Resources : Office fitout guide

Assemble your Relocation / Fitout team

Get your team together. Whether you stay or go you need to have people on this team who are creative, good with numbers, and most of all be able to make decisions.

Write down your needs as a company when operating from a new site. We will need to know so we can tailor your fitout to your needs.

Select a location

Short list which suburbs you would operate best from.

Talk to your staff about the move. It is not uncommon to lose a number of staff in an office fitout move, you may be wise to make sure they are not your key staff.

Establish the square metres you will need

Establish how much area you will need. Depending on who you talk to you will be told anything from 6.5m2 anywhere up to 18m2 per person. Buildings are generally designed around a ratio of 10m2 per person. Forecast your spatial requirements for the duration of your lease, get it wrong and you are stuck with it.

Talk to us. We have our own unique spatial planning software to assist in this process.

Property Search

Talk to real-estate agents in the area. Get your Relocation / Fitout team to do their own research, it is important to know the value of property and the availability of the square meterage you are after for yourself.

Request a copy of a Building Selection Checklist from us. It is important to consider multiple factors when selecting a site. Our Building Selection Checklist will greatly assist you in this process.

Legal’s

Engage your legal team. This is when you will start comparing leases and start the negotiating process.

Have your legal team look over finalising your old lease if you are moving.

Engage your interior designer

Engage Apex Executive Interiors as your designer. We will supply you with spatial concept plans for the sites that you have short listed. These plans will definitively show you how you will fit into your office space.

Negotiate rent incentives

Negotiate the rent and incentives. Negotiate what you want to be included in the lease, such as rent free periods and payment of your fitout or renovation. Talk to your financier and get the lawyers involved.

Negotiate exiting terms including make good. Request your legal team either negotiate the make good out of the lease or negotiate a m2 rate for the cost of the make good and amortise it over the term of your lease.

Stay calm, this step takes patience.

Finalise Design

Meet with us and finalise your design, scope of works and select finishes so you can make to the next stage… quoting.

Authority Approvals

Deliver your chosen office design to your building manager and into council / Private Certifier for approval if it is required.

You can only submit plans to council along with required paper work after the owners of the property have approved of what you are going to do and all parties have signed the lease. We can assist in this process if required. In order to get a CDC you will need a fire design and a exit and emergency lighting design to be completed by a Competent Fire Safety Professional. Depending on the their work load, this can take 10 - 15 days, we do know people who can assist in this process.A Complying Development Certificate (CDC) can generally be done in 10 working days. If you need a Development Application (DA) then that must be done through council and this will be a minimum in most cases of 6 weeks. We have known them to take twice that long. Decide now if you need to start this process.

Service Agreements part 1

Get your Relocation team to start contacting people like electricity companies, your phone provider and ADSL provider. Once numbers and addresses are firmed up you can start ordering stationery and organizing your PO Box.

Finalise a quote for fitout

Obtain comparable quotes on your chosen office design from selected fit out contractors. Ask for the quotes to be broken down so you can see exactly what you are getting so you can compare apples for apples. You should not award the project to a contractor on price alone; you need to feel you can trust the contractor you choose. Make sure that appropriate attention has been paid to service trades such as Air Conditioning and Fire Services, they are not just a good idea, in most cases they are mandatory. Speak to your builder about the payment terms and agree to payment dates.

Award the fitout contract

Award the office fitout to your chosen contractor. If it has not been done already start the approval process with council or a private certifier (if required). You can award the job to your fitout contractor whilst the job is in council, however bear in mind you could be responsible for costs if council reject your application or ask for your plans to be amended.

Organise IT equipment and phone systems.

Dilapidation report

Take photos of the site and conduct a written Dilapidation Report. It may warrant having an independent company come in at this stage to do the dilapidation report for you. When the lease is up you are going to have to return it base building condition, and you don’t want to pay to improve the site to a better condition than when you took it on. We will do a dilapidation report the first day we arrive on site In most cases, but bear in mind you may have been there before us.

Service Agreements part 2

Obtain relocation quotes and to arrange service agreements with people such as cleaners and electricians for lead tagging.

Commence Fitout or Renovations

Commence the office fitout. We will maintain regular contact with you during this process and complete your fitout to program.

Update your internal documents

Get your relocation team to start modifying your current WHS office policies to reflect changes in the new site. Also start preparing things such as your notifications of your move to your clients and suppliers.

Re Key all the locks

Organize your key system for your office, you should definitely change your locks.

Consider if you need a master keying or even signature system.

Almost ready

When the office fitout is complete apply for an occupancy certificate. You cannot occupy the site until you have approval to do so (if it is required).

Undertake a defects inspection. Make your fit out contractor aware of items you are not happy with and set a deadline for them to be rectified that you can both realistically agree to.

Note in order to get your Occupation Certificate amongst the other certificates that will need to be compiled, the NSW Fire Safety Certificate will need to be signed by the building owners, this can take time, especially when Strata is involved.

Ongoing maintenance

Keep up to date with all of your scheduled maintenance. It is of utmost importance to keep Fire systems, Mechanical systems and Hydraulic systems to name just a few in top condition, and under warranty.