Office Removals in Sussex: A 12-Week Plan, What Sets the Price and What to Ask

Office removals in Sussex work best on a 12-week plan: three months is enough to brief and survey several movers, sort IT and telecoms, give the right notices and still have a buffer. Unlike a house move, the move itself is rarely the hard part. The cost is in downtime, so the aim is a short, well-rehearsed switchover, often over a weekend, with staff able to log on at their new desks on Monday morning. This page sets out the plan, what drives the quote, the British Standard to ask for, and the jobs owners most often forget.

The 12-week office move plan

12 to 10 weeks: decide and brief

• Name one person as move manager, with authority to make decisions and a deputy.
• Check the notice period and break clause on your current lease, and what condition you must hand the space back in.
• Get a floor plan of the new office and decide who sits where. The remover will need it to label crates and furniture.
• Ask your IT provider and telecoms supplier for lead times. New broadband lines and leased lines can take weeks to install.

10 to 8 weeks: surveys and quotes

• Invite three firms to survey both premises. A quote given without seeing the buildings is a guess.
• Give every firm the same written brief: what moves, what is disposed of, which dates and times, access at both ends, and who disconnects the IT.
• Ask each firm the questions in the section below and compare like with like, not just the bottom line.

8 to 4 weeks: book and prepare

• Book the remover and confirm the date in writing, including any out-of-hours working.
• Book goods lift time and loading bay space with both landlords or building managers.
• If the crew must park on the street, apply to the highway authority for a parking bay suspension or permit. In Sussex that is West Sussex County Council, East Sussex County Council or Brighton & Hove City Council, depending on the road. Apply early: suspensions need notice.
• Clear out. Every crate you do not move is money saved, and old files are a data protection risk if left behind.

4 weeks to moving day

• Tell customers, suppliers, your bank, insurers and HMRC about the new address, and update Companies House if the registered office changes.
• Crates arrive; staff pack their own desks, labelled to the new floor plan.
• Run a final walk-through with the remover at both sites a week before.

Moving day and the week after

• IT disconnects, the crew moves furniture, crates and equipment, and IT reconnects and tests before staff arrive.
• Keep a snagging list for damage and missing items, and report it to the remover in writing within the time their terms allow.
• Arrange for the crates to be collected; most firms charge crate hire by the week.

What sets the price of an office move

Office moves are mostly priced on labour and time rather than on the number of rooms, which is why two quotes for the same office can look very different.

• Crew and days. The volume of furniture and crates, and how far each has to be carried, sets how many people and how many days the job takes.
• Access. Stairs instead of a goods lift, a long carry from the loading bay or restricted delivery hours in a town centre such as Brighton, Chichester or Horsham all add time.
• Out-of-hours working. Evening and weekend moves keep the business running but cost more per hour.
• Crates and materials. Plastic crate hire, usually charged by the week, plus labels, bags and protective covers for IT kit.
• IT and specialist items. Disconnecting and reconnecting workstations, moving servers, safes, plan chests or lab equipment.
• Furniture work. Dismantling and rebuilding desks and storage, and installing new furniture delivered to the new office.
• Disposal. Clearing furniture and equipment you are not taking. Electrical items fall under the WEEE rules, and anything holding data needs secure destruction.
• Storage. If the new office is not ready, short-term storage adds a weekly charge; see storage when moving for how it is usually priced.

Choosing the firm: BS 8522 and the questions to ask

The standard to ask for is BS 8522, the British Standard for commercial moving services, published by BSI in 2009. It sets minimum levels of service for scoping and quoting a commercial move, carrying it out and monitoring it, and it was developed with the British Association of Removers' Commercial Moving Group. Public sector tenders often list it alongside BAR membership. Our page on what BAR membership means explains the trade body side.

Then ask every shortlisted firm:

1. Who will manage the move on the day, and will they visit both sites beforehand?
2. What insurance do you carry for goods in transit and for damage to the buildings, and what are the claim limits and deadlines?
3. Is IT disconnection and reconnection included, and who is responsible if equipment does not work after the move?
4. How do you handle confidential papers and old IT equipment, and will we get certificates of destruction?
5. What exactly is in the price, and what would cost extra on the day?

Most of our general advice on questions to ask a removal company and on avoiding rogue removal companies applies to business moves too.

The jobs owners most often forget

Business rates at both addresses

Tell the business rates team at the council for both properties, with exact dates. If your old and new leases overlap you can be liable at both. Empty property relief may cover the old office for a period once it is empty, but the rules are set nationally and applied by each council, so ask before assuming it will.

Dilapidations on the old lease

Most commercial leases require the space to be returned in a set condition, which can mean removing partitions, cabling and signage and redecorating. Ask the landlord for their schedule early so the work can be done, or priced, before the lease ends.

Old data

Filing cabinets, old laptops, phones and printers with hard drives all hold personal data. Under data protection law it is your responsibility to make sure it is destroyed securely, so use a firm that provides certificates rather than leaving it in a skip.

Utilities

Take meter readings at both sites on the day, and check who supplies the new office: a business moving into premises often ends up on a supplier's deemed rates until a contract is agreed. See setting up utilities when moving.

Moving staff as well as the office? Our area pages, such as moving to Crawley, cover commuting and the local market. For costs on the home side of a move, see what removals cost in Sussex, or go back to the Move Sussex homepage.

Checked on 16 October 2026. Standard details from BSI: BS 8522:2009.