An office move that goes wrong costs far more than the removal bill. Between trading downtime, disconnected systems, misplaced equipment and a team that cannot settle into a new space, the real damage adds up fast. This guide is for any business planning a London office relocation and wanting to come through it without a single lost working day.
Give yourself more time than you think you need
Three months is the bare minimum. For anything beyond a small single-room office, six months gives you the room to get every part of the plan in order before moving day arrives.
Start with a target date and work backwards. You need time to brief your removal crew, arrange parking permits, sort IT connectivity and prepare your staff. Each of those takes longer than most business owners expect.
Research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development suggests that poorly planned relocations result in an average of 3.5 days of reduced productivity per employee. For a 20-person team, that adds up to weeks of lost output across your business. The fix is not a bigger removal budget. It is an earlier start.
Lock in your office and business removals team well in advance. London commercial crews with the right vehicles and experience fill their diaries fast, particularly for Friday evenings and weekend slots.
Your IT connection is the first thing to book
Here is the detail most guides skip over. Getting a business internet connection installed in a new office takes four to twelve weeks through Openreach or most private providers. If you sign a new lease and then think about broadband, you may find yourself without a working connection on day one.
Book your new internet line the day you confirm the lease. Set up a 5G failover as a backup for the first few days, in case activation runs late.
Beyond connectivity, every piece of IT equipment needs careful handling during the move itself. Servers, workstations, monitors and specialist hardware should be decommissioned, labelled, wrapped and reinstalled by people who understand what they are touching. A professional IT relocation service handles all of that, from start to finish, so nothing is lost or damaged and your systems are live when your team walks in.
Sort parking and access in London well before moving day
This is where most London office moves run into real trouble. You cannot pull a 7.5-tonne removal lorry up outside a building in Westminster, the City or most central postcodes without proper arrangements in place.
If your office sits within a controlled parking zone, you need a parking bay suspension from the local council. This reserves the kerb space you need for your removal vehicles. Most London boroughs require at least two to four weeks’ notice. Some take longer. Apply early and confirm the dates in writing.
The Congestion Charge zone covers Westminster, parts of Camden and the City of London. Removal vehicles are not exempt. The current charge runs at £18 per day for vehicles entering the zone Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm and Saturday to Sunday 12pm to 6pm. The ULEZ covers all of Greater London too. Most professional removal fleets meet the standard, but it is worth confirming before you book.
Our London office removal service includes parking suspension arrangements, Congestion Charge and ULEZ costs in your fixed price upfront. You will not see those added as extras on the day.
Build a labelling system before the crew arrives
Time spent on labelling before moving day pays back double when the lorry rolls up. Every desk, cabinet, monitor, box and piece of equipment should carry a label showing exactly where it belongs in the new space.
Create a floor plan of the new office before you pack a single thing. Mark every workstation, meeting room, storage area and shared space clearly. Give a copy to your removal crew so they can place items in the right room without stopping to ask at every door.
Colour-coded labels by team or department speed things up further. Assign each department a colour, mark their kit accordingly and the crew can unload in zone order without any confusion.
If you would rather leave the packing entirely to someone else, our packers and movers handle the whole thing: boxing up every workstation, wrapping fragile equipment and labelling every item to the floor plan before a single box goes on the lorry.
Plan the move for a weekend
The most reliable way to protect your trading time is to start the physical move on a Friday evening, work through Saturday, and have everything set up and tested by Sunday afternoon. Your team walks in Monday morning as normal.
That schedule is achievable for most small to medium London offices. A crew of three or four people with a 7.5-tonne lorry handles a 15 to 40-person office in a day. Larger moves may need a pair of vehicles, phased loading across both sites, or a dedicated IT team and a separate furniture crew.
Just Removals London works 7 days a week, all year round, with early starts and weekend slots available as standard. The price agreed before the move is the price on the invoice, with no extra charge for weekend working, stairs or restricted access. You can read more about how our office removals service works or get a free fixed-price quote directly from our team.
Think about storage if the dates do not line up
Not every office move goes cleanly from one address to another on the same day. You might be handing back the keys early before the new fit-out is finished. You might be downsizing and have surplus desks or equipment to hold somewhere. You might have archive files that need a safe, dry home for a few weeks.
Short-term secure storage takes the pressure off those gaps. It means the move goes ahead on your schedule, not at the mercy of a contractor’s handover date.
If you are downsizing and have office furniture you no longer need, our furniture collection service can clear unwanted pieces as part of the same job, saving you a separate booking.
Frequently asked questions
How far in advance should I book an office move in London?
Six to eight weeks is workable for smaller moves. If your relocation involves IT work, multiple floors or complex access, three to six months is a safer target. Our office removals team can advise on timelines when you get a quote. Professional commercial crews in London get booked up fast, particularly for Friday evenings and Saturdays.
How much does an office move in London cost?
A small 5 to 10-person office typically costs between £800 and £2,000. A 20 to 40-person office with desks, equipment and storage runs from around £3,000 to £8,000. Larger corporate moves cost far more, particularly where IT relocation is involved. The physical removal often represents only 15 to 20 per cent of total expenditure once fit-out, IT and downtime are included. Always get a fixed-price quote so you know exactly what you are paying before the day.
Does the removal company handle IT equipment?
The right one will. Our IT relocation team decommissions, packs, transports and reinstalls IT as part of the service, including servers, screens and specialist hardware. Everything is covered by goods-in-transit insurance throughout.
How do I avoid downtime during an office move?
Plan the physical move for a Friday evening into Saturday, with furniture in place and IT tested by Sunday afternoon. A good labelling system, the right crew size and your connectivity already live at the new address are what make Monday morning work as normal. Our packing and unpacking service can speed up both ends of the job considerably.
Does the removal company sort parking permits and the Congestion Charge?
Yes. Just Removals London handles parking bay suspensions, Congestion Charge and ULEZ costs as part of every office removal we carry out. These are included in your fixed-price quote, not added as extras on the day.