The Office Move Health and Safety Checklist: What Every Growing Business Misses

Office moves are project-managed to the day. The new lease is signed, the movers are booked, the IT setup is mapped, the desks are ordered, the catering for the launch party is confirmed. What is almost never on the project plan is the health and safety transition: the legal duties that fire up the moment the company occupies a new building, and the existing duties that need to be refreshed for the new layout, the new headcount, and the new arrangements.

This is the gap that catches most growing businesses out. A typical scaling company will move offices three or four times in five years, and every move triggers the same set of statutory obligations. Fire risk assessments. Asbestos register checks. Workplace risk assessments. DSE assessments. First aid needs reassessment. Fire warden coverage. Statutory notice display. Each one is a legal duty. Most are forgotten until a landlord, insurer, HSE inspector, or auditor asks for evidence and the answer is "we just moved in".

This guide is a sequential office move health and safety checklist organised by project phase. It is written for office managers, facilities managers, COOs, Heads of People, and anyone responsible for getting a growing business safely into its new space. Use it as a working document. If your move is more than four weeks away, you have time to work through the whole list. If your move is next week, this is the triage version of what to address first.

Why health and safety falls between the cracks during an office move

Five reasons consistently come up.

The move project lead is usually not the H&S lead. Office moves are typically run by an office manager, a head of operations, or a procurement lead. Health and safety, where it has a defined owner, usually sits with HR or with an external consultant. The move project plan rarely has the H&S workstream as a named line.

The legal duties transfer the moment of occupation. The day the company moves in, the employer is the responsible person for fire safety, the duty holder under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, and the employer for the purposes of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992. There is no settling-in period in law.

Landlord-supplied documents are often incomplete or out of date. Most leases come with a fire risk assessment, an asbestos survey, an electrical installation certificate, and similar compliance documents from the landlord. These are necessary inputs, not the answer. The employer is responsible for the assessment of their use of the space, which is different from the landlord's assessment of the building.

Hybrid working has changed the question. A growing business moving from a 30-desk office to a 60-desk office may actually have 120 people on the books with hybrid arrangements. The new layout needs to handle peak occupancy, average occupancy, and the specific patterns of how the workforce actually uses the space. Pre-pandemic office move checklists do not cover this.

Coworking and serviced offices blur the responsibility lines. Many growing businesses move into WeWork, Mindspace, Plus Spaces, or similar serviced operators. The contractual position varies. The legal position is that some duties remain with the occupying employer regardless of what the membership agreement says. Knowing the boundary matters.

The result is that growing businesses routinely occupy new offices with significant compliance gaps from day one. The fix is not complicated. It just needs to be on the project plan.

Phase 1: Pre-move (the building and its compliance position)

Start this phase at least six weeks before move-in. Some of the documents take time to obtain from the landlord and cannot be created retrospectively.

Compliance documents to obtain from the landlord

Before move-in, request and review:

• Fire risk assessment for the building and common parts, current and signed by a competent assessor
• Asbestos survey and asbestos register if the building was constructed before 2000 (the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 duty to manage)
• Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) for the fixed wiring, ideally less than 5 years old
• Gas safety certificate if the building uses gas
• Energy Performance Certificate (EPC)
• Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) certificates if the building has LEV (uncommon in pure offices, more relevant for labs or kitchens)
• Water hygiene risk assessment / legionella assessment if the building has water systems with showers, hot tubs, or cooling towers
• Lift inspection reports for any passenger or goods lifts
• Most recent insurance survey if the landlord has had one
• Sprinkler servicing records if applicable
• Fire alarm and emergency lighting maintenance records

Where the landlord cannot or will not provide these, that is a flag. Get it documented in writing and raise it with your solicitor before lease signing if you still can.

Building-specific compliance flags

Five things about the building itself are worth checking explicitly:

Pre-2000 construction triggers asbestos duties. If the building was built or refurbished before the year 2000, the duty to manage asbestos applies. The landlord usually holds the duty for common parts and structural elements; the occupier holds it for their demised area. Confirm where the boundary sits in your lease.

Buildings over 18 metres or 11 metres (Wales) trigger Building Safety Act implications. This is rare for office occupation but possible. The Building Safety Act 2022 places additional duties on the building owner. Confirm the building's status.

Listed buildings have constraints on fire safety modifications. Historic buildings often need fire safety improvements that planning controls limit. Understand what is and is not allowed before signing.

Multi-tenant buildings share escape routes and fire safety arrangements. Where the building has multiple tenants, the fire safety responsibilities are split. Article 22 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 requires cooperation and coordination between responsible persons in shared buildings. Identify the lead responsible person and your obligations to them.

Single-stair buildings have post-Grenfell escape route considerations. Where the building has only one escape stair, the fire safety arrangements need more attention. Check this is reflected in the landlord's fire risk assessment.

Your own pre-move actions

Before move-in:

• Identify the new building's responsible person under the Fire Safety Order (typically the senior occupier, often the CEO or COO in growing businesses)
• Commission your own fire risk assessment for the demised area, scheduled to be completed within 14 days of occupation
• Schedule the workplace risk assessment refresh, scheduled to be completed within 30 days of occupation
• Confirm the lease boundary between landlord and tenant responsibility on every compliance area
• Brief your insurance broker on the new building before move-in; insurers usually want survey access early

Phase 2: Layout and design (the new workspace)

The layout is being designed for productivity, aesthetics, and cost. It also needs to be designed for legal compliance. Five things to build in at the design stage.

Workstation positioning and DSE

Every workstation needs to comply with the Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992. At design stage that means:

• Desks of suitable dimensions (typically 1200mm to 1600mm wide, 800mm deep minimum)
• Distance from natural light to avoid glare and reflection on screens
• Sufficient space at and between workstations (Workplace Regulations 1992 require 11 cubic metres per person minimum, calculated to the height of 3 metres)
• Adequate room temperature, ventilation, and lighting
• Space for ergonomic equipment (footrests, document holders, monitor arms)

Hot-desking and hybrid arrangements need particular thought. Where multiple people use the same workstation, each needs to be able to adjust the chair, monitor, keyboard, and mouse to their own dimensions. Standardised setups suit no one. See our office risk assessment guide for the wider workplace assessment framework.

Fire escape routes and assembly

Walkways, fire exits, assembly points, and signage all need to be planned before the furniture goes in. After move-in, "let's see how it works" tends to mean fire exits are blocked by storage and assembly points are next to the smoking shelter.

Check:

• Travel distances to the nearest fire exit (typically 18 to 25 metres in offices, longer in some configurations)
• Width of escape routes
• Exit door swing direction (out, not in)
• Signage placement
• Emergency lighting coverage
• Assembly point location (clear of building, not blocked by traffic, identifiable in poor weather and darkness)

Welfare facilities

The Workplace Regulations 1992 set minimum standards for toilets, washing facilities, drinking water, rest facilities, and changing facilities. Headcount drives the toilet and basin requirements (the regulations have a numerical scale). Mixed-sex provision, accessibility, and lactation rooms for new mothers are all part of the design conversation. These are not afterthoughts.

First aid provision

The Health and Safety (First-Aid) Regulations 1981 require a first aid needs assessment for the new workplace. This drives:

• Number of qualified first aiders
• Location and contents of first aid kits
• Procedures for summoning first aid
• Cover during all working hours including evenings and weekends if applicable

Build first aid station locations into the floor plan.

Accessibility under the Equality Act 2010

Reasonable adjustments for disabled employees, visitors, and customers are required under the Equality Act 2010. Step-free access, accessible toilets, lift access to all working floors, signage with appropriate contrast, hearing loops if applicable, and adjustable workstations should all be considered at design stage. Retrofitting is expensive. Designing in is not.

Phase 3: The move itself (the moving day)

The act of moving carries its own risks, both for the people doing the work and for the people in the building.

Manual handling

The Manual Handling Operations Regulations 1992 apply to the move itself. Professional movers have their own arrangements, but your own staff helping with light office equipment, personal items, and IT decommissioning are covered by your duty. Cover:

• Briefing on safe lifting techniques
• Trolleys, dollies, and other handling aids
• Limits on what individuals should move alone
• Clear walkways during the move
• No mixing of move activity with normal occupancy where avoidable

Out-of-hours and lone working

Moves often happen at evenings and weekends. Workers doing this are typically lone workers in part-empty buildings. Set:

• Sign-in and sign-out procedures
• Periodic check-ins with a designated coordinator
• Clear emergency procedures
• Personal alarm provision where appropriate

Electrical safety during decommissioning and reconnection

Disconnecting and reconnecting IT, AV, kitchen, and office equipment carries electrical risk. Use competent persons for fixed electrical work (registered electricians for anything beyond unplugging). Portable equipment should be tested if there is any reason to suspect damage from the move.

Waste disposal during the move

Moves generate waste. Some is regulated:

• Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) must be disposed of through licensed routes
• Batteries (including lithium-ion in laptops, UPS units, e-scooters) need licensed disposal
• Any asbestos-containing materials discovered during decommissioning must be handled by licensed contractors only
• Confidential paper waste needs secure destruction (a data protection issue rather than H&S, but worth aligning)

Fire safety during the move

Combustible packaging stacked in stairwells and propped-open fire doors are two of the most common causes of significant office fires. Brief the move team explicitly:

• Fire exits and routes must remain clear
• Fire doors must not be propped open even temporarily
• Combustible packaging must be removed daily, not accumulated
• Hot work (welding, soldering, anything generating heat or sparks) needs a permit

Phase 4: Post-move (the new workspace operational)

The first 30 days in the new building is when most of the statutory duties either get done properly or quietly slip. Block calendar time for these.

Within the first 14 days

• Commission and complete your fire risk assessment for the demised area. The landlord's assessment of the building does not cover your use of the space. See our guide on how much a fire risk assessment costs.
• Run a fire evacuation drill to test the assumed escape routes in practice. The first drill in a new building usually reveals at least one assumption that does not hold.
• Display statutory notices: the HSE Law poster (mandatory for any premises with employees), the Employers' Liability Insurance certificate, the fire action notice on every floor, and any other notices required by your sector regulator.
• Confirm the fire warden coverage for the new layout. The number and location of wardens may need to change for the new floor plan.
• Test the alarms, emergency lighting, and assembly point procedures.

Within the first 30 days

• Refresh the workplace risk assessment to reflect the new layout, new equipment, new headcount, and new working patterns. This is a legal duty under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999.
• Complete individual DSE assessments for every workstation in use. Hybrid and home workers need separate assessments for their home setups.
• Refresh the first aid needs assessment based on the new headcount, layout, and hours of operation.
• Update your stress risk assessment to reflect any change-related stress and the new working patterns. See our Working Time Regulations guide for the connection between working patterns and stress duties.
• Brief the workforce on the new arrangements: emergency procedures, fire wardens, first aiders, accident reporting, welfare facilities.

Within the first 90 days

• Conduct a full health and safety audit of the new arrangements once they have bedded in. The audit will identify the gaps that were not visible until the office was in normal operation.
• Review the lease compliance position with the landlord against actual operation, flagging anything that does not work.
• Document the move H&S workstream for the company's compliance file. Investors, insurers, acquirers, and auditors will ask about it eventually.

Phase 5: Notifications and updates

Some compliance updates happen outside the building itself.

Notifications to make

• HSE if the move affects any RIDDOR registration or notifiable activity
• Companies House for the registered office change
• Insurers for property, employers' liability, public liability, and professional indemnity
• HMRC and pension provider for the registered address change
• Sector regulators (FCA, CQC, OFSTED, ICO and others) if applicable
• Local Fire and Rescue Service if the move triggers a notifiable change
• Local authority for business rates, licensing, and Environmental Health where applicable

Internal documentation to update

• Health and safety policy with the new address and any structural changes
• Fire emergency plan
• Risk assessment register
• DSE assessment records
• First aid arrangements
• Permit to work systems if applicable
• Visitor and contractor procedures
• Lone working arrangements
• Out-of-hours arrangements
• Statement of intent on health and safety (often on the intranet or company website)

The five gotchas that catch growing businesses most often

1. Pre-2000 buildings without an asbestos register. A surprising number of growing businesses move into pre-2000 buildings without checking whether an asbestos survey exists. The duty to manage starts on day one of occupation, regardless of whether the survey exists.

2. Coworking and serviced offices with unclear responsibility lines. WeWork, Mindspace, Plus Spaces, and similar operators provide most of the building-level compliance. They do not provide your workplace risk assessment, your DSE assessments, your fire warden coverage of your demised area, or your stress risk assessment. The employer remains responsible for all of these regardless of the location type.

3. Hybrid headcount being miscounted. A 100-desk office with 200 hybrid workers needs first aid, fire warden, and welfare arrangements for the peak headcount, not the desk count. Several insurers have queried this specifically in recent renewals.

4. The fire warden gap during the first month. Fire wardens trained on the old layout do not automatically transfer to the new layout. Most growing businesses discover this when a fire drill in month two reveals that nobody knows their assembly role.

5. The investor due diligence ambush. Series B and later funding rounds, and especially exit-stage M&A, now routinely ask about health and safety compliance. A recent office move with documented compliance evidence is straightforward to present. A recent office move with undocumented arrangements is a deal-stage problem.

When to bring in a Chartered consultant

Many growing businesses run the H&S side of an office move internally with the right competent person and a structured project plan. Arinite's Chartered consultants typically add value in four specific situations:

Multi-site or multi-country growth. Where the move is one of several happening across the portfolio, consistency of approach across sites is the coordination problem. A single Chartered consultant leading the H&S workstream across sites is more efficient than each office manager working it out independently.

Pre-move scoping for a complex building. Pre-2000 buildings, listed buildings, multi-tenant buildings, single-stair buildings, and buildings with specialist features (server rooms, labs, kitchens) all benefit from competent person review at the pre-lease stage. Catching a compliance issue before signing the lease is cheaper than fixing it afterwards.

Pre-investment or pre-acquisition compliance preparation. Where the company is heading into a funding round or a sale process, the H&S compliance position from the move needs to be documented and defensible. External Chartered consultant evidence is more credible to investors and acquirers than purely internal documentation.

Post-move audit and gap closure. After the first 90 days in the new building, a health and safety audit identifies the gaps that became visible only once the office was in normal operation. Closing those gaps quickly is far cheaper than waiting for an insurer, HSE inspector, or auditor to find them.

Arinite works with 1,500+ businesses across 50+ countries, including many growing UK businesses moving through Series A, B, C funding stages and into multi-site or international operations. 100,000+ Employees Protected. ISO 45001:2018 certified. 15+ years of practice across UK and international clients.

The fastest way to scope the H&S workstream of your office move is a 30-minute Free Gap Analysis Call. A structured review of where the move is in your timeline, what is already in place, what needs to happen, and what to do about it. No commitment.

Book My Free Gap Analysis Call or call +44 (0)20 7947 9581.

Frequently asked questions

When does the health and safety responsibility transfer in an office move? On the day of occupation. From the moment your business takes possession of the new space, you are the responsible person under the Fire Safety Order, the employer under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and the duty holder under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012 for your demised area. There is no settling-in period in law.

Do I need a new fire risk assessment for a new office? Yes. The landlord's fire risk assessment of the building does not cover your use of the demised area. The Fire Safety Order requires the responsible person for the premises to have a current fire risk assessment in place. Most growing businesses commission this within 14 days of occupation.

Does the asbestos duty to manage apply to my new office? If the building was constructed or refurbished before the year 2000, the duty to manage asbestos applies. In multi-tenant buildings, the landlord usually holds the duty for common parts and structural elements; the occupier holds the duty for their demised area. The lease should clarify the boundary. The duty exists from day one of occupation.

What about coworking and serviced offices like WeWork? The operator usually provides the building-level compliance (fire safety, asbestos, EICR, water hygiene). The occupying business remains responsible for its own workplace risk assessment, DSE assessments, fire warden coverage of its demised area, first aid arrangements within its team, stress risk assessment, and any sector-specific compliance. Read the membership agreement carefully and confirm the boundary in writing.

How long should I budget for the office move H&S workstream? For a typical office move (under 100 desks, standard commercial property), the H&S workstream takes 4 to 6 weeks pre-move and 30 days post-move to complete to a defensible standard. Larger moves, complex buildings, or multi-site coordination take longer.

What is a fire warden, and how many do I need? A fire warden (also called a fire marshal) is a trained employee with specific responsibilities during a fire evacuation: ensuring their area is evacuated, assisting people who need help, and reporting to the senior fire warden at the assembly point. The number depends on building size, layout, and shift patterns. As a starting point, one fire warden per floor and per significant zone of a floor, with cover for absences. Growing businesses often realise after the move that their fire warden coverage no longer matches the layout.

Do I need to retrain my fire wardens for the new building? Yes. Fire wardens trained on the old layout do not automatically transfer to the new layout. Refresher training covering the new escape routes, assembly point, alarm system, and floor plan should happen within the first 14 days of occupation.

What statutory notices must I display in the new office? The HSE Law poster (mandatory for any premises with employees), the Employers' Liability Insurance certificate, the fire action notice on every floor, and any sector-specific notices. Some growing businesses also display their health and safety policy, no-smoking signs, and accessibility information. The HSE Law poster must be displayed in a place where employees can read it.

How does the office move affect my insurance? Brief the insurance broker before move-in. Property, employers' liability, public liability, and professional indemnity policies all typically need to be updated. Some insurers will want to survey the new premises. Failure to notify the insurer of a material change in location can void cover.

What is the connection between an office move and investor due diligence? Series B and later funding rounds, and especially exit-stage M&A, now routinely include health and safety in due diligence. A recent office move generates a large amount of documentation that an acquirer or investor will ask about. Doing the move H&S workstream properly at the time is significantly easier than reconstructing it under time pressure during a deal.