Fitting Out a Leased Office: From Landlord Handover to Occupation

An office fit-out in a leased building runs on two tracks at once: your programme and the landlord approval process. This is the sequence that keeps both moving.

The programme for a leased office fit-out is set less by construction than by permission. You need the landlord's consent to the design, their approval of your contractors for anything touching base building services, and whatever municipal and civil defence requirements apply to the space and its intended use. Start those processes before you start detailed design, and the construction period becomes the predictable part of the job.

Before stage one

You are ready to begin when you have the lease or the agreed heads of terms, the base building drawings from the landlord, a measured survey of the actual space and a headcount with a working pattern. The headcount matters most: desk positions, meeting room count, cooling capacity, electrical load and escape route provision all follow from how many people will occupy the space and how they work, and every one of those is expensive to revisit.

• Read the lease for the alterations, approvals, contractor nomination and reinstatement clauses before any design begins.
• Obtain the base building drawings and the landlord fit-out guide, including any restrictions on working hours, access and noise.
• Confirm what the landlord has provided and what you must provide, since the handover condition varies substantially between buildings.
• Fix the headcount, the working pattern and the meeting room requirement, because the whole brief follows from them.
• Establish the date from which rent runs against the date you can realistically occupy, as that gap is a real cost.

Stage 1: Survey the space as handed over and record its condition

Measure what exists rather than relying on the landlord's drawings, and record the condition in detail with photographs, because that record protects you at the end of the lease when reinstatement is assessed. Note the floor level and its deviation, the structural soffit height, the position and capacity of the electrical supply, the cooling provision and how it is zoned, the sprinkler and detection layout where present, the raised floor depth if any, and the position of risers and core services. A condition report agreed with the landlord at the start is worth considerably more than one argued about at the end.

• Deliverable: A measured survey of the space with a dated photographic condition report, ideally countersigned by the landlord.
• Owner: Designer or surveyor records; landlord acknowledges.
• Approval gate: The condition record is issued and acknowledged before any work begins on site.

Stage 2: Test the brief against the space

Convert the headcount into an area test before committing to a design. Count the desks, the meeting rooms by size, the collaboration spaces, the storage and the support areas, allow for circulation, and check that the result fits the space with the escape routes and the cooling capacity available. This is the stage where a brief gets reduced or a space gets rejected, and doing it early is far cheaper than discovering at tender that the fit-out needs more cooling capacity than the building provides.

• Deliverable: A test fit showing desk and room counts, circulation, escape routes and the resulting demand on cooling and power.
• Owner: Designer produces; the business confirms the counts; services engineer confirms capacity.
• Approval gate: The test fit is confirmed to work within the available cooling, power and escape provision before detailed design starts.

Stage 3: Submit for landlord approval early and in their format

Landlord approval is a process with its own documentation requirements, review period and sometimes a fee or a deposit, and it frequently has to happen twice: once for the concept and once for the construction information. Submit in the format the fit-out guide asks for, include the services information they require, and name the contractors you intend to use, since many buildings require approved contractors for work on base building systems. Treat the review period as a fixed duration in your programme rather than as something that can be compressed by goodwill.

• Deliverable: A complete landlord submission with drawings, services information and proposed contractors, plus their written consent.
• Owner: Designer compiles; the tenant submits; the landlord approves.
• Approval gate: Written landlord consent is held before any contractor mobilises to site.

Stage 4: Confirm the statutory and regulatory requirements

Separately from the landlord, establish what the authorities require for the space and its use. Changes to partitions, escape routes, occupancy and any mechanical ventilation can bring municipal and civil defence requirements into play, and the position depends on the building and the intended activity rather than on the size of the fit-out. Specific uses carry their own requirements that have to be confirmed with the relevant authority for that activity. Find this out before tender, because a requirement discovered during construction stops the work rather than adjusting it.

• Deliverable: A written record of the applicable approvals, the evidence each requires and who is responsible for obtaining it.
• Owner: Designer or a specialist consultant establishes; the tenant holds the obligation.
• Approval gate: The approvals route is documented and underway before the fit-out contract is awarded.

Stage 5: Document, tender and award

Produce the full package: partition and setting-out plans, coordinated reflected ceiling plans, electrical and data layouts drawn over the furniture plan, the finishing schedule, the door and ironmongery schedule and the services specification. Tender it to contractors acceptable to the landlord, with one deadline and the same questions answered to all. Compare prices line by line against the schedules rather than totals against totals, and check that each price includes protection, out-of-hours working where the building requires it, waste removal through the building's route and making good. Confirm how value added tax is handled, with the published headline rate of 15% to confirm with ZATCA as it applies to the contract.

• Deliverable: A tender package, a priced comparison with all qualifications listed, and a signed contract with the selected installer.
• Owner: Designer documents; tenant awards.
• Approval gate: Award only once the selected contractor confirms they have priced the issued documents without substitution.

Stage 6: Build, coordinate and test before concealment

On site, the usual interior disciplines apply with one addition: you are working inside somebody else's building, under their rules on access, hours, lifts, waste and noise, and a breach can suspend your work. Coordinate the ceiling before anything is installed in it, test and certify services before voids are closed, and photograph every concealed zone with a measurement reference. Where work connects to base building systems, make sure the landlord's requirements for witnessing and certification are met at the time rather than retrospectively.

• Deliverable: Coordinated layouts, test and commissioning records, and dated pre-concealment photographs.
• Owner: Contractor builds and tests; designer inspects; landlord witnesses where required.
• Approval gate: No void closed before its contents are tested and recorded, and no connection made to base building systems without the required witnessing.

Stage 7: Complete, hand over and prepare for the end of the lease

Snag the space room by room in the lighting it will actually have, close the list before final payment, and collect the operation and maintenance information, the test certificates, the as-built drawings and the warranties. Then do the thing most tenants forget: file the original condition report alongside the as-built record, and note which elements of the fit-out will have to be removed at the end of the term. That single piece of housekeeping converts an unpleasant surprise in several years into a known and budgeted cost.

• Deliverable: A closed snag list, a complete handover file and a recorded reinstatement position for the end of the lease.
• Owner: Contractor completes; designer verifies; tenant retains.
• Approval gate: Final payment released only when the handover file is complete and the reinstatement position is documented.

Handovers between stages

The hand-off that most often costs money is between the lease and the design, where a designer who has not read the alterations clause produces a scheme the landlord will not consent to. Close it by issuing the relevant lease extracts to the designer at appointment. The second is between landlord approval and tender, where contractors are invited who are not acceptable to the building and the tender has to be rerun. The third is between construction and occupation, where the furniture lead time was never aligned with the completion date, leaving a finished office nobody can work in.

How you know it is finished

The fit-out is finished when the snag list is closed, the handover file is complete, the landlord has issued whatever confirmation the lease requires, the applicable approvals are evidenced, and the reinstatement obligation is written down with an estimate attached. Requirements for approvals, escape provision and mechanical services are periodically revised, so confirm the current position with the relevant municipal and civil defence authorities at the time you act rather than relying on a previous fit-out in the same building. Have a licensed legal adviser review the alterations and reinstatement clauses before you commit, because those clauses determine what the fit-out will cost you at both ends of the term.

Domira designs and delivers interiors as part of the building, not after it: the finishing schedule, the joinery and the services coordination that decide whether a space looks built or assembled. Share the space and Domira will tell you what it would specify and what it would leave out.