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Office removals guide · City of London · 9 min read

Office clearance and dilapidations in London in City of London

Dilapidations are the landlord's claim for returning the space to its agreed condition. In practice that means a fully cleared floor, removal of any alterations you made, and making good the damage behind them. Clear on the move weekend rather than later, dispose of furniture and electricals through a licensed carrier with transfer notes, and photograph the empty floor before you hand back the keys.

By The Hello Services commercial moves team · Published 2026-08-27 · Updated 2026-08-27

Illustration of Hello Services movers using a London apartment tower loading bay and goods lift, with the concierge desk and a branded van in the bay behind them — City of London

Local read

What changes in City of London before you book

The guide below is the London-wide version. This panel is what changes once the move is inside this borough. City of London covers EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4 and 10 named areas, and the building type, the lift and the loading bay decide most of what an office move here actually costs.

  • 25,555

    Businesses in City of London

  • 614,000

    People employed here

  • 71.4×

    Daytime workers per resident

  • 10

    Areas covered, each with its own guide

Office stock in City of London

Grade A towers and multi-tenant floors defines City of London: grade A towers and refurbished multi-let floors, glass-partitioned meeting suites, client-facing reception areas, high-spec washrooms and staffed hospitality space. The commercial weight sits around Aldgate, Bank and Cornhill, Barbican, Blackfriars. That decides crate counts, how many goods-lift bookings a switchover needs, and whether it runs over one evening or a full weekend.

Who moves here

City of London has 25,555 registered businesses — 4.3% of every business in Greater London — and 614,000 people employed on 2022 figures. 75.1% of those firms are micro businesses under ten staff, so most moves booked here are ten to fifty desks over a weekend rather than full-tower programmes. The biggest employers are Finance and insurance (32.4% of borough jobs), Professional and legal services (27.7% of borough jobs), Technology and information (14% of borough jobs).

Access, lifts and charges

Security passes and a permit-to-work, goods lift booked with building management, contractor induction before the first shift and a logged sign-in and sign-out on every visit. Congestion Charge and ULEZ, ring-of-steel camera controls, almost no free kerb — loading bays must be booked around office hours. Part of City of London sits inside the Congestion Charge zone and all of it is inside ULEZ, so both are quoted in the project price before you sign — never invoiced afterwards.

Who signs it off

Managing agents and facilities teams buying for the whole building, plus tenant office managers buying for their own demised floor. In City of London that usually means one named contact signing off the switchover window, the building manager approving the RAMS and insurance pack, and the IT lead owning the comms room. We survey both addresses before quoting, so the figure on the purchase order is the figure invoiced.

Commercial figures: ONS UK Business Counts — local units by industry and employment size band, 2024 (Nomis NM_141_1) (2024) and ONS Business Register and Employment Survey, 2022 (Nomis NM_189_1) (2022), borough level — the smallest geography ONS publishes both series for. Resident population: ONS Census 2021.

The guide

Office Clearance and Dilapidations in London in full

What the lease actually obliges you to do

Two documents decide the bill: the repairing covenant in the lease and the schedule of condition attached at the start of the term. The covenant sets the standard you must return the space to; the schedule records what it looked like when you took it, which is the only defence against being charged for wear that predates you.

If there is no schedule of condition, assume the landlord will price the floor as though it were handed over in good order. That is when early advice from a building surveyor pays for itself many times over.

Clear on the weekend, not the month after

Everything left behind is chargeable, usually at a rate that bears no relation to what clearance costs when you organise it. Old desking, pedestals, tired task chairs, whiteboards and the kitchen fridge all go out on the same visit as the move, while the lift is already booked and the bay already reserved.

It is also the cheapest hour of the whole project. The crew, the vehicles and the building access are already paid for; adding a clearance load costs a fraction of mobilising again in three weeks.

  • Decide keep, sell, donate and dispose at survey, not on the day
  • Route usable furniture to a charity or reuse partner and keep the receipt
  • Electricals go through WEEE at a permitted facility
  • Collect waste transfer notes for every load

Alterations and making good

Anything you installed under a licence to alter — partitions, extra data cabling, a kitchenette, wall graphics, floor boxes — is usually yours to remove unless the landlord has agreed otherwise in writing. Removal always leaves damage, and making that damage good is part of the same obligation.

Ask the landlord early whether they want alterations left in place. A landlord relaying the floor for a new tenant will sometimes waive removal, which is a large saving available only if you ask before the strip-out is booked.

Need the City of London figure in writing for the board pack?

A free site survey covers lifts, loading bays and out-of-hours windows, and produces a fixed written quote with method statement and RAMS.

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The evidence file that settles the claim

Photograph every room after clearance and before hand-back, with timestamps. Add the waste transfer notes, WEEE evidence, any destruction certificates, the make-good invoices and a copy of the schedule of condition.

A tidy file changes the negotiation. Most London dilapidations claims open high and settle on what can be evidenced, and the party with dated photographs of an empty, clean floor is the one holding the useful documents.

Verified Trustpilot reviews

What City of London businesses say

★★★★★

Ibby and Dami did an excellent job

Ibby and Dami did an excellent job! They were friendly but professional, nothing was too much trouble and I look forward to seeing them again really soon.
Rosalind Brewer ·
★★★★★

Quick response to enquiry

Hello Services responded very quickly and provided a quotation in a matter of minutes. They handled my last minute booking swiftly and kept in touch with me throughout the process. I was impressed by the standard of cleaning provided by their team. They worked so hard and really cared about providing a good service. I would have no hesitation in using Hello Services again. MS.
MARY STEPHENSON ·

Reviews are quoted verbatim from our public Trustpilot profile, where the full rating history is open to check.

By area

This guide, localized across City of London 10 areas

Every area below has its own version of this guide with local building stock, loading bay and access notes.

Who wrote this page

Reviewed by Sarbaz Hassan, Operations Director — .

We run office switchovers across City of London every month, from ten-desk micro moves to full-floor weekend programmes.

  • Company no. 11855405
  • VAT no. GB 331 4560 12
  • Goods-in-transit & public liability insured
  • DBS-checked crews
  • Licensed waste carrier

Fixed office move quotes in City of London, with RAMS attached

Desk count, both addresses, lift and loading bay access and your target switchover weekend — that is all we need to price it.

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Questions

Quick answers for City of London

Yes. The prices, RAMS and switchover timings in this guide are the ones we work to across City of London, including EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4. What varies is building access — goods lift booking, loading bay suspension with City of London Corporation and contractor induction — plus ULEZ and the Congestion Charge, and all of them are inside the written project price before you book.