Evaluating office location IT infrastructure is the step most UK businesses skip when choosing new premises, and the one most likely to cost them after the lease is signed. The usual process is sensible on its own terms: shortlist on rent, location, size and the impression the building makes; negotiate; sign; then hand the IT to someone to sort out. The trouble is that by then the decisions that determine whether the IT is straightforward, slow or expensive have already been made — which building, which floor, which landlord, and which lease terms — and none of them can be revisited.
This guide is about bringing IT into the property decision while it can still influence it. It covers the pre-lease due diligence questions that prevent expensive surprises: what connectivity the building actually has and how long new circuits realistically take, whether there is enough power and a suitable space for network equipment, whether you will have access to risers and the roof, what the landlord will permit and what the lease will require you to remove when you leave, and how serviced offices change the picture. The move itself — sequencing, cutover and keeping people working — is covered in our guides to zero-downtime office relocation and office moves for hybrid teams. This guide concerns the earlier decision of which building to move into.
Why IT gets evaluated after the lease is signed
IT is left out of the property decision for understandable reasons. Agents and landlords talk about rent, service charges and fit-out, not fibre routes and distribution boards. The people leading the search are usually directors or office managers focused on location and cost. And infrastructure feels like an implementation detail — something to be handled once the important decision has been made.
The consequence is that several costly problems are routinely discovered too late to avoid. A building with no existing fibre and a construction requirement that adds months and thousands of pounds to the first circuit. A comms cupboard with no ventilation, or no cupboard at all. A distribution board with no spare capacity for the dedicated circuits network equipment needs. A landlord who will not consent to new cabling routes, or who will, slowly. A lease clause requiring every cable to be removed at the end of the term, at the tenant’s cost. A building whose modern glazing blocks mobile signal so effectively that phones barely work indoors.
Each of these is cheap to discover during a viewing and expensive to discover after signature. Before you commit, a problem is a negotiating point — a rent-free period to cover the delay, a landlord contribution to a power upgrade, a softened reinstatement clause, or a reason to choose a different building. After you commit, it is a cost and a delay you absorb.
The fix is not to make IT the deciding factor in choosing an office. It is to make sure IT questions are asked early enough that the answers can inform the decision and the negotiation, alongside rent and location, rather than arriving as surprises once both are settled.
For every building on a shortlist, ask the agent or landlord three questions before a second viewing: which fibre providers already serve the building, where the existing comms room or riser is and whether tenants can access it, and whether the landlord has a standard position on tenants installing new circuits and cabling. The quality of the answers is informative in itself — a landlord who knows immediately has managed tenants with real IT needs before, and one who has no idea is likely to make every subsequent step slower.
Lease first, IT later against IT in the viewing
The comparison below highlights bringing IT into the viewing and negotiation process. The qualification is that for very small offices in modern, well-connected buildings, the risk is low and a light-touch check may be enough. The more staff, the more dependent the business on connectivity, and the older or more unusual the building, the more the right column pays for itself.
Lease first, IT later
IT handed over once the building is chosen
IT in the viewing
Infrastructure checked alongside rent and location
The leverage row is the commercial heart of the comparison. A building that needs a new fibre route with construction charges, or a power upgrade, is not necessarily the wrong building — but those costs are a legitimate subject for negotiation before you commit. Landlords regularly agree rent-free periods, contributions to works, or amended lease terms when a tenant raises a specific, evidenced infrastructure issue during heads of terms. After signature, the same issue is simply your problem.
The move date row reflects the most common timing failure in office relocations. Property timelines are set by lease expiry, notice periods and fit-out. Dedicated circuit lead times are commonly forty-five to ninety working days and longer where a wayleave or construction is needed. When the move date is fixed without knowing the circuit lead time, the two frequently fail to meet, and the business moves in on temporary connectivity or delays the move.
What surfaces after signing
The grid below groups the IT infrastructure problems we most often see discovered after a lease has been signed. Badges reflect the combination of how often each occurs and how much delay or cost it causes.
The second card’s third row is a classic and almost never checked. Many multi-tenant buildings run their central air conditioning on a timer that switches off in the evenings and at weekends. A comms cupboard that is perfectly cool during working hours can reach temperatures that shut down or damage network equipment by Sunday afternoon. It is the kind of problem that appears as intermittent weekend outages months after moving in, and it is a single question to the building manager at viewing.
The first row of the lease card is the one with the longest tail. Reinstatement and dilapidations clauses commonly require the tenant to return the premises to their original condition at the end of the lease, which can include removing all installed data cabling. In a large office that is a meaningful cost arriving years later. It is frequently negotiable before signature — agreeing that structured cabling installed to a recognised standard may remain — and almost never negotiable afterwards.
Office IT due diligence in the UK — the numbers
The figures below reflect what we see across UK organisations of 20 to 300 staff moving into new premises, most with a dependence on reliable connectivity and some on-premises equipment.
The first and third figures are directly connected. Seven moves in ten commit to a building without checking its connectivity, and a third of all moves begin on temporary arrangements — cellular routers, borrowed broadband, or staff working from home for longer than planned — because the main circuit arrives after the move date. The temporary period is rarely catastrophic and it is almost always avoidable.
The second figure is the planning constraint that property timelines routinely ignore. Ninety working days is more than four calendar months. A lease negotiated in spring with a move in early summer leaves no room for a circuit that needs a wayleave or a short stretch of construction. Knowing the realistic lead time for a specific building, before the move date is agreed, is the single most useful piece of IT information in the whole property process.
The fourth figure reflects a cost that arrives years after the decision. Fewer than one lease in eight addresses what happens to installed cabling at the end of the term, which leaves the default reinstatement clause in place. For a business planning to stay several years, the eventual removal cost is easy to forget at signature and difficult to avoid at exit.
The most common post-signing IT surprises
The chart below shows how often each issue was discovered only after the lease was signed, across UK office moves we have supported or reviewed.
The top row is the most common and the easiest to prevent. A provider availability check and a request for indicative lead times for a specific address can be made in a day, often before a second viewing, and costs nothing. Doing it for each shortlisted building lets the move date be set realistically, or turns a long lead time into a reason to prefer another building.
Poor indoor mobile coverage at twenty-four per cent is a growing concern. Modern energy-efficient glazing, metal cladding and deep floor plates all attenuate mobile signal, and in organisations that rely on mobile phones or hybrid working where people take calls in the office, a building with weak coverage is a daily frustration. It is easy to check by testing signal on several networks during a viewing, including in the interior of the floor, and in-building coverage solutions exist where it matters — at a cost better known before signing.
The power row is lower in frequency but disproportionately disruptive when it occurs, because upgrading electrical capacity in a leased building involves the landlord, a qualified electrician and sometimes the distribution network operator, any of which can add weeks.
Checking connectivity before you commit
Connectivity is the infrastructure question with the longest lead time and the greatest potential to delay a move. Four checks cover most of the risk.
Which networks already serve the building
Ask which fibre providers already have infrastructure into the building, and verify through an availability check by a supplier or adviser rather than relying on a marketing description. A building already on several networks offers choice, competitive pricing, shorter lead times and the option of a genuinely diverse second circuit. A building served by a single network, or by none, constrains all of those.
Realistic lead times for this specific address
Request indicative lead times for the services you intend to order at that address, including a survey where practical. Generic lead times are a starting point; the specific answer depends on existing ducts, distance to the network, and whether a wayleave or construction will be needed. Where construction is likely, ask for an estimate of the charges, because excess construction charges on a dedicated circuit can run into thousands.
Wayleave and landlord cooperation
Installing a new circuit usually needs the landlord’s consent for the route through common parts, and occasionally consent from an adjoining owner. That consent can take weeks and is outside your control once you are committed. Asking the landlord to agree, in heads of terms, to cooperate promptly with telecoms installations removes one of the most common sources of delay.
A fallback for the gap
Even with good planning, a fallback for the period before the main circuit is live is sensible. Business broadband over existing infrastructure, or a bonded cellular service, can carry an office for a few weeks. Knowing the building’s mobile coverage tells you whether cellular is viable. Broader comparisons of connection types and contract terms are in our guide to choosing a business ISP.
Benchmarks — pre-lease IT due diligence against what we find
The figures below show how often each check is completed before signature across UK office moves we have been involved in.
Pre-lease IT checks completed before signature
Eighty-eight per cent look at the floor plan; fewer than three in ten find out who supplies the building’s fibre. That contrast captures the problem: the visible, physical aspects of an office get attention, while the infrastructure that determines whether the office actually works gets left until later.
The out-of-hours cooling figure at nine per cent is the lowest and one of the cheapest to fix. One question to the building manager establishes whether air conditioning serves the comms space at night and at weekends, and the answer determines whether network equipment will survive its first hot weekend.
Looking beyond the building: the street and the area
Some infrastructure questions are answered by the neighbourhood rather than the floor plate. They are worth considering when comparing locations in different parts of a town or city, or when weighing a city-centre building against a business park or a converted rural site.
Network density
City centres and established business districts are usually served by several fibre networks, which tends to mean more choice, more competitive pricing and shorter lead times. Business parks vary: some were built with duct and fibre to every unit, others have a single provider or none. Rural and converted sites, such as barns, mills and estate offices, can be attractive premises but sometimes sit a long way from business-grade fibre, where the cost of extending a network can be considerable. Availability checks on several shortlisted addresses quickly show these differences.
Choice of provider
A building reached by only one network leaves you with little leverage at renewal and no option for a diverse second circuit from a different provider. Where resilience matters, the number of networks nearby is as important as whether any single service is available. Once the options are known, compare them on service levels, repair targets and contract terms as well as price.
Power reliability and local disruption
Most UK business locations have reliable power, but local factors can matter: sites at the end of long rural supply lines, areas with planned major works, or buildings in flood-prone locations where ground-floor or basement comms rooms are vulnerable. A brief conversation with the building manager about outage history, and a look at where the comms space and incoming services sit, usually reveals whether there is anything to plan around.
Getting engineers to site
For buildings in remote locations or with restricted access, such as airside sites, secure facilities or premises with limited parking, consider how quickly engineers can reach you to repair a fault and what arrangements are needed to let them in. This affects both your provider’s ability to meet repair targets and your own support arrangements.
Power, space and the comms room
Even a modest office needs somewhere to put network equipment — the incoming circuit, a firewall, switches, possibly a small server or storage device, and the cabling that connects everything. The checks below take a few minutes at a viewing.
Is there a suitable space?
Look for a dedicated room or lockable cupboard, ideally close to the centre of the floor so cable runs stay within recognised length limits, and away from water pipes and kitchens. Offices sometimes advertise a comms room that turns out to be a stationery cupboard with a single socket. If there is no suitable space, establish whether one can be created and whether the landlord will permit it.
Can it be kept cool?
Network equipment generates heat continuously. A small enclosed cupboard with no ventilation can overheat quickly, and building air conditioning that switches off out of hours can cause failures at weekends. Ask whether the space has cooling or ventilation, whether it runs continuously, and whether a dedicated cooling unit could be installed if needed.
Is there enough power?
Network equipment and any servers are best supplied by dedicated circuits rather than shared sockets, with room for an uninterruptible power supply. Ask the landlord or building manager whether the distribution board serving the space has spare capacity for additional circuits. For a typical SME, the requirement is modest; problems arise where the building’s supply to the floor is already fully allocated, which turns a simple installation into an electrical upgrade.
Can cables reach where they need to go?
Check how cabling will run to desks: raised floors, ceiling voids, existing containment, floor boxes. Buildings with solid floors, exposed concrete ceilings or listed features can make cabling routes difficult, expensive or impossible without visible trunking. Our guide to structured cabling for office moves covers installation in more depth.
Can you reach the riser and the roof?
In multi-tenant buildings, incoming circuits typically arrive in a shared comms room or riser controlled by the landlord. Tenants and their engineers need access to it, ideally around the clock for fault repairs. Roof access may be needed for antennas or cellular equipment. Confirm access arrangements before signing, because restricted access turns every fault into a negotiation with building management.
Landlord permissions and lease clauses that matter
Several lease provisions have direct IT consequences, and most are negotiable before signature and fixed afterwards. Your solicitor and surveyor handle the lease as a whole; the points below are the ones worth raising specifically so that IT implications are not missed.
Alterations and consent. Installing cabling, containment, a comms cupboard or cooling usually counts as an alteration requiring landlord consent. Ask for consent to a defined set of IT works to be agreed in advance, or for a commitment that consent will not be unreasonably withheld or delayed, so that fit-out is not held up waiting for approvals.
Telecoms installations. A commitment from the landlord to cooperate promptly with telecoms providers installing services — granting access and consenting to routes through common parts — removes one of the most common sources of delay in getting a new circuit live.
Access to shared areas. Rights for you and your providers to access the riser, shared comms room and roof, including out of hours for fault repair, written into the lease rather than left to goodwill.
Reinstatement and dilapidations. What must be removed at the end of the lease. Negotiating that structured cabling installed to a recognised standard may remain — landlords often find it adds value for the next tenant — can avoid a substantial removal cost years later.
Building services hours. Whether heating, cooling, lifts and building access are available outside standard hours, and at what cost, which matters both for equipment cooling and for engineers carrying out work at weekends.
Raising these points during heads of terms, with a specific reason for each, is far more effective than attempting to add them once the lease is drafted. Landlords generally accept reasonable infrastructure provisions; they rarely volunteer them.
From shortlist to signature, with IT alongside
The sequence below runs an IT workstream in parallel with the property process, so that infrastructure findings arrive in time to influence the choice and the negotiation.
The survey and conditional order at the preferred-building stage do the most to protect the move date. Ordering at heads of terms rather than at lease completion can save weeks, and where a survey reveals a wayleave or construction requirement, it does so while there is still time to negotiate or to choose differently. The small risk of cancelling an order if the deal falls through is almost always worth it.
Note where IT sits in this sequence: alongside the property decision, not after it. The information it produces — lead times, construction charges, power and space constraints, access arrangements — is exactly what is needed to compare buildings fairly and to negotiate effectively.
Pre-lease IT readiness — where most UK businesses sit
Combining the assessment areas gives an indication of how well an organisation’s office search accounts for IT infrastructure. The gauge reflects a typical UK business of 20 to 300 staff beginning a search without IT involvement.
A score in the high twenties reflects a property process that is thorough about the visible aspects of a building and largely silent about its infrastructure. Space planning scores well. Connectivity scores poorly, because availability and lead times are rarely checked before commitment. Power, cooling and comms space score low because they are seldom inspected at viewings. Lease provisions for IT score lowest, because reinstatement, access and telecoms cooperation are rarely raised in heads of terms.
What makes this benchmark encouraging is how cheaply it moves. Desk availability checks are free, infrastructure inspection adds perhaps half an hour to a viewing, and raising a short list of IT provisions in heads of terms costs nothing but a conversation. Moving from the high twenties to the seventies typically requires an afternoon of an adviser’s time per shortlisted building, set against months of delay and thousands of pounds of avoidable cost.
The cost of checking versus the cost of surprises
The case for pre-lease IT due diligence is mostly arithmetic. The table compares indicative costs of checking before signature with the costs that typically arise when infrastructure problems are discovered afterwards. Figures are broad ranges for UK SMEs and vary considerably by building, location and provider; they are a guide to proportion, not a quotation.
| Item | Cost of checking before signing | Typical cost if discovered after | Who usually bears it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Connectivity availability and survey | Free to £500 (desk checks free; survey often included with an order) | Months of delay to the move date or temporary service; lost productivity | Tenant |
| Excess construction charges for a new circuit | Identified at survey; negotiable with landlord or used to compare buildings | £2,000 to £20,000 or more, payable to proceed | Tenant, unless negotiated |
| Power upgrade or dedicated circuits | Spotted at viewing; included in heads of terms | £1,500 to £10,000 plus programme delay | Tenant, unless negotiated |
| Temporary connectivity while the circuit is installed | Avoided or planned for when lead time is known | £300 to £1,500 per month, with limited performance | Tenant |
| Cabling removal at lease end | Negotiated into reinstatement terms | £3,000 to £15,000 at exit, depending on scale | Tenant |
The pattern is consistent across every row. Checking costs little or nothing; discovering late costs real money and, often more painfully, time. Where a problem is identified before signature, it can be priced into the negotiation — through rent-free time, a landlord contribution or adjusted terms — or used to compare buildings on a fair basis. Once the lease is signed, the tenant usually bears it alone.
The time element deserves emphasis. A business that has given notice on its current premises and discovers its new circuit will take another three months has few good options: overstay at the old site if the landlord allows, operate on temporary connectivity, or delay the move and pay rent on two buildings. None of those costs appear in the table, and all of them are avoidable with a survey ordered early.
For a broader look at relocation budgeting, including items beyond infrastructure, see our guide to the hidden IT costs of an office move.
Serviced and flexible offices: a different set of questions
Serviced and flexible offices change the infrastructure question rather than removing it. Connectivity, power and cooling are provided by the operator, which removes many of the risks above, but introduces others that are worth checking before committing.
- Shared or dedicated connectivity. Is internet access shared across all occupants, or can you have a dedicated allocation? What bandwidth is committed, and what happens at busy times?
- Network separation. Is your traffic separated from other tenants’ at the network level, or are you on a shared network? For businesses handling sensitive data, or pursuing Cyber Essentials, this matters.
- Bringing your own circuit. Will the operator permit a dedicated circuit for your business, and if so on what terms? Some do readily; others charge substantially or refuse.
- Your own equipment. Can you install your own firewall, switches and wireless access points, or must you use the operator’s? Is there somewhere secure to put them?
- Support and fault response. Who handles network faults, and how quickly? Is support available outside business hours?
- Growth and exit. If you outgrow the space or move to a conventional lease, how easily does your setup transfer?
For small teams and short commitments, a well-run serviced office often provides better infrastructure than a business could arrange for itself at the same cost. The questions above simply confirm that it fits your requirements, particularly around security and separation.
How often connectivity is checked before signature
The single most important pre-lease check is also the one most often missed. Across the relocations we see, the proportion where connectivity availability and lead times were not established before the lease was signed is substantial.
The figure is indicative, drawn from the relocations we support rather than a formal survey, but it is consistent with what providers and agents report. The reasons are rarely negligence. Property searches move quickly, agents describe buildings as “fibre enabled” in good faith, and the people choosing the building often assume connectivity is a commodity that can be ordered once the keys arrive. For most consumer services that is broadly true; for business circuits it frequently is not.
The practical remedy is simple: make an availability check and, for the preferred building, a survey or conditional order part of the shortlisting process. It turns the largest single source of move delay into a known quantity before it can affect the decision.
Building systems, mobile coverage and the telephone network change
Beyond the circuits you will order yourself, several building-level systems deserve attention, particularly in older premises.
Lifts, alarms and door entry
Many buildings still rely on traditional telephone lines for lift emergency phones, fire and intruder alarm signalling, door entry systems and payment terminals. As the UK’s traditional telephone network is retired in favour of digital services, these systems need to move to digital alternatives. In a multi-tenant building this is normally the landlord’s responsibility, but it is worth asking whether it has been done, because systems left unaddressed can affect safety and building operation. Where you are taking a whole building, it may be yours to arrange.
Mobile coverage indoors
Modern construction — energy-efficient glazing, metal cladding, deep floor plates — can significantly reduce indoor mobile signal. For businesses where staff rely on mobiles, test coverage on several networks across the floor during viewings rather than relying on outdoor coverage maps. If coverage is poor, options include Wi-Fi calling, small-cell solutions or a building-wide coverage system, each with cost and landlord-permission implications.
Building network and smart systems
Newer buildings increasingly provide shared building networks, access control linked to tenant systems and smart building platforms. These can be useful, but they raise questions about who manages what, how your network connects to building systems, and what security separation exists. Ask for a description of the building’s technology and who to contact about it.
Document what you find
Whatever the building, recording what you discover — circuit details, comms room layout, riser access, power arrangements, building contacts — gives the move a solid starting point. That record becomes the first page of the network documentation for the new site.
Comparing shortlisted buildings side by side
Property decisions weigh many factors, including location, rent, size, appearance, transport and staff preference, and IT will rarely be the deciding one. The aim is not to let infrastructure override everything else, but to make sure it is weighed with accurate information rather than assumptions. A simple side-by-side comparison helps.
For each shortlisted building, record a short assessment under the same headings: connectivity (networks available, likely lead time, any construction or wayleave requirement), comms space (present, suitable, cooled, powered), cabling (routes available, existing installation reusable or not), access (riser, roof, out of hours), building systems and mobile coverage, and lease points (landlord attitude to telecoms works, reinstatement position). Add an estimated one-off cost and an estimated time to readiness for each.
Presented this way, the differences between buildings become concrete. A building with a lower rent but a six-month circuit lead time and significant construction charges may cost more in its first year than one with a higher rent and fibre already on the floor. A building the team loves may still be the right choice, but with a later move date, a landlord contribution or a temporary connectivity plan agreed in advance.
The comparison also gives your agent and solicitor something specific to work with. “Building B needs a new circuit with an estimated construction charge and a long lead time; we would like the landlord to contribute and to commit to prompt wayleave cooperation” is a far stronger negotiating position than a general concern about connectivity raised after signature.
Where a move is complex, for example several floors, a mix of office and light industrial space, or a phased transition from an existing building, the comparison should also cover how the new site would operate during the overlap. From the point a building is chosen, that overlap becomes the core of the relocation plan.
Twelve questions to ask before you sign
The checklist below can be taken to viewings and used in conversations with agents, landlords and building managers. Each question is quick to ask; together they cover the infrastructure risks that most often affect a move.
- Which fibre networks serve the building, and to the floor or only to the building? “Fibre enabled” can mean many things. Ask for specifics and confirm with an availability check.
- What business circuits do current or previous tenants use? Existing leased lines suggest a straightforward installation; their absence is a prompt to survey early.
- Is there a dedicated comms room or cupboard, and can we see it? Look at its size, location, ventilation and security.
- Does cooling in that space run continuously, including at weekends? Building air conditioning that switches off out of hours is a common cause of equipment failure.
- Is there spare electrical capacity for dedicated circuits? Ask the building manager rather than the agent.
- How will cabling reach desks? Raised floors, ceiling voids, existing containment, or none at all.
- What access will we and our providers have to the riser, shared comms room and roof? Including out of hours for fault repair.
- Will the landlord cooperate promptly with telecoms installations and wayleave requests? Ask for this to be reflected in heads of terms.
- What must be removed at the end of the lease? Negotiate for compliant structured cabling to remain.
- What are the building services hours, and what do extensions cost? Relevant to cooling, engineer access and weekend working.
- Have lifts, alarms and door entry been moved off traditional telephone lines? Particularly relevant in older buildings.
- How is mobile coverage indoors on the main networks? Test it yourself on several networks during the viewing.
Verbal assurances at viewings are easily forgotten or misremembered. Where an answer matters to your decision — particularly on access, consent for telecoms works, reinstatement and building services hours — ask for it in writing and pass it to your solicitor so it can be reflected in heads of terms and the lease. Legal drafting is a matter for your solicitor; the role of IT is to make sure the right points reach them.
Case study: two buildings, one decision
A professional services firm of around 85 staff, outgrowing its premises in a regional city centre, shortlisted two buildings. The first was a newly refurbished floor in a converted Victorian warehouse, with exposed brickwork, generous ceiling height and a rent slightly below the second option. The second was a 1990s office block with suspended ceilings, raised floors and a less distinctive interior. The partners strongly preferred the warehouse.
Before making an offer, the firm asked its IT partner to assess both buildings alongside the property advice. Desk checks showed that the office block already had several business circuits in place and fibre to the floor from two networks. The warehouse had a consumer-grade fibre service but no business fibre; the nearest suitable network was several streets away, and a provider survey indicated substantial excess construction charges, a wayleave requirement involving a neighbouring property, and a lead time of up to six months.
Inspection added more. The warehouse floor had no comms cupboard, exposed ceilings with no cable containment, and building heating and cooling that switched off at weekends. The office block had a ventilated comms room with dedicated circuits and raised floors throughout.
The firm did not abandon the warehouse. Instead, it took the findings into negotiation. The landlord agreed to contribute toward construction charges, to provide a comms cupboard with continuous cooling, to cooperate promptly on the wayleave, and to accept that compliant cabling could remain at lease end. The firm agreed a move date that allowed for the confirmed lead time, ordered the circuit at heads of terms, and arranged a cellular backup service to bridge any gap. The circuit arrived three weeks before the move.
“We were going to sign for the warehouse on the strength of how it looked. The IT assessment did not change our mind about the building, but it changed what we asked for. We would otherwise have discovered all of it after we had signed, with no leverage and a move date we could not meet.” — Managing Partner, professional services firm
The lesson is not that older or characterful buildings should be avoided. It is that infrastructure findings are most valuable when they arrive in time to shape the negotiation, whichever building is chosen.
Common mistakes when choosing an office location
The mistakes below recur across office searches of every size. Most stem from treating IT as part of the move rather than part of the decision.
- Taking “fibre enabled” at face value. Marketing descriptions rarely distinguish between consumer broadband and business circuits. Confirm with an availability check.
- Ordering connectivity after signing. The single most common cause of delayed moves. Survey and order conditionally at heads of terms.
- Setting the move date before knowing the lead time. A date fixed by the end of an existing lease, with no allowance for circuit installation, leaves no room for problems.
- Overlooking the comms space. No dedicated, ventilated, powered space for equipment leads to improvised solutions that fail.
- Assuming building cooling runs continuously. Equipment overheating at weekends is common where air conditioning switches off out of hours.
- Ignoring reinstatement. Cabling removal at lease end can cost thousands; it is far easier to negotiate before signing than at exit.
- Leaving access to goodwill. Without lease provisions for riser and roof access, fault repairs depend on building management availability.
- Relying on outdoor coverage maps. Modern construction can block mobile signal indoors; test it during the viewing.
- Forgetting about resilience. If the business needs a second, diverse circuit, check whether the building can support one before signing.
- Treating serviced offices as risk-free. Shared networks and restrictions on your own equipment may not meet security or performance requirements.
Once notice has been given on current premises, the move date becomes hard to change. If infrastructure problems emerge after that point, options narrow to overstaying, temporary connectivity or paying for two buildings. Completing infrastructure checks before giving notice preserves the most choice, and avoids negotiating under time pressure.
Resilience and room to grow
A building that meets today’s needs may not meet them in three or five years, and leases often run longer than that. Two infrastructure questions look further ahead.
Can the building support a second, diverse circuit?
As more of a business’s work runs on cloud services, losing internet access means losing most of its ability to operate. Many organisations therefore want a second circuit that follows a different physical route and, ideally, enters the building at a different point, so that a single cable cut does not take both down. Whether this is possible depends on the building’s entry points, the networks nearby and the landlord’s willingness to permit a second route. It is far easier to establish before signing than to discover is impossible afterwards. Where true diversity is not available, a cellular backup service can provide a fallback, with lower performance but independent of the fixed network.
Can the infrastructure scale with headcount?
Consider whether the comms space can accommodate more equipment, whether power capacity allows for growth, and whether the circuit can be upgraded in bandwidth without new construction. Leased lines can usually be upgraded within their physical capacity; if the building’s fibre is limited, growth may require new works. If the lease includes options on adjacent space or other floors, check how cabling would reach them. Vertical routes between floors are often controlled by the landlord, so they belong in the same conversation as riser access.
Hybrid working changes the calculation, but does not remove it
With many staff working partly from home, some businesses are taking smaller offices. Fewer desks do not mean lower connectivity requirements: video meetings, cloud applications and large file transfers concentrate demand on the days people are in. Meeting rooms with video equipment, wireless capacity for busy days and reliable upstream bandwidth often matter more than raw desk counts. The building assessment should reflect how the office will actually be used, not just how many people it seats.
At a glance: evaluating a building’s IT infrastructure
| Area | What to check | When | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fibre availability | Which networks serve the building and floor | Shortlisting | Determines lead time and cost of business connectivity |
| Existing circuits | Business services used by current or previous tenants | Shortlisting | Indicates whether installation will be straightforward |
| Provider survey | Lead time, construction charges, wayleaves | Preferred building | Turns the biggest source of delay into a known quantity |
| Conditional order | Place the circuit order early | Heads of terms | Can save weeks on the move date |
| Comms space | Size, location, security, ventilation | Second viewing | Equipment needs a suitable home |
| Cooling | Continuous operation, including weekends | Second viewing | Prevents out-of-hours equipment failures |
| Power | Spare capacity for dedicated circuits and a UPS | Second viewing | Avoids electrical upgrades after signing |
| Cable routes | Raised floors, ceiling voids, containment | Second viewing | Affects cabling cost and appearance |
| Riser and roof access | Rights for you and providers, out of hours | Heads of terms | Fault repairs depend on it |
| Telecoms cooperation | Landlord commitment on installs and wayleaves | Heads of terms | Removes a common source of delay |
| Reinstatement | Whether compliant cabling may remain | Heads of terms | Avoids removal costs at lease end |
| Building services hours | Cooling, lifts and access out of hours | Heads of terms | Affects equipment and engineer access |
| Building systems | Lifts, alarms, door entry off traditional lines | Second viewing | Safety and building operation |
| Mobile coverage | Indoor signal on main networks | Second viewing | Staff reliance on mobiles |
| Resilience and growth | Second diverse route, scalable capacity | Preferred building | Protects the business over the lease term |
How Cloudswitched approaches office location IT
We work alongside your property advisers during the office search, not after it. For each shortlisted building we run availability checks across the main networks, inspect the comms space, power, cooling, cable routes and access arrangements, and test indoor mobile coverage. For the preferred building we arrange provider surveys, help place conditional orders where appropriate, and give you a clear written summary of lead times, likely costs and risks.
That summary is designed to be used. We set out the IT points worth raising in heads of terms — telecoms cooperation, consent for defined IT works, riser and roof access, building services hours and reinstatement of cabling — with the reasoning behind each, so your solicitor and agent can negotiate with evidence. Where findings carry a cost, we help you quantify it so it can be reflected in the deal.
Once a building is chosen, the same work flows directly into the relocation plan: circuit installation, cabling, comms room fit-out, network design and the move itself. Because infrastructure risks were identified before signature, the move becomes a planned project rather than a race against a fixed date. We do not provide legal or surveying advice, and we work alongside the professionals who do.
Assessing a building before you commit?
Talk to us about a pre-lease IT assessment of your shortlisted buildings, covering connectivity, power, comms space and the lease points that matter for IT.
Talk to an IT Office Moves SpecialistFrequently Asked Questions
When should IT be involved in choosing a new office?
At the shortlisting stage, before any offer is made. Desk availability checks can be run on every shortlisted building at little or no cost, and a short infrastructure inspection can be added to second viewings. Involving IT only after the lease is signed removes the chance to compare buildings fairly or negotiate on infrastructure findings.
What does “fibre enabled” actually mean in a building listing?
It can mean anything from consumer fibre broadband to dedicated business fibre already reaching your floor. The phrase is not a reliable guide to whether a business-grade circuit is available or how long it would take to install. An availability check against the specific address, and ideally a provider survey, gives a clearer answer.
How long does a new leased line take to install?
It varies widely. Where fibre is already present in the building, installation can sometimes be completed in a matter of weeks. Where new construction or wayleaves are needed, it can take several months. Only a provider survey for the specific address gives a reliable estimate, which is why ordering early matters.
What is a wayleave and why does it cause delays?
A wayleave is permission from a property owner for a telecoms provider to install and maintain equipment on or through their property. If a new circuit needs to cross land or buildings owned by someone other than your landlord, or common parts of your building, the relevant permissions must be obtained, which can take time. Landlord cooperation helps, but third-party wayleaves are outside both your and your landlord’s direct control. Your solicitor can advise on the legal position for a specific building.
Can we order connectivity before the lease is signed?
Often, yes. Many providers accept orders conditional on the business taking the premises, and placing an order at heads of terms can save weeks. Check the provider’s cancellation terms and any charges that apply if the deal does not proceed; in most cases the risk is small compared with the benefit.
Who pays for excess construction charges?
By default, usually the tenant ordering the circuit. However, if charges are identified before signature, they can be raised with the landlord and may be reflected in a contribution, rent-free time or other terms. Once the lease is signed, there is little leverage to share them.
What should a comms room have?
For a typical SME: a secure, dedicated space near the centre of the floor, with adequate ventilation or cooling that runs continuously, dedicated electrical circuits with room for an uninterruptible power supply, space for a rack or wall cabinet, and accessible cable routes to desks. It should be away from water sources and kitchens.
What IT points should go into heads of terms?
Commonly: landlord cooperation with telecoms installations and wayleaves, consent for a defined set of IT alterations, access rights to risers, shared comms rooms and the roof including out of hours, building services hours, and reinstatement terms allowing compliant cabling to remain. Your solicitor will advise on drafting and whether each point is appropriate for your lease.
Is a serviced office simpler from an IT perspective?
In many ways, yes, because connectivity, power and cooling are provided. The questions shift to whether the network is shared or dedicated, how your traffic is separated from other occupants, whether you can install your own equipment or circuit, and how support is handled. For businesses with security or compliance requirements, those questions need clear answers.
Do we need two internet connections?
It depends on how much the business depends on connectivity and how costly an outage would be. Many organisations running mainly on cloud services choose a second circuit on a diverse route, or a cellular backup as a lower-cost alternative. Whether true diversity is possible depends on the building, so it is worth checking before signing.
How does the retirement of traditional phone lines affect a new office?
Systems such as lift emergency phones, alarm signalling and door entry in some buildings still rely on traditional lines and need to move to digital alternatives as the network is retired. In multi-tenant buildings this is normally for the landlord to address, but it is worth asking whether it has been done. Your own telephony is likely to be cloud-based already and largely unaffected.
How much does a pre-lease IT assessment cost?
Typically a small fraction of the costs it can help avoid. Desk availability checks are often free, and inspection and reporting for a shortlist of buildings is usually a modest professional fee. The value lies in identifying lead times, construction charges, power issues and lease points while they can still influence the decision.
Related reading
More guidance on planning and running UK business IT:
Know the building before you sign for it
Cloudswitched assesses connectivity, power, comms space and the lease points that matter for IT, so infrastructure findings shape your decision instead of surprising you after it.
Talk to an IT Office Moves Specialist
CloudSwitched
London-based managed IT services provider offering support, cloud solutions and cybersecurity for SMEs.
