Moving out of an office is one job. Decommissioning it is another. When the last desk has gone, someone still has to deal with the IT that holds data, the furniture nobody wants, the waste, the paperwork, and the condition the landlord expects the space to be handed back in.
Most businesses rarely do this, so it often gets left to the last few weeks of a lease. This guide sets out the stages in order, the records you should end up holding, and a checklist to work from. To talk about your own building, see our zero-landfill decommissioning service.
What office decommissioning means
Office decommissioning is the controlled process of taking an office out of use. That means removing or disposing of everything in it, dealing with data-bearing equipment securely, clearing the space to the standard the lease requires, and keeping records that show it was all done properly.
It overlaps with four other jobs:
- Relocation: moving what you’re keeping to the new office.
- Contents clearance: removing everything loose that you’re not keeping.
- Soft strip: removing non-structural fixed elements such as partitions, suspended ceilings and raised floors.
- Dilapidations works: returning the space to the condition your lease requires.
On a well-run project these are planned together, so nothing is moved twice or thrown away by mistake. They also run in that order: the floor has to be clear before a strip-out contractor can start.
Stage 1: survey and inventory
Start with a full list of what’s in the building:
- Furniture: desks, chairs, storage, meeting room furniture, kitchen.
- IT and electrical: computers, screens, phones, printers, network equipment, servers, cabling, appliances.
- Fixtures your business added: partitions, signage, AV equipment, cabling.
- Anything unusual: safes, archive rooms, cleaning or maintenance chemicals, gas cylinders.
For each item, record what happens to it: moved, reused within the business, resold, donated, recycled or disposed of. This list becomes the backbone of your records.
Check it against your lease and schedule of dilapidations as you go. Some items belong to the landlord and should stay exactly where they are. Removing them can create a reinstatement liability rather than reduce one.
Stage 2: data-bearing equipment
Deal with this first, because it carries the most risk. The National Cyber Security Centre advises that storage media should be sanitised before a device leaves your organisation’s control. That includes laptops, desktops, servers, phones and external drives, and also printers and photocopiers: the NCSC notes that sensitive documents have been recovered from decommissioned ones.
- Match every device to your asset register by serial number.
- Decide whether each one is wiped and reused, or physically destroyed.
- Keep it secure until it’s collected, and record who had it and when.
- Get a certificate for each device, naming it by serial number. A single certificate for “a collection” doesn’t show which device was dealt with.
If you use a disposal company, the ICO says you must choose a processor that gives sufficient guarantees about its security measures. Our IT asset disposal service inventories equipment at serial level, sanitises or destroys data-bearing devices through certified processes, and issues a per-device certificate against each serial number.
Stage 3: furniture, fixtures and fittings
Reuse and resale
Good office furniture has value. In order of preference:
- Reuse within your business, at the new office or another site.
- Resale.
- Donation to charities, schools or community groups.
Our furniture reuse service grades surplus on site and routes it to redeployment, resale, donation or material recovery. We don’t sell from a showroom: where items have resale value, we work through trade partners. Donations are documented, and you get a record of where items went.
These routes need time to find a buyer or a recipient. A clearance booked for next week tends to default to recycling simply because there’s no room to arrange anything better, so decide before you book.
Recycling and waste
What can’t be reused should be separated for recycling (metal, wood, plastics, textiles, cardboard) before anything goes to general waste. Discarded electrical items are waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). Government guidance lists WEEE as waste that needs particular treatment or handling, so keep it apart from general waste and make sure the paperwork says what it is. Our office clearance service sorts these streams on site.
Stage 4: the paperwork you must keep
This is the part that protects you. Under the waste duty of care, you must take all reasonable steps to make sure your waste goes only to an authorised person and is handled properly. That responsibility doesn’t end when a contractor drives away.
Waste transfer notes
In England, gov.uk guidance says you must complete a waste transfer note for each load of waste that leaves your premises. It describes the waste, who took it and where it changed hands. Wales and Scotland have equivalent rules.
Check that the carrier is registered with the right regulator: the Environment Agency in England, Natural Resources Wales in Wales, or SEPA in Scotland. Each keeps a public register you can search.
Keep the notes for at least two years. That applies in England and Wales under the government’s duty of care code of practice, and in Scotland under the Scottish code. Our guide to waste transfer notes explains what they should contain.
Hazardous waste consignment notes
Some office waste is hazardous. Government examples include batteries and chemicals such as print toner. Hazardous waste moves on a consignment note rather than a transfer note, and in England and Wales you must keep consignment notes for three years. In Scotland, hazardous waste is called special waste and moves on a special waste consignment note under Scotland’s own regulations. See our guide to hazardous waste consignment notes.
Digital waste tracking
The government’s digital waste tracking service is being phased in. Its published timetable makes it mandatory for sites receiving waste in England and Wales from October 2026, for receiving sites in Scotland and Northern Ireland from January 2027, and for waste collectors from October 2027. Your duty of care still applies throughout, so keep getting and filing your transfer and consignment notes.
Data destruction certificates
One certificate (or a set) covering every data-bearing device, listed by serial number.
Stage 5: strip-out and making good
Read the dilapidations or reinstatement clauses in your lease. They may require you to remove partitions, raised floors, cabling or signage, and to repair or repaint. Agree the scope with the landlord or their surveyor before work starts, so you don’t remove something the landlord wanted to keep.
Be clear about who does what. We clear the contents, meaning everything that isn’t fixed to the building, and hand over a clear floor. We don’t carry out soft strip: partitions, suspended ceilings and raised floors are removed by a demolition contractor, and we frequently work immediately ahead of one. Dilapidations works are usually carried out by a fit-out or building contractor, managed by a building surveyor. See our office clearance before strip-out service.
Stage 6: handback
Before you hand back the keys:
- Walk the space with the landlord’s representative.
- Photograph each room.
- Hand over keys, access cards and fobs.
- Put the records together: inventory and outcomes, waste transfer notes, consignment notes, data destruction certificates, and any reuse or recycling report.
On our decommissioning projects, you get a post-project report at the end. It records where items went, weight diverted by stream, what was rehomed through reuse or donation and any value recovered, with the waste transfer and destruction paperwork attached. We don’t promise an absolute zero-landfill result before seeing a site. We apply the waste hierarchy in order and report what actually happened, including anything that did go to disposal.
Office decommissioning checklist
3–6 months before the lease ends
- Read the lease’s handback and reinstatement terms
- Full inventory of furniture, IT, fixtures and anything unusual
- Decide what moves, what’s reused, what’s resold or donated, and what’s cleared
1–3 months before
- Book secure IT disposal and match devices to the asset register
- Book the clearance and any strip-out work
- Check every contractor’s waste carrier registration on the public register
- Agree the making-good scope with the landlord
Final weeks
- Data-bearing equipment collected, with a record of who had it and when
- Furniture moved, reused, resold or donated
- Remaining waste separated and removed with transfer notes (consignment notes for hazardous waste)
- Strip-out and making good completed
Handback
- Joint walk-round with photographs
- Keys and access cards returned
- Full records filed
How long it takes
It depends on the size of the office, how much is being reused and the reinstatement work. Plan backwards from the lease end date, and leave a margin for the landlord’s inspection. The contents clearance comes first and holds up everything after it, so book the survey as soon as you know your exit date.
Planning a decommissioning project
Tell us the building, the lease end date and what you already know about your inventory, and we’ll plan the stages with you. Zero-landfill decommissioning · Office clearance before strip-out · Contact Continuum Green
Frequently asked questions
What is office decommissioning?
The controlled process of taking an office out of use: dealing with data-bearing IT securely, reusing, recycling or disposing of furniture and fixtures, making good the space, and keeping records that show it was done properly.
What records should we keep after clearing an office?
Waste transfer notes (at least two years), any hazardous waste consignment notes (three years in England and Wales), data destruction certificates listing every device, and your inventory showing what happened to each item.
Is making good part of decommissioning?
Often, yes. Your lease decides what has to be removed or repaired before handback, so agree the scope with the landlord first. Making good and soft strip are usually done by building and demolition contractors after the contents have been cleared.