The guide
RAMS, Lift Bookings and Building Rules: The London Office Move Paperwork in full
What RAMS actually are, and who reads them
A method statement sets out how the move will be carried out — sequence, crew, equipment, protection, and the route crates and furniture take through the building. The risk assessment lists what could go wrong at those two specific addresses and the controls that stop it. Together they are the RAMS.
Building managers genuinely read them, because the risks are theirs too: a wedged goods lift, a damaged common-part floor or a trolley run across a marble lobby at 22:00. A generic template with someone else's address in it gets rejected, which is why ours are written per job.
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.
Insurance: the numbers buildings check
Two certificates matter. Public liability covers damage to the building and third parties; most London managing agents want to see at least £5 million. Goods in transit covers your property while it is in our care, and the limit should sensibly exceed the replacement value of what is moving — IT equipment on a 60-desk floor adds up faster than people expect.
If your own contents insurance covers goods in transit already, tell your broker the move dates anyway. Cover often lapses the moment property leaves the insured premises.
Tower Hamlets: Sector mix matters to how this plays out locally: Finance and insurance is the largest employer in Tower Hamlets at 24% of borough jobs, with Professional and legal services at 18%. That shapes what actually gets moved — desk density, server rooms, storage and regulated paperwork all differ by trade, and the survey prices the borough's real mix rather than a generic desk count.
- Public liability certificate, typically £5m minimum
- Goods-in-transit certificate with the limit stated
- Employers' liability for the crew
- Waste carrier registration if anything is being removed
Lifts, bays, passes and permits
The goods lift is the bottleneck in almost every multi-storey London move. Slots are usually booked in blocks with building management and, in the tighter towers, come with a lift attendant charged to you. Book both ends the moment the date is fixed — not the week before.
Loading bays are the second constraint. Some buildings own theirs and reserve it; on street loading you may need a bay suspension from the borough, which typically takes several working days and is charged per bay per day. Red routes are TfL's, not the council's, and have their own rules.
Managed buildings also want contractor inductions and passes for named crew. Give the building the crew list a week ahead, and expect sign-in and sign-out records on every visit.
Tower Hamlets: Geography, in practice: Tower Hamlets covers E1, E2, E3, E14 across 14 named areas, and 0.98× as many people work here each weekday as live here. Crews are routed to the loading point for the specific postcode, because the run between two addresses inside one borough is rarely the part that costs time — the lift is.
Waste, WEEE and the dilapidations file
Anything you leave behind becomes a dilapidations problem, so clearance is part of the move, not an afterthought. Old desking, pedestals and chairs go out on the same visit under a licensed waste carrier, with a waste transfer note issued for your records.
Electrical items — monitors, PCs, printers, fridges — are WEEE and must be routed through a permitted facility. Keep the transfer notes: landlords and auditors both ask for them, and a photographic record of the cleared floor has settled more than one dilapidations dispute.
Tower Hamlets: Sign-off in Tower Hamlets follows the same shape every time. One named contact approves the switchover window, the managing agent approves the RAMS and insurance pack, and the IT lead owns the comms room. We survey both addresses before quoting, so the number on the purchase order is the number invoiced.