We moved offices recently and it took a lot of organisation. Weeks of work. So I thought it would be useful for others if I listed a few areas where things went less smoothly than I would have liked.
Finances
Firstly, moving offices isn't cheap, if you are moving to a bigger place, then you are going to need more furniture and storage. That obviously costs money. There is also the deposit which is usually 3 months rent, and forward rent as well. Then factor in any meeting rooms or kitchens you want built and cabling up the network and server rooms. In our case we doubled the office size so the move ended up costing us in the region of £80,000
Landlord
You may be lucky or not here. Unfortunately in this case we had a few problems. The new office was advertised as being available towards the end of 2009 and we had an initial moving target of December. Our landlord holds a large portion of the shoreditch area and uses the same building teams on all of their properties. Sadly for us, we weren't their biggest client so the builders were moved out of our new office to finish off another property first. We had to learn this from the builders though, not the Landlord. The finish date was put back time and time again with the final date being late May 2010, nearly 6 months after the original date.
We're moved into the new office now, but the building work still continues...
We also got stung on dilapidations on the old office. Rather than the lease saying we would leave it as we found it, it actually says we have to redecorate the property throughout to the standard set by the landlord. That meant we paid for making the place much nicer than when we were actually in there. I found this very frustrating as we actually already paid for 2 new kitchens and boilers during our tenancy.
Builders
Apart from not getting the building finished at least 6 months after the initial agreed date, builders also bring other issues. We ordered our new furniture (34 desks, pedestals, chairs and storage) to be delivered a few days before one of the agreed move in dates in April.
Needless to say the office wasn't ready, but we didn't have anywhere to store the furniture, so we had to put it all in the middle of the new place, covered up to prevent damage.
Each time we visited to place to check on progress we found evidence of builders using the new furniture to stand on, put their tools on, remove the covers to use for other reasons, and in the end one of the chairs (worth over 400 quid) went missing.
Without the covers, much of the furniture is now covered in a layer of plaster dust too. Everything is denied of course. Very frustrating.
Moving day
Firstly moving day is a day with no internet access, so if clients call up with emergencies, make sure your tech lead has a 3G dongle and a laptop.
We booked in some movers, 4 guys and 2 vans to help us move our desks. When they arrived and realised there was no working lift, they told us they can't do this kind of work and simply left!!
The team here had to pick up the slack and shift 34 desks, chairs and pedestals and 8 really heavy cupboards up to the fourth floor. No small achievement.
It didn't help that the builders had the lift working, but couldn't let us use it for "safety" reasons.
So those are some of the horrors we faced during our move, but now we up and running in brand spanking new offices.
We have also recently opened the Hoxton Mix, so if you are looking for desk space in Old Street in London, and you're in the digital industry, give us a call.
Comments
Sion Williams says:
Ben Rometsch says: