Speak to one of our advisors directly
Every search is led personally by Mark or Laurie, with the expertise and the time to give your brief the attention it deserves.
Laurie Thomasson
Mark O'Neill
Speak to one of our advisors directly
Every search is led personally by Mark or Laurie, with the expertise and the time to give your brief the attention it deserves.
Laurie Thomasson
Mark O'Neill
February 1, 2022
•
3
min. read
By
Mark O'Neill
When approaching the end of your contract in a conventional lease space, a lot of planning is required to ensure your exit from your current space and transition into your new space goes as smoothly as possible. Some elements are simply organisational good practice to ensure that you avoid impending mayhem as the move date approaches, but other considerations are those of your legal obligations contained within your lease, which are business-critical, and if not appropriately managed then it could cost your organisation significant amounts of money and turmoil. So, to address this most impactful consideration first;
It is highly likely that your lease will require you to remove your personal fixtures and fittings from the office space when returning the property back to the Landlord. This is not only your desks, chairs, and files, etc, but likely also the removal of all furniture, room divisions, kitchens, IT cabling, potentially lighting, potentially air-conditioning, floor coverings, decorations, etc – it could be substantial. You may have heard the term “dilapidations”, but your lease document is more likely to contain any one or more of the following terms in reference to your end-of-lease obligations:
Leases are complex documents, and unfortunately are not of a standard format, so the wording can differ substantially from one lease to another. It is, therefore, absolutely paramount to engage professional advisors on this matter. To illustrate this, unless the repair obligation is expressly limited then, in some circumstances, the Tenant could be required to put the property into a better state of repair than it was in at the start of the lease!
Nearing the end of your term, the landlord will issue a schedule of dilapidations outlining what needs to be done to satisfy your obligation. By engaging with a chartered Building Surveyor who is experienced in managing office reinstatement obligations and dilapidations negotiations, they will be able to review your lease, and provide clear guidance throughout this process, as well as advice on the likely cost of works required.
Alternatively, if you are trying to agree a financial settlement with the landlord to settle your repair obligation, the landlord will present you with a settlement figure. You need to be sure that value is correct, and the landlord is not over-charging you. A building surveyor representing you will appraise the cost to ensure you do not pay a premium.
Moving on from the somewhat disconcerting topic of reinstatement obligations, we now turn our focus towards the organisational considerations which, whilst not quite as dramatically impactful as the above, are also best addressed as early as possible before the lease termination date.
If you are coming towards the end of your lease term, and importantly your lease is excluded from the protective provisions of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1954, then you would not need to serve notice to your Landlord of your desire to exit the premises. However, if you are leaving your current office at a break clause point rather than at the end of your lease, or at the end of your lease if your lease is “inside the act”, then you will need to provide sufficient prior notice to your Landlord of your intention to leave. The serving of notices is rarely straightforward, and if not adhered to correctly then your desire to terminate your lease will be invalid, and so it is strongly advised that you engage a solicitor to guide you through this process.
As you are approaching the end of your time in your current premises you will likely know the address details of the new space that you are going to be moving into. There will be a lot of external organisations that will need to be updated of your relocation and so preparing a comprehensive list of these, as early as possible, will be extremely beneficial as it is likely to require a reasonable amount of time to gather the details of all the parties needed. This master list of people you will need to send a change of address to could include:
You can also make initial plans for setting up the next space, even before you have even started the search. Create an inventory of existing office furniture (unless you expect to be disposing of this and buying new furniture) – maybe assign colour codes for each department, allocate each employee a number, and prepare a list to add that corresponding number to their department/desk/equipment, etc.
The exit from an office space that has been your company’s home for several years can be a challenging and complicated process, where stringent adherence to specific legal obligations are necessary to avoid significant business disruption and cost, but hopefully this summary has provided a useful introduction to some of the considerations needed as the event approaches.
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