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.
Tower Hamlets: What it means for the paperwork here: London Borough of Tower Hamlets handles bay suspensions and any highway permit for Tower Hamlets, while the managing agent handles passes, lift slots and contractor induction. Both are prepared as one document set in your name and submitted five to ten working days ahead, which is the standard lead time across the borough.
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.
Tower Hamlets: Applied to Tower Hamlets: 18,760 registered businesses sit in this borough and 316,000 people work here, so the step above is usually run for a ten to fifty desk suite rather than a whole tower. 83.8% of firms here employ fewer than ten people, which is why the survey and the switchover normally fit into one weekend.
- 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.
Tower Hamlets: In Tower Hamlets the building type sets the pace. 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 Canary Wharf, Isle of Dogs, Spitalfields, and that decides crate volumes, how many goods-lift bookings the switchover needs and whether it runs over an evening or a full weekend.
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.
Tower Hamlets: Access in Tower Hamlets is the part that slips. 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. Tower blocks with goods-lift booking, Canary Wharf estate permits, and CPZs across Bethnal Green and Bow. On top of that, part of the borough sits inside the Congestion Charge zone and all of it inside ULEZ, so both are priced into the project figure rather than invoiced later.