An office move is not a bigger house move. The van is the easy part. What actually decides whether it goes well is a lease clause you signed years ago, a broadband lead time you do not control, and a dilapidations bill nobody budgeted for. This guide works backwards from your first day of trading in the new space. For the domestic side of any staff relocation, our removal guides cover the household end.
Key takeaways
- Start twelve months out if you have a break clause. Break notices are strictly conditional, and missing one by a day usually means another full lease term.1
- Budget roughly £75 to £220 per employee for the physical move as of 2026, packing, IT and access charges included. On that basis a 30 person business lands somewhere between £2,250 and £6,600 for the move itself. The fit-out is a separate and much larger number.
- The fit-out, not the removal, is the big number. A Category B fit-out is commonly quoted at around £65 to £160 per square foot depending on specification.
- Order connectivity first and everything else second. A straightforward business line at a ready address is often 10 to 15 working days, but a multi-tenant building or anything needing a wayleave can run to several months.
- You must tell Companies House within 14 days of changing your registered office.2, 3 It is free online.4 Companies House passes the address change to HMRC, but you must still tell HMRC yourself about VAT within 30 days, and about PAYE and Corporation Tax.5, 6
- Dilapidations at the old building are a contractual claim under your lease, negotiated against the schedule of condition if one was annexed, so photograph everything before you move a single desk.
The countdown: what happens when
Every office move has one genuinely fixed date and a lot of soft ones. The fixed date is whatever your lease says. Work backwards from it.
Read the lease properly
Find the break date, the notice period, and the conditions attached to the break. Get a surveyor to look at the dilapidations exposure now, while you still have time to do the work yourself rather than pay the landlord’s contractor rates.
Agree the requirement and start searching
Square footage, location, parking, and how much of the space needs to be desks rather than meeting rooms. Heads of terms on a new building typically take longer to agree than anyone plans for.
Serve notice, sign, and order connectivity
The moment you have legal certainty on the new address, order the internet. Not after the fit-out is designed. This is the single most common cause of an office move landing badly.
Fit-out, furniture and the mover
Appoint the fit-out contractor, decide what furniture is coming and what is being replaced, and get three surveyed quotes from commercial movers. Tell staff formally if you have not already.
Notifications and logistics
Work the notification list below. Book lifts and loading bays at both ends. Confirm the IT cutover plan and who is on call for it.
Move, test, and open
Crate packing on the Friday, move Saturday, IT and testing Sunday, trade Monday. Anything tighter than that is a decision to lose a day of business.
Good to know: if you are a small business on a short or flexible lease, most of the twelve month runway collapses to about eight weeks. The order of the steps does not change; only the gaps between them do.
Your lease is the real deadline
Two clauses decide the shape of your move, and both of them favour the landlord if you are casual about them.
The break clause. A break is a right to end the lease early, and it is almost always conditional. Those conditions are contractual, not statutory: no Act creates a break right or sets its terms, so what yours demands depends entirely on how your lease is drafted. Many leases ask for rent paid up to date and vacant possession given, but that is drafting convention rather than a rule, so read your own clause instead of a typical list. The part that does hold as a general proposition is that notice must be served in exactly the form, and by exactly the date, the lease prescribes.1 Courts have historically been unsympathetic to tenants who missed a condition narrowly. Diary the notice date, then diary a reminder three months before it, and have a solicitor serve it.1
Dilapidations. This is the landlord’s claim for putting the building back to the state your lease requires. The obligation is contractual — it comes from the repairing covenant you signed, and where a schedule of condition was annexed to the lease the claim is negotiated against that. What statute fixes is the ceiling on it: under section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 the damages cannot exceed the amount by which the breach reduces the value of the landlord’s interest in the building, which is frequently far less than the cost of the works being claimed for.7 If no schedule of condition exists, you are arguing from memory against a professional surveyor.
Watch out: the cheapest time to deal with dilapidations is before you leave, using your own contractors. Once the landlord serves a schedule of dilapidations after you have gone, you are paying their prices on their timetable, and you have no way to do the work yourself.
Photograph and date every room, every wall and every floor before the fit-out contractors arrive at the old building and before a single crate is packed. That evidence is the same principle as the check-out photos in our end of tenancy cleaning guide, and it works for the same reason: the party with dated evidence wins the argument.
What an office move costs in 2026
Commercial removal quotes are built from volume, access, distance and how much of the packing you want the crew to do. Everything below works from one basis: £75 to £220 per employee for the physical move as of 2026. The size bands are that same range applied to headcount rather than a second estimate, so they will always agree with each other, and all of it moves sharply upward in central London.
| Cost | Typical 2026 figure | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Physical move, per employee | £75 to £220 | Access, floor level, crate hire, weekend premium |
| Small office, 5 to 15 staff, local | £400 to £3,300 | Whether IT and packing are included |
| Medium office, 15 to 50 staff | £1,100 to £11,000 | Distance and out-of-hours working |
| Large office, 50 to 150 staff | £3,800 to £33,000 | Phased moves, multiple weekends |
| Fit-out (Category B) | £65 to £160 per sq ft | Specification, M&E works, joinery |
| Dilapidations | Highly variable | Schedule of condition, alterations you made |
| IT relocation and cabling | Quoted separately | Server room, structured cabling, new hardware |
A 50 person move in London commonly runs into tens of thousands once building access charges, out-of-hours labour and dilapidations are counted, so treat the per-employee figure as the removal line only, not the project.
Tip: ask every commercial mover to quote crate hire separately. Crates are usually charged per crate per week, and the difference between a tidy two week hire and a vague “until we are unpacked” is real money.
Moving a business or a home?
Compare quotes from removal companies and tell them the access situation once.
Compare removal quotesConnectivity and IT: order this first
The van will turn up. The internet might not. Order connectivity the day the new address is legally certain, because it is the only part of the move where the lead time is entirely outside your control.
- A straightforward order at a connected address is often 10 to 15 working days as of 2026.
- A multi-tenant office or business park can take considerably longer, because the provider may need permission from the building owner.8
- Anything needing a wayleave, new ducting or civils work runs to several months, and no amount of chasing compresses it.
Order a temporary fallback as well. A bonded 4G or 5G router costs very little against a week of a whole team unable to work, and it can be cancelled once the main line is live.
Watch out: do not cancel the old line until the new one is tested and carrying real traffic. Overlapping the two for a month is the cheapest insurance in the entire project.
The rest of the IT plan
- Decide what actually moves. Ageing desktops and a server nobody wants to lift are often cheaper to replace than to relocate and re-commission.
- Photograph every rack and desk setup before anything is unplugged, and label both ends of every cable.
- Book the cutover for the quietest window you have and name one person who owns it.
- Test before anyone arrives. Phones, printing, door entry, alarms and card payments all fail quietly and separately.
Who you must legally tell
Two of these carry a statutory deadline: Companies House within 14 days, and HMRC within 30 days for VAT. The rest are commercial housekeeping, but the first four on the list are the ones that generate letters you do not want to miss.2, 6
- Companies House: notify a change of registered office within 14 days, free online. Companies House passes that change on to HMRC, but nothing else on this list follows from it.5
- HMRC: tell them yourself about VAT within 30 days, and separately about PAYE and your Corporation Tax details. Only the registered office address itself comes across from Companies House.6, 5
- The local authority at both ends: business rates on the old property and the new one.9, 10 Get a closing bill on the old address.
- Your insurers: premises, contents, public liability and employers’ liability. Check the wording — most commercial policies name the insured premises, so cover tends to follow the address rather than the company.
- The bank and payment providers: including the address on the card machine merchant account.
- Your accountant, solicitor and payroll provider.
- Licensing and regulators if your trade is regulated, and the ICO if you are registered.11
- Royal Mail redirection for the business, plus the couriers separately. As covered in our change of address checklist, a Royal Mail redirection only moves post travelling through Royal Mail’s own network, so anything sent by another courier will keep going to the old address.17 Update each courier and carrier account separately.
- Website, Google Business Profile, email signatures, invoices and letterheads.
- Clients and suppliers, in writing, with the date the address changes rather than the date you told them.
Good to know: letting the registered office go stale is how companies miss statutory post and end up with filing penalties or strike-off action.12, 13 It is a fourteen day job that takes about five minutes.
Your people
A move changes commutes, and commutes change who stays. Tell staff as early as you are able to, with the new address, the date and an honest word about travel. People find out from a fit-out contractor otherwise.
Where a move materially changes someone’s working conditions, there may be consultation obligations or a mobility clause in play, and if the move is significant enough to put roles at risk the position is more complicated again.14, 15, 16 Take advice on that specific point rather than assuming, because it is the one part of an office move where getting it wrong is expensive in a way a broadband delay is not.
Practical things that cost nothing and buy goodwill: publish the new travel options and season ticket costs, run a site visit before the move, and be clear about parking and cycle storage on day one rather than week three.
The moving weekend itself
- Friday: crate and label. Everyone packs their own desk into numbered crates. Every crate carries its destination desk or room in the new building, not the old one.
- Friday evening: IT down. Final backups verified, not just started. Photograph the server rack before anything is removed.
- Saturday: the move. One person from your side at each end, all day. The mover runs the van; you run the decisions.
- Sunday: build and test. IT first, then furniture, then everything else. Walk the building testing phones, printing, door entry, alarm and payments.
- Monday: open, with support on site. Keep the fit-out contractor and an IT person reachable. Expect a snag list and work it down over the week.
Tip: put one clearly labelled crate per floor with kettle, mugs, tea, loo roll, hand soap, scissors, a first aid kit and a multi-way extension lead. It is the office version of the essentials box in our packing guide, and it does the same job.
After the move
- Return the old keys and fobs formally, with a dated receipt.
- Close the old utility accounts on photographed meter readings.
- Settle dilapidations against your dated photographs.
- Return crates before the hire runs on.
- Update the address everywhere it appears publicly, then search for the old one to find what you missed.
Get commercial quotes from vetted firms
Tell us the size of the office, the access at both ends and the date, and compare fixed prices.
Compare removal quotesFrequently asked questions
How far in advance should we plan an office move?
Twelve months if you have a break clause to serve, because the notice period and its conditions are the hardest deadline in the project. Six months is workable on a lease that is simply ending. Below about eight weeks you are choosing between a rushed fit-out and a period of paying rent on two buildings, and the second option is usually the cheaper mistake.
How much does it cost to move an office in the UK?
As of 2026, most businesses pay roughly £75 to £220 per employee for the physical move once packing, IT and access are included, so a 30 person office typically budgets somewhere between £2,250 and £6,600. Applying the same range by headcount, a local move for 5 to 15 staff comes out at about £400 to £3,300, 15 to 50 staff at £1,100 to £11,000, and 50 to 150 staff at £3,800 to £33,000 — the bottom of each band for a straightforward local move, the top for distance, awkward access or out-of-hours working. London runs materially higher. None of that includes the fit-out, which is usually the largest single line.
Do I have to tell Companies House when we move office?
Yes, if the registered office address changes. You must notify Companies House within 14 days, and it is free to do online. Companies House will pass the address change to HMRC, but that is the only thing it passes on: you still have to tell HMRC yourself about VAT within 30 days, and about PAYE and Corporation Tax, and your bank, your insurers and your local authority all need telling separately. A stale registered office is how companies miss statutory post and pick up filing penalties.
How long does business broadband take to install at a new office?
At an address that is already connected, often 10 to 15 working days as of 2026. In a multi-tenant building the provider may need the landlord’s permission first, and anything requiring a wayleave or new ducting can take months. Order it the day the address is legally certain, keep the old line running in parallel until the new one is tested, and have a 4G or 5G router as a fallback.
What are dilapidations and how do we avoid a big bill?
Dilapidations are the landlord’s claim for returning the building to the condition your lease requires. The obligation is contractual rather than statutory — it comes from the repairing covenant — and where a schedule of condition was attached to the lease the claim is negotiated against that, so find that document early and get a surveyor’s view while you still have time to do the work yourself. Statute does cap the claim: under section 18(1) of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1927 a landlord cannot recover more than the amount the breach knocks off the value of their interest, which is worth knowing before you accept a schedule at face value. Doing remedial work with your own contractors before you leave is almost always cheaper than paying the landlord’s after you have gone.
Should we move the office at the weekend?
Usually yes, and it is priced accordingly. A Friday pack, Saturday move and Sunday IT build lets you trade on Monday, which is normally worth more than the weekend premium on the labour. The alternative, a midweek move, is cheaper on paper and costs you a day or two of everyone’s productivity.
Do we need to tell staff before we sign the lease?
You are not obliged to announce a commercial negotiation, but tell people as soon as the move is certain rather than letting them hear it from a contractor. Where a move materially changes someone’s working conditions there can be consultation obligations or a mobility clause to consider, so take advice on that specific point. It is the one part of an office move where a mistake is genuinely expensive.
Sources
Figures, deadlines and rules in this guide are referenced below. Each source was checked on 10 August 2026. Links open in a new tab.
- The National Archives (Find Case Law), (2014).
- Companies House (GOV.UK), (accessed August 2026).
- legislation.gov.uk, (2006).
- Companies House (GOV.UK), (accessed August 2026).
- Companies House (GOV.UK), (accessed August 2026).
- HM Revenue & Customs (GOV.UK), (accessed August 2026).
- legislation.gov.uk, (1927).
- legislation.gov.uk, (2003 (Sch 3A inserted 2017)).
- GOV.UK, (accessed August 2026).
- GOV.UK / Valuation Office Agency, (accessed August 2026).
- GOV.UK / Information Commissioner’s Office, (accessed August 2026).
- legislation.gov.uk, (2006).
- Companies House (GOV.UK), (accessed August 2026).
- GOV.UK, (accessed August 2026).
- legislation.gov.uk, (1992).
- legislation.gov.uk, (1996).
- Royal Mail, (2026).