The most common reason a London office fit out starts late has nothing to do with the contractor. It is a document called a licence to alter, sitting with a landlord’s solicitor who has other things to do.
A licence to alter is the landlord’s formal, written consent to the works you propose. Almost every commercial lease requires one for anything beyond decoration. Start without it and you are in breach of the lease, the landlord can require you to undo the work, and the dilapidations position at the end gets worse.
What the landlord is checking
Three things. That the works do not damage the building or its services, which is why the landlord’s engineer wants to see your mechanical and electrical drawings. That the works do not affect other tenants, the structure or the fire strategy. And that you will put it all back at the end, which is why the licence usually contains a reinstatement clause, and why what you agree to here shapes the dilapidations bill in five years’ time.
What it costs
You pay the landlord’s costs: their solicitor, their surveyor and sometimes their engineer. Budget £2,000 to £6,000 for a straightforward floor and more for a complex scheme in a managed building. A well organised application keeps these fees down because there is less back and forth.
The sequence that avoids delay
Tell the landlord you intend to fit out the moment you sign the lease. Ask their managing agent what they need to see and in what format; many have a standard pack.
Submit the application at space plan stage, not at detailed design. Landlords will give consent in principle to a layout and then approve the technical drawings as a second step, and running the two in parallel with your design saves four to six weeks.
Get the reinstatement clause read by your own surveyor before you sign. A clause that says everything must come out is different from one that lets the landlord elect to keep the fit out, and the second is worth negotiating for.
Use a contractor who has done this before in this building or with this landlord. Several of the office design and build companies in the directory manage licence applications as part of the job, and the enterprise refurbishment contractors have standing relationships with the big London landlords.
Planning permission is a different question
Internal works rarely need planning permission. Changes to the external appearance, a change of use class, structural alterations, listed buildings and conservation areas do. Do not assume the licence to alter covers planning, or that planning covers the licence. They are separate consents from separate bodies and both need to be in hand before the site starts.
The Cat A vs Cat B explainer sets out which parts of a fit out are yours and which are the landlord’s, which is the line the licence is drawn along.
