How to Choose an Office Fit Out Company: 10 Questions to Ask Before You Sign

By the GXI Fit Out Team | Reviewed by GXI Project Delivery Published: October 21, 2026 | Last updated: October 21, 2026 | Figures and benchmarks checked October 2026

Signing a fit out contract is one of the largest commitments a business makes in its premises. The price is only part of it. The contractor you choose also decides how long you wait to move in, how much disruption your team faces and how many problems appear after handover. Many businesses compare quotations on price alone and learn the differences afterwards.

This guide gives you ten questions to put to any office fit out company before you sign, with what a good answer looks like and the warning signs to watch for. It is written for London and UK businesses and draws on named published sources and on live project delivery by GXI.

Quick answer: An office fit out company designs and builds the interior of a workspace, from partitions, ceilings and flooring to services, AV, IT and furniture. To choose one, compare scope and exclusions, financial strength, programme, contract terms, insurance and aftercare, not just price. Ask the ten questions below and speak to recent clients.

Key takeaways:

• Compare quotations like for like. Published guidance suggests tenders for the same brief often differ by 20% to 40%, usually because of scope, not efficiency.
• Check financial stability: construction accounts for 17% of UK company insolvencies, the largest share of any sector.
• Involve your contractor early. A study of 412 public sector projects links late appointments with much larger overruns.
• Ask who runs your project day to day, and who holds duties under CDM 2015.
• Confirm contract terms, insurance and aftercare in writing before you sign.

The Ten Questions at a Glance

Why the Choice Matters More Than the Price

Published figures explain why selection deserves care:

• Construction has accounted for 17% of all UK company insolvencies in each of 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, the largest share of any sector, according to Insolvency Service figures for cases where an industry is recorded.
• There were 3,841 construction company insolvencies in England and Wales in the 12 months to July 2026, 3% fewer than the 3,976 in the previous 12 months but about 19% above the 2019 level of 3,221.
• Specialist trades made up roughly 54% of July 2026's monthly construction failures (186 of 343), which is why subcontractor payment practices matter.
• The Centre for Construction Best Practice's "Constructing Certainty" analysis of 412 UK public sector projects delivered by 55 contractors found that the timing of contractor appointment, measured by RIBA stage, tracked closely with outcomes:

The study also found contractor input on buildability fell from 96% to 100% of projects at Stages 0 to 2 to 49% by Stage 4, and that 63% of public sector projects were still procured late. These are public sector projects and the figures show association, not proof of cause, but the direction is clear. A low quotation from a contractor under financial strain, or one appointed too late to shape the design, can cost more than a better prepared higher bid.

What a Good Fit Out Partner Does Differently

The best delivery teams behave differently long before the contract is signed. They ask more questions than they answer in the first meeting, visit the building, review the services information and tell you early if the site has problems that affect cost or programme. During the project they report on cost and programme every week and raise issues as soon as they appear. After handover they return when something needs attention. These habits do not appear on a price sheet, which is why the questions below focus on people, process and evidence as much as cost.

Before You Ask: Prepare a Clear Brief

Contractors can only price what you describe. Before requesting quotations, prepare:

• Headcount now and in three years, and how many people are in on a typical day
• The activities the space must support: focus work, meetings, calls and social areas
• A realistic budget range with contingency
• Your target move date and any lease events driving it
• Floor plans, services information and landlord requirements

The clearer the brief, the more comparable the quotations.

Question 1: Can You Show Me Completed Projects Like Mine?

Ask for recent projects of a similar size, sector and building type, ideally in the same part of London. A credible contractor names clients, gives honest detail on challenges and is happy for you to speak to past occupiers.

Good signs: named projects with sizes, locations and programmes; photographs of completed work, not renders only; a willingness to arrange a client reference call.

Warning signs: vague descriptions, unnamed clients or a portfolio that does not match your scale. Listen to how challenges are described too. A contractor that can explain what went wrong on a past job, and how it was fixed, is usually more reliable than one claiming every job was perfect.

Question 2: Who Will Run My Project Day to Day?

A polished tender presentation counts for little if the people who presented it never appear on site. Ask for the name and experience of your project manager, how often they will be on site and who you contact when a decision is needed.

Good signs: a named project manager, a clear reporting rhythm such as weekly updates, and direct access to a senior director.

Warning signs: a sales contact who hands you over after signing, or a project manager responsible for too many live jobs.

Also ask who will act as principal contractor under the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015. Where more than one contractor works on the project, the client must appoint a principal designer and a principal contractor in writing. If you do not, the client takes on those duties. The principal contractor is usually the fit out contractor, who prepares the construction phase plan before work starts. The client's duties also include providing pre-construction information (such as asbestos registers), allowing realistic time and resources, checking welfare facilities, notifying the HSE where the project is notifiable (broadly, more than 30 working days with over 20 workers at once, or more than 500 person-days) and keeping the health and safety file.

Question 3: Is the Quotation Fixed, Itemised and Clear on Exclusions?

Two quotations that differ by 15% may not describe the same job. Published guidance suggests tenders for the same brief typically vary by 20% to 40% between highest and lowest bidders, and by 50% or more when the brief is vague or the mechanical and electrical scope is complex. Common causes are hidden exclusions, different service assumptions (M&E commonly accounts for around 25% to 30% of a fit out budget), different specifications, different contingency and different margins, since a contractor short of work may price near cost.

Ask each contractor to break the price down by element, state what is included and excluded, and show how contingency and provisional sums are treated. Check the quotation covers, strip out and make good, partitions, ceilings and flooring, M&E, lighting, data and AV, furniture and joinery, and fees, approvals and preliminaries.

Typical London cost benchmarks (indicative, 2026, excluding VAT):

Headline construction figures usually exclude professional fees (often 8% to 15%), loose furniture (commonly 15% to 25% of an overall budget), active IT, AV and security hardware, out-of-hours working, landlord and legal costs and VAT at 20%. One published estimate puts the all-in cost at 50% to 80% above the construction figure. For more detail see our guide to Cat A vs Cat B costs.

Provisional sums vs contingency. A provisional sum is a placeholder for a specific item that cannot yet be priced, and it sits inside the contract price. A contingency is a general risk fund for unknowns and should be held separately by the client. Ask whether each provisional sum includes the contractor's overheads and profit, keep their share of the quote small (a quote heavy with provisional sums is not a true fixed price), and require written instructions before any provisional sum is converted into spend. Clients commonly ring-fence a contingency of about 5% to 15%, and more for older or occupied buildings.

Sample quote comparison (illustrative):

Contractor A looks cheapest until you add the exclusions, and the true comparison only appears once every gap is priced.

Question 4: How Financially Stable Is the Company?

Given the insolvency figures above, financial strength is a legitimate question. A contractor that fails mid-project leaves unfinished works, unpaid subcontractors and delays. Check:

1. Companies House: confirm the company is active, review filing history for late accounts, check whether it files full or abridged accounts, and look at the directors' history.
2. Credit report: from an agency such as Experian, Equifax or Creditsafe, review the credit score, failure probability, county court judgments and how quickly the company pays its own suppliers.
3. Constructionline: its red, amber or green financial health rating, insurance validity and Safety Schemes in Procurement (SSIP) status give a construction-specific view.
4. Management accounts or bank references for high-value contracts where public filings are old or abridged.

Also ask what security is available. A performance bond, issued by a bank or insurer, typically caps at around 10% of the contract sum and the premium is usually passed to the client. A parent company guarantee covers a subsidiary contractor and is usually free but only as strong as the parent. Collateral warranties, or third-party rights clauses, give landlords or funders a direct right against subcontractors and consultants. These are worth requesting on high-value or fast-track projects.

Question 5: When Will You Get Involved, and Can You Shape the Design?

The earlier a contractor joins, the more it can contribute to buildability, programme and cost, and the table above shows the penalty for bringing one in late. Ask whether the contractor will advise on layout, services and finishes before the price is fixed. A team with real design and space planning capability can test options against your budget and programme, flag constraints in the building and avoid expensive redesign once work starts. This is where good office design and office interior design save money, because decisions are made while they are still cheap to change.

Question 6: What Is the Programme, and What Could Delay It?

A date on a quotation is not a programme. Ask for one that shows design sign-off, approvals, procurement lead times, construction and handover, and which items could move it.

These are typical London ranges, and landlord approvals, building control, specialist furniture and glazing lead times and hidden conditions behind walls can move them. A design and build route can save several weeks by overlapping design and construction. Our guide to fit out and refurbishment duration explains the stages.

Question 7: How Do You Handle Landlord Consent, Building Control and Fire Safety?

In London, most leased premises require a licence for alterations. The landlord's surveyor and solicitor review the drawings, and their fees are usually the tenant's responsibility. A straightforward licence often takes about 4 to 8 weeks, and complex ones longer, and it is frequently the biggest bottleneck in a London programme.

Building control approval is separate. It is needed when work affects structure, fire safety (new partitions that change escape routes or compartmentation), services, drainage, accessibility or energy performance, but not for purely cosmetic updates. A fire strategy is usually needed whenever internal layouts change. Approval can come from a registered building control approver or the local authority, and the Building Safety Regulator acts only for higher-risk buildings, such as tall residential buildings, so check if your office sits inside one.

Ask who prepares and submits the paperwork, what experience the contractor has with managing agents in your type of building, and how it keeps the programme moving while approvals are pending.

Question 8: Do You Deliver Design and Build Under One Roof?

A single accountable team simplifies decisions and removes the gaps where blame and cost gather. Ask whether design, construction, M&E, AV, IT and furniture are managed by one company or several. It is also worth knowing the alternatives:

Design and build is the usual route for office fit outs because it gives one contract and one point of contact. If you choose it, protect yourself with an itemised or open-book price and, on larger projects, an independent cost review. Common contract forms include the JCT Minor Works, Intermediate and Design and Build contracts, and NEC4, so ask which will be used and why.

Question 9: What Insurance, Accreditations and Safeguards Do You Hold?

Ask to see certificates, not just claims, and check cover limits and expiry dates. Typical expectations are:

Check the policy has no exclusion for hot work, includes an indemnity to principals, and uses each-and-every-claim limits instead of aggregate ones where possible.

Common accreditations include CHAS and SafeContractor (SSIP health and safety schemes), ISO 9001 (quality), ISO 14001 (environment), ISO 45001 (occupational health and safety) and the Considerate Constructors Scheme, which matters in occupied multi-tenant buildings. SSIP-type accreditation is often a baseline requirement just to enter a building. Also ask how subcontractor cover is checked, and how defects and variations are recorded and agreed.

Question 10: What Happens After Handover?

Handover is not the end of a good project. Snagging is the final quality check: a walk-through produces a snag list of minor defects and omissions, which are rectified and then checked again. The defects liability period, called the rectification period in JCT contracts, then runs after practical completion, typically 12 months (6 for minor works and up to 24 for some M&E), to catch latent defects that appear in use, such as heating and ventilation balancing issues.

Ask for a structured snagging process, a clear defects period in the contract, a named contact for aftercare and the warranties to be passed to you:

Expect exclusions for normal wear and tear, misuse, lack of maintenance and unauthorised modification. Warning signs: no mention of aftercare, or slow responses to simple questions during the tender.

How to Compare Office Fit Out Company Quotations

Resist the urge to look at the bottom line first. A structured comparison takes less than an hour:

1. Put every quotation into the same table, with the same headings.
2. Mark every item that is excluded, provisional or described as "by others".
3. Add a realistic allowance for each exclusion to see the true comparative cost.
4. Compare programmes, not only end dates, and note the assumptions.
5. Score each contractor from 1 to 5 on the criteria below.
6. Speak to at least one recent client for each shortlisted contractor.

Red Flags to Watch For

If you notice several of these, pause before signing:

1. A quotation far below others, without an explanation
2. Vague scope, no exclusions and no breakdown
3. Pressure to sign quickly
4. No named project manager
5. Reluctance to share accounts, insurance or references
6. An unrealistic programme with no discussion of approvals or lead times
7. No aftercare commitment

Contract Terms Worth Checking Before You Sign

The contract turns every promise in the tender into a commitment. Ask your solicitor to review anything unclear:

Plain, balanced terms are a good sign. A one-sided contract tells you something about how the relationship will work.

How These Questions Play Out on Real Projects

Two recent GXI projects show how this works in practice.

The Running Man (specialist physiotherapy clinic, Battersea, 3,500 sq ft). This was the client's first purpose-built unit, in a railway arch with strict conditions imposed on the build. Budget control was critical. GXI developed a design aligned with those conditions from day one, used rigorous cost planning to put spend where it mattered most and completed the first-of-its-kind facility on budget on a 10-week programme. The client described the process as smooth, with clear communication and delivery on time without compromising quality. It is a good example of Questions 3 and 7 working together: a clear scope and an early understanding of approvals.

Prideview Properties (head office, Stanmore and central London, 5,500 sq ft). GXI delivered a Cat B+ fit out from shell and core in six weeks. The shell had limited design foresight, with poorly positioned services and restricted floor-to-ceiling heights, so the design and on-site teams worked together early to resolve each constraint without losing design intent. It shows why Questions 2 and 5 matter: a connected team and early involvement turn constraints into solved problems. 

More completed projects are on the GXI case studies page.

Choosing Your Office Fit Out Company: Making the Final Decision

When the quotations are compared and the references called, the right choice is usually the contractor that gave you the clearest answers to the ten questions, not necessarily the lowest or the most polished. Trust your own read of the team: would you be comfortable calling this project manager on a difficult day, and do they explain things in a way you understand?

Before you sign, confirm in writing the scope, price, programme, named team and aftercare arrangements. A contract that mirrors what was promised in the tender is the best protection a business can have.

Why Businesses Choose GXI as Their Office Fit Out Company

GXI is a UK workplace specialist with 30 years of experience delivering design, refurbishment and fit out projects. Design, build, mechanical and electrical works, AV, IT, furniture and aftercare sit under one accountable team. With offices at Clerkenwell Green in Central London and in Stanmore, Harrow, GXI delivers across London, the Home Counties and the wider UK. See the full range of office refurbishment and fit out services.

Ready to Compare Your Options?

If you are weighing up a fit out or refurbishment, GXI can review your brief, explain the options and provide a clear, itemised proposal. Contact the team at info@gxigroup.com or call 020 3915 8000 to discuss your project.