Handing Back the Old Office Properly

Businesses plan the move into the new office in detail and treat the old one as finished once the truck leaves. The lease usually disagrees, and the obligations at the end are frequently larger than expected.

Just-In-Time Moving works throughout Washington and Washington County.

Read the exit terms months ahead

Not weeks. Commercial leases commonly require the premises returned in a specified condition, and satisfying that can be a project.

Typical obligations: removing your fit-out and any alterations, making good walls, floors and ceilings, reinstating anything that was changed, professional cleaning to a standard, and removing all cabling you installed.

That last one catches people. Data cabling run above ceilings is frequently required to be removed, and it is a genuine job.

Get the obligations priced early. Doing this work under time pressure after you have moved out costs considerably more than planning it.

Deal with the surplus before the deadline

Anything left behind is usually removed by the landlord and charged to you, at a rate you did not agree.

Handle old furniture, broken equipment and accumulated storage as one hauling visit rather than leaving items in a corner and hoping.

Sell what has a market, donate serviceable items with collection booked, and haul the rest.

Decommission properly

Data. Old computers, drives and copiers hold information and need proper wiping or destruction rather than being sold or hauled with a general load.

Keys, fobs and access cards, all of them, returned with a written record of what was handed back and to whom.

Alarm and access systems, with your codes removed and monitoring transferred or cancelled.

Final meter readings, photographed and dated.

Services cancelled: utilities, internet, phone lines, cleaning, waste collection, water coolers, plants. These are frequently left running and quietly billed for months.

Document the state you left it in

Photograph every room empty, floors, walls, ceilings and any existing damage, before handing back the keys.

That is the only evidence you will have if a deduction is proposed later, and it takes ten minutes.

Get written confirmation that the keys were received and the premises accepted, and keep it with the lease and the photographs.

Give yourself a fortnight

The commonest mistake is treating the old office as finished on moving day. Make-good work, cleaning, cabling removal and hauling all take time and none of it can start while the space is still full.

Where the lease allows, keep access for a week or two after the move so this can be done properly rather than in a single frantic evening against a handover deadline.

We handle the haul and the move together and can work to your exit date.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.