To decommission an office by your lease end date, work backward from the surrender date in three blocks. At 90 days, read the lease, name an owner and build an inventory. At 60 days, choose a contractor, submit insurance and book the freight elevator. At 30 days, clear personal items and IT, remove the furniture and debris, and walk the space with the property manager a week before handback. Most failures come from starting the second block late, because building access, not crew time, is usually the bottleneck.
This checklist is written for the facilities manager, office manager or operations lead who has been handed a date and a floor. It pairs with our longer 120-day lease-end timeline; use this one when you already have less than a quarter to go.
- Step zero: confirm the real deadline
- Day 90: decide, read and count
- Day 60: choose, insure and book
- Day 30: clear, remove and inspect
- The checklist at a glance
- Where schedules slip
Step zero: confirm the real deadline
The lease expiration date and the date the space must be empty are not always the same. Some leases require notice of intent to vacate months ahead. Some require restoration work to be finished, inspected and accepted before the final day. Some require removal of low-voltage cabling or tenant-installed improvements. Before you build a schedule, find four clauses: surrender condition, alterations and restoration, cabling, and holdover. If any are unclear, have your tenant-rep broker get the landlord's position in writing. Every later step depends on this answer.
Day 90: decide, read and count
Name the owner and the team
Pick one person who can approve dates and spending. Then list the people who will be pulled in: finance for the asset register, IT for devices and network shutdown, HR for employee notices, your broker for landlord questions, and the property manager for building rules.
Make the keep list early
If you are relocating, decide what goes to the new space now. Every item on the keep list comes out of the removal scope, and every item that moves without fitting the new plan gets handled twice. A quick test against the new floor plan, or a free layout from our space planning team, settles most of these questions in a day.
Build an inventory someone can price
Walk every room with a phone. Record item type, manufacturer if visible, model or product line, quantity, rough age and condition, with one photo per distinct item. "Lots of cubicles" cannot be scoped. "64 workstations, 6 by 6, 53-inch panels, about seven years old, two fabric colors" can. Count chairs, pedestals, conference tables, filing and storage, break room furniture, wall-mounted screens and whiteboards separately.
Inventory IT separately
Laptops, desktops, monitors, printers, phones, network gear and anything holding data belong on their own list with serial numbers. Decide which devices are redeployed, which are wiped and recycled, and who is responsible for wiping. Data-bearing devices should never ride out of the building in the same pile as the chairs.
Day 60: choose, insure and book
Get walkthroughs, then a written scope
Invite contractors to see the space in person. Photos help, but a walkthrough reveals the dock, the freight elevator, the corridor widths and the items nobody counted. Compare proposals on what is included: removal of everything or only resellable items, debris, e-waste, cabling, after-hours work, floor protection and the records you get at closeout. Office Station's decommissioning service starts with a free walkthrough, and the route for your furniture is decided case by case from what we see.
Submit proof of insurance early
Buildings set their own insurance limits and additional-insured names for the COI. Get the exact requirements from property management in writing and send them to the contractor the day you sign. A rejected COI can cost a week.
Book the building
Reserve freight elevator time, dock time and after-hours entry for every removal night. Month-end slots fill first because other tenants are moving too. Ask whether the building requires elevator pads, corridor protection or a building engineer on site.
Order disconnects
Telecom, internet circuits and some utilities need weeks of notice. Order the disconnect dates now and set them after the last day anyone will work in the space.
Day 30: clear, remove and inspect
- Personal cleanout. Give employees a firm date to clear desks, pedestals and lockers. Anything left after that date is treated as part of the removal.
- Records. Shred paper files that will not move. Empty filing cabinets so they can be handled.
- IT pull. Collect and log every device, wipe or remove storage, and hand off e-waste with a signed chain-of-custody record.
- Keep items move. If relocating, move the keep list before removal starts so the crew is not working around it.
- Disassembly and removal. Systems furniture comes down floor by floor, usually at night. Seating, casegoods and storage follow.
- Walls and cabling. Remove screens, mounts, whiteboards and signage if they are in scope, and pull low-voltage cabling if the lease requires it.
- Debris and sweep. Leave the space in the condition the lease describes, usually broom-swept. See our broom-swept move-out checklist for what that means room by room.
- Pre-inspection. Walk the space with the property manager about a week before handback so there is time to fix what they flag.
- Handback. Photograph every room, return keys and access cards, and get written confirmation that the space was accepted.
The checklist at a glance
| Checkpoint | Must be finished | Owner | Risk if late |
|---|---|---|---|
| Day 90 | Surrender terms confirmed, owner named, keep list drafted, furniture and IT inventories done | Project owner, broker, IT | Scope unknown, so proposals cannot be compared |
| Day 75 | Contractor walkthroughs completed | Project owner | Fewer contractors available on your dates |
| Day 60 | Contractor signed, insurance submitted, freight elevator and dock booked, disconnects ordered | Project owner, property manager | No building access on the nights you need |
| Day 30 | Employee cleanout date set, keep items scheduled, IT pull scheduled | HR, IT | Removal crews working around people and personal items |
| Day 14 | Removal under way, e-waste handed off | Contractor, IT | Compressed nights and after-hours premiums |
| Day 7 | Removal finished, pre-inspection walkthrough held | Contractor, property manager | No time to fix the landlord's punch list |
| Day 0 | Space accepted, keys returned, photos filed | Project owner | Holdover rent or deposit deductions |
Where schedules slip
- The keep list is never finished. Removal cannot be scoped until someone says what stays. Set a deadline and default undecided items to "go".
- The lease is read late. Discovering a cabling or restoration requirement at day 20 adds trades you have not booked.
- The building calendar is full. Crews are easier to find than freight elevator nights.
- IT runs on its own schedule. Devices that are not collected on time hold up the floor they sit on.
- Too many vendors. Separate contracts for furniture, e-waste, debris and cabling mean four schedules and four sets of insurance paperwork. One contractor covering most of it is simpler to manage.
If you are moving into a new space at the same time, our corporate relocation team can plan both ends, and the office furniture liquidation page explains how the furniture side works. Brokers handling several exits can bring us in at the walkthrough stage.
Ready to set your dates? Request a free walkthrough and tell us your surrender date. Space planning for the new office is free, and you can reach us any time at hello@officestation.com.
Frequently asked questions
How far ahead should we start decommissioning an office?
Ninety days before the surrender date is a comfortable start for a single floor. It leaves a month to read the lease and inventory the space, a month to choose a contractor and book building access, and a month to remove everything and fix what the landlord flags. Larger or multi-floor exits, server rooms and restoration work need more lead time.
What is the difference between decommissioning and moving?
Moving takes the things you keep to a new address. Decommissioning empties and closes the old space: furniture removal, IT and e-waste handling, cabling, wall-mounted items, debris, and the final walkthrough with the landlord. Most lease exits involve both, and the two schedules have to be planned together because the keep list shrinks the removal scope.
Can an office be decommissioned in 30 days?
Often, yes, if decisions are made quickly and the building has freight elevator time available. With 30 days you skip the long bid process, pick one contractor who can handle furniture, e-waste and debris together, book after-hours access immediately, and make keep-or-go calls within the first week. The risk is the building calendar, not the crew.
Who should own an office decommissioning project?
One person with authority to approve schedules and spending, usually a facilities manager, office manager or COO. That person coordinates finance, IT, HR, the broker, the property manager and the contractor. Projects with no single owner stall on small decisions, and small delays matter when the surrender date cannot move.
What happens to the furniture when an office is decommissioned?
It depends on brand, age, condition, quantity and timing. Newer systems furniture and seating may be resold, some items are donated, and the rest is recycled or cleared. The right route is decided case by case after a walkthrough, and a single project often uses several routes at once.
