The Walkthrough: Risk Management

Relocating your business or organization can be a stressful yet exciting time. It’s out with the old, humdrum office space, and in with the new, clean place to work. You can see so much room for opportunities in your new location, and the tendency is to move in as quickly as possible and start working on these goals.

So when it comes time to move in, we encourage you to pump the brakes a little bit when it comes to moving all your belongings in and setting up shop. One of the most neglected steps when it comes to a corporate move is the walkthrough, or more specifically, the amount of walkthroughs conducted in total. Of course, you or your architect did a walkthrough when your general contractor completed the space, but that is far from the last item on the pre-move agenda. At this stage, your new space looks pristine, but it’s not much more than empty space without things like furniture, equipment, and content: everything you need to make your business run. When moving into a new office, there are a whole slew of vendors, and each one needs to understand the space in which they are working. To add on, you need to resurvey the space together after the completion of each project. This is an important step because it helps identify any damage the vendor caused, and it protects the vendor from blame if damage shows up later in the moving process. Walkthroughs are not the most exciting aspect of your relocation, but they will protect your space and the large sum of money you have spent on creating it.

When moving into an office building, it is also very important to conduct a walkthrough in common areas. This may not seem very intuitive: the elevator bank is not yours, so why would you survey it? However, it is usually in a leasing contract of this type that you are responsible for any damage to common areas created on your behalf. This means that if someone slides one of your heavy desks across an elevator carpet and rips it, it is up to your company to pay for repairs.

You need to be aware of the current condition of your space before you start physically moving. This is because once the crew comes with your goods, it is hard to identify which vendor left the damage. When coordinating schedules and relocation plans without the help of a move consultant, problems are likely to arise. Feuds between vendors and occupants over who damaged what are common when walkthrough procedures have been ignored. Accomplishing your walkthroughs with each vendor before and after each project can save you a vast amount of frustration and mitigates the risk of paying extra to fix damage you did not create.