Planning an office move in Leeds: cost, timeline, the old office and the paperwork
An office move in Leeds with Kruze costs £100 for the first hour with two men and a van, then £55 an hour, or £75 then £40 an hour with a van and driver for a small studio. The total is agreed before you book, with no deposit, and evening and weekend slots are available so the move happens while the office is closed. Three things decide how smoothly it goes, and most of them happen before the van arrives: a plan that works backwards from the date you hand the keys back, building access booked at both ends, and a decision on everything that is not coming with you. Furniture and equipment left behind is business waste, so whoever takes it must be a registered waste carrier and you must keep a waste transfer note for two years. Data on old computers is your responsibility, not the mover's. This section covers each of those, and when a specialist office relocation firm is the better choice.
What an office move costs: the hourly rates worked through
Office moves are priced on the same hourly rates as every other Kruze move, not a separate commercial tariff. The table below is simple arithmetic on those rates, so you can see what a given length of job costs before you ask for a quote. It is not a promise about how long your move will take, because that depends on your office.
Office move cost by length of job (Kruze hourly rates)| Length of job | 2 men and a van | Van and driver |
|---|
| 2 hours | £155 | £115 |
| 3 hours | £210 | £155 |
| 4 hours | £265 | £195 |
| 6 hours | £375 | £275 |
| 8 hours | £485 | £355 |
What moves an office job up or down that table is predictable. The number of desks that need taking apart and rebuilding, whether there are stairs or a lift at each end, how far the van can park from the door, how full the filing cabinets are and the distance between the two buildings. Send us a rough inventory, a photo of each room and both postcodes, and you get a fixed figure back. The price we agree is the price you pay, however long the day turns out to be.
A timeline that works backwards from handing the keys back
The fixed point in an office move is rarely the day you want to be in the new place. It is the day the lease on the old one ends, because that is when the space has to be empty and in the condition the landlord expects. Plan back from that date. The timings below are a sensible guide for a small or medium office, not a rule.
Office move planning guide| When | What to do |
|---|
| 8 weeks before | Confirm the lease end date and read what the lease says about the condition the space must be handed back in. Tell the building manager at both addresses. |
| 6 weeks before | Walk the office with a list. Mark every desk, chair, cabinet and piece of equipment as coming, staying, or going for reuse or disposal. |
| 4 weeks before | Book the move. Book the goods lift and loading bay at both buildings. Ask your internet provider how long the line at the new address takes. |
| 2 weeks before | Draw a simple floor plan of the new office with numbered desks and give each person labels to match. Book the clearance of anything not coming. |
| 1 week before | Back up and wipe any computer, phone or drive that is being disposed of. Staff pack their own desk drawers and personal items. |
| The day before | IT shut down and cables bagged and labelled. Filing cabinets emptied into boxes or locked, and we are told which. |
| After the move | Old office cleared and handed back. Keep the waste transfer note for the clearance with your business records. |
Labels are the cheapest time saver there is. When every box and every desk part carries the number of the desk it belongs to, the crew can put it straight where it goes at the other end instead of stacking it in reception for someone to sort out on Monday.
Building access is where office moves lose time
A house move has a front door. An office move often has a goods lift that has to be booked, a loading bay shared with other tenants, a reception that needs warning, permitted hours for contractors and rules about protecting lift interiors and common parts. None of that is difficult, but finding out on the morning that the lift is booked by someone else can cost hours at the hourly rate. Ask the building manager at both addresses what they need from a removals contractor and when, and tell us at the time of booking rather than on the day. If the van cannot stop near the entrance, say so as well, because a long carry from the street is one of the things that changes the length of the job.
The old office: what is not coming with you
Almost every office move leaves something behind. Old desks that do not suit the new layout, broken chairs, a cupboard of dead printers, years of paper. Under GOV.UK rules, any waste that comes from a commercial activity is business waste, and the business that produced it has duties. You must check that whoever takes it is a registered waste carrier, a waste transfer note must be completed for each load that leaves your premises, and both businesses must keep a copy for two years and show it to the council or the Environment Agency if asked. Source: GOV.UK, dispose of business or commercial waste and its waste transfer notes page, checked 07/10/2026. Our guide to what a waste transfer note is explains the form itself.
Where office items should go when they are not moving| Item | Best route | Worth knowing |
|---|
| Usable desks, cabinets and chairs | Reuse or donation first | GOV.UK asks businesses to reuse and recycle before disposal. Offer them to staff or local charities before paying to clear them |
| Broken or unwanted furniture | Office clearance | Priced by the load, from £24.99, a quarter van from £50, a half van from £100 |
| Upholstered office chairs | Separate collection | GOV.UK counts office chairs made to domestic fire standards as upholstered seating that may contain persistent organic pollutants, which must be kept apart and destroyed, see the POPs guidance |
| Computers, monitors, printers | WEEE recycling | Wipe or remove the drives first, see below |
| Paper records | Confidential waste and shredding | Comes with a certificate of destruction |
The move and the clearance can be one booking. The crew loads what is moving, and what is not goes for reuse, recycling or disposal under a waste transfer note from a licensed carrier (CBDU597687). Over 85% of what we collect is recycled or upcycled rather than sent to landfill. For a business that produces waste every week rather than once at a move, commercial and office waste clearance in Leeds covers the regular side.
Data on old devices is your job, not the mover's
A laptop in a box going to the new office is a move. A laptop going for recycling is a data risk. The Information Commissioner's Office says organisations should think about how they dispose of paper and electronic waste as part of keeping personal data secure, and that whoever is responsible for security needs to know when IT equipment is being disposed of. Source: ICO, a guide to data security. We move and recycle IT equipment, but we do not wipe hard drives, so back up and wipe anything being disposed of before the day, or take the drives out and keep them. If you need certified data erasure for a large estate of machines, a specialist IT asset disposal company is the right call, and we would say so.
When a specialist office relocation firm is the better choice
Honest answer: not every office move suits a removals crew priced by the hour. If you are moving a whole building over a weekend with hundreds of workstations, a server room that needs IT engineers to decommission and recommission it, or a project that needs a manager on site for weeks, a dedicated commercial relocation company with its own project team is the better fit. Kruze suits small and medium offices, studios, clinics, agencies, shops and single floor moves across Leeds, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Wakefield, Harrogate and Barnsley, which is most of the office moves in West Yorkshire. If your job sits at the edge of that, tell us what it involves and we will tell you straight. Packing can be added with our packing services, larger business moves are covered on commercial removals, and if the new space is not ready in time, storage and removals covers the gap.
Common questions about office moves
How much does an office move in Leeds cost?
Two men and a van is £100 for the first hour then £55 an hour, so a three hour move is £210 and a four hour move £265. A van and driver is £75 then £40 an hour. The total is agreed before you book.
How far ahead should we book an office move?
Around four weeks gives time to book lifts and loading bays at both buildings. We can often move at shorter notice, but the building's own booking rules are usually what sets the lead time.
Can you take our old office furniture away on the same day?
Yes. What is moving goes to the new office and what is not goes for reuse, recycling or disposal under a waste transfer note, on the same booking if you want it.
Do you wipe old computers?
No. We recycle IT equipment through licensed WEEE channels, but data must be wiped or the drives removed before collection. Use a specialist IT asset disposal firm if you need certified erasure.
