This office relocation checklist sets out what to do, and when, for an office move in London, from six months before the move to the first week in your new building. It is written for office managers, facilities teams and directors who are running a move, whether it is their first or they simply want a clear order of work to hold suppliers to. It follows the same sequence our move managers use on live projects for office relocation in London.
6 months out: lease dates, budget, space plan and your mover
Six months is the point where an office move stops being an idea and becomes a project. The decisions made now fix the dates and the budget that everything else depends on. For a multi-floor or multi-site move, start this stage nine to twelve months out, because lease notices and fit-out lead times leave little room to catch up later.
- Check your break clause and lease dates. Confirm the exact break or expiry date on your current lease, the notice you must serve and how it has to be served. Put the deadline in the diary with reminders well ahead of it. Miss a break date and you can be tied to the old building for years. Check the start date and any fit-out period on the new lease too, so you know how much overlap you have between the two.
- Understand your dilapidations. Find out what your lease requires you to put back at the old site before you hand it over. Reinstatement work takes time and money, and it affects both your budget and the date you can leave.
- Set a budget. Build a figure that covers the move itself, IT and comms, furniture, fit-out, clearance, any storage, overlapping rent and a contingency. Our guide to office relocation costs explains what drives the price of the move, so you can budget for the factors that apply to your building and your dates.
- Start the space plan. Work out your headcount now and where it is heading, how your teams actually work, and what the new office needs in desks, meeting rooms, quiet space and storage. Our office space planning service turns that brief into a layout that fits the new floor, and the layout becomes the map the whole move works to.
- Appoint an internal move lead. Give one person the authority to make decisions and the time to see them through. Moves stall when every choice needs a committee.
- Appoint a mover. Shortlist commercial relocation specialists rather than general removers, and check their accreditations and references. Ask how they handle move project management: who your named move manager will be, how the plan is built and signed off, and who is accountable on the day.
3 months out: survey, floor plan, IT and furniture
With the dates and the mover in place, the next three months turn the plan into detail. This is where most of the decisions that protect business continuity are made.
- Book the site survey. Your mover should survey both the current and the new premises to agree the inventory and check access, lifts, loading bays, doorways and floor loading. The survey is what turns a rough estimate into a fixed, itemised quote, and it surfaces the building constraints that shape move day.
- Finalise the floor plan and desk numbering. Number every desk, office, meeting room and storage position on the new floor plan. That numbering is what your labels will follow in move week, so it needs to be settled before any packing starts.
- Run an IT and comms audit. List every server, comms cabinet, switch, workstation, phone and printer, and decide what moves, what is replaced and what is retired. Order broadband and phone lines for the new site now, because provider lead times are often the longest single dependency in an office move. Our IT relocation team plans the physical move of equipment around your IT team's cutover.
- Make your furniture decisions. Measure existing furniture against the new layout and decide what moves as it is, what is dismantled and rebuilt to a new configuration, what is replaced and what is surplus. Reusing good furniture is usually cheaper than buying new and cuts the waste the move produces.
- Work out your storage needs. Phased moves, a gap between leases, refurbishment work and surplus furniture can all mean items need somewhere to go for a while. Plan business storage now rather than in the last week, so nothing ends up moved twice in a hurry.
- Talk to building management at both ends. Managed buildings set rules on move times, lift use, floor protection, contractor inductions and paperwork. Find out what they are early, because they will shape the move-day plan.
1 month out: staff, crates, permits, insurance and clearance
The final month is about preparation and communication. Done properly, it means move week runs to plan instead of being spent fixing gaps.
- Brief your staff. Tell everyone the move date, where they will sit, what they need to pack themselves, what the move team will handle and what to do with personal items. Share the new floor plan and explain what will happen on the first morning in the new office. A named contact in each department helps questions get answered quickly.
- Confirm crate delivery dates. Book crate hire so crates arrive with enough time for controlled packing, without cluttering the office for weeks. Agree how many each team needs and when the collection will happen at the other end.
- Secure building permits and lift bookings. Book goods lifts and loading bays at both buildings for the move window. If vehicles need to park on the street, apply for parking bay suspensions with the local council in good time, as London boroughs need notice before they can grant them.
- Check your insurance. Confirm the cover your mover provides and what your own business insurance covers in transit and at the new premises. Tell your insurer the move date and the new address, and check whether either landlord needs to see your mover's insurance certificates before work starts.
- Book the clearance. Arrange for surplus furniture, electrical equipment and confidential paperwork to be removed and dealt with properly. Office clearance and WEEE recycling booked now means you are not paying to move items you will only throw away at the other end.
Move week: labelling, file mapping, servers and access
Move week is where the planning meets the building. The order in which things happen matters as much as the tasks themselves.
- Label everything. Every crate, piece of furniture and item of IT should carry a label that matches its numbered position on the new floor plan. Colour coding by floor or department makes unloading faster and keeps items from being left in the wrong place.
- Map your files. Record where every filing cabinet, shelf and archive box sits, so records are packed in order and unpacked into the same order at the new site. File mapping and packing means teams can find what they need on the first morning.
- Agree the server shutdown order. Confirm backups before anything is switched off. Non-critical equipment comes down first, and servers, firewalls and phone systems are switched off last at the old site and brought back up first at the new one, so the network is ready before staff arrive. Your IT team should sign off the sequence in advance.
- Confirm access times at both buildings. Recheck lift slots, loading bay windows, security arrangements and building passes for the crew. Have contact numbers for both building managers to hand in case anything changes.
- Finalise the out of hours plan. Many London buildings only allow moves in the evening or at weekends, and many businesses prefer it so no working day is lost. Confirm when staff stop work at the old office, which teams move first, who from your side will be on site, and when everyone is due back at their new desks.
First week in: snagging, unpacking, crates and address updates
The move is not finished when the last crate arrives. The first week is when people settle in and the project is closed out properly.
- Work through snagging. Keep one list of anything missing, misplaced, damaged or not working, from a desk at the wrong height to a phone that will not connect. Resolve it while the move is fresh, and agree with your move manager who is fixing each item.
- Unpack in a set order. Get critical teams unpacked and working first, then work through the rest of the floor. Clear packing materials as you go so the new office feels ready rather than half moved.
- Arrange crate collection. Once unpacking is complete, book the crates to be collected. Anything that does not have a home yet can go into storage rather than sitting in corridors.
- Update your address everywhere. Tell clients, suppliers, your bank, insurers and HMRC, update Companies House if your registered office is moving, and change your website, Google Business Profile, email signatures and stationery. Redirect post from the old address for a period to catch anything missed.
- Close out the old site. Complete the clearance, the dilapidations work and the return of keys and passes, so the old lease ends cleanly and on time.
A checklist keeps a move on track, but a move manager makes sure it happens in the right order. Universal Commercial Relocation has planned and delivered office moves across London and the South East since 1978, and every project runs to this sequence from the first survey to the final sign-off. To find out what your move involves, get a quote and we will arrange a survey of both premises.
