 5-B): https://www.pgdlisboa.pt/leis/lei_mostra_articulado.php?nid=737&tabela=leis
• Direção-Geral do Consumidor, “Conflitos de consumo”: https://www.consumidor.gov.pt/consumidor_4/direitos-dos-consumidores1/conflitos-de-consumo