The guide
Office Move Checklist for London: A 12-Week Plan in full
Weeks 12–9: dates, budget and surveys
Everything downstream hangs off two dates: when the new floor is available for fit-out, and when the old lease ends with dilapidations complete. Get both in writing before you brief anyone internally, because they rarely align neatly and the gap decides whether you need business storage.
Book removal surveys at both addresses in this window. A surveyor counts desks, IT positions, storage units and anything unusual — safes, plan chests, server racks, a kitchen — then reads the access at both ends. That is what turns a guess into a fixed project price you can put in the budget.
Hillingdon: Timing in Hillingdon: buildings here — business parks and light industrial estates — rarely release a goods lift during trading hours, so the switchover typically starts after close of business on a Friday and hands back a working floor for Monday. With 197,000 people employed across the borough, the weekend window exists so that nobody loses a working day.
- Confirm lease end, dilapidations scope and new-floor access dates
- Book removal surveys at both addresses and get fixed project prices
- Check the destination building's rules: lift booking, out-of-hours access, insurance limits
- Give telecoms and broadband providers notice — this is the single longest lead time in the whole plan
Weeks 8–5: the move plan, RAMS and IT
Approve one supplier and lock the switchover weekend. In London the last weekend of a month and every quarter-end go first, so a date held now is worth more than a slightly cheaper quote taken later.
Your mover issues the method statement, risk assessment and insurance certificates in this window, because most managing agents want them at least five working days ahead and some want them signed off by building management before passes are issued.
Run IT in parallel. Circuits, patching and any new cabling at the destination need to be live and tested before move weekend — a crew can rebuild a floor in a night, but nobody can conjure a leased line on a Sunday.
Hillingdon: What it means for the paperwork here: London Borough of Hillingdon handles bay suspensions and any highway permit for Hillingdon, 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.
- Sign the move plan and confirm the switchover window with both buildings
- Issue RAMS and insurance certificates to your managing agent
- Confirm structured cabling, patching and circuit live dates with your IT provider
- Decide what is being disposed of — desking, pedestals, screens — and get it quoted as part of the move
Weeks 4–2: crates, floor plans and people
Crates arrive about a week before the move with labels and a seat-numbered destination plan. Give staff a fixed pack-down deadline — end of business the day before the move, not the morning of it — and make it clear that personal items and desk plants travel with them.
Publish the destination floor plan with seat numbers on it. Every crate, monitor bag and pedestal gets that number, which is what makes a rebuilt floor findable at 08:00 on Monday rather than a treasure hunt.
Brief reception, security and cleaners at both buildings, and tell clients and suppliers the address is changing. Update the Google Business Profile, invoices, letterheads and email footers on a date you set, not ad hoc.
Hillingdon: Applied to Hillingdon: 16,405 registered businesses sit in this borough and 197,000 people work here, so the step above is usually run for a ten to fifty desk suite rather than a whole tower. 86.3% of firms here employ fewer than ten people, which is why the survey and the switchover normally fit into one weekend.
- Crates and IT bags delivered, labels issued, packing deadline announced
- Seat-numbered floor plan circulated to staff and to the move crew
- Confirm lift slots, loading bays and out-of-hours access at both ends
- Book the clearance load for redundant furniture and WEEE
The switchover weekend and the week after
Loading starts after close of business. Protection goes down on lifts, floors and door frames first, then crates and IT travel, then furniture. At the destination the floor is built to the plan and workstations reconnected so a sample of desks can be powered up and tested before the crew leaves.
Keep the snagging week deliberately light on meetings. Expect a handful of missing cables, one monitor arm that will not fit and at least one department that wants to move two desks. Empty crates are collected within five working days, and the waste transfer note for anything cleared goes into the dilapidations file.
Hillingdon: In Hillingdon the building type sets the pace. Business park units and campus buildings with generous vehicle access, single-tenant floors, trade counters and warehouse-attached offices with staff welfare areas. The commercial weight sits around Uxbridge, and that decides crate volumes, how many goods-lift bookings the switchover needs and whether it runs over an evening or a full weekend.