From around £10,000 to £500,000+Larger facilities available in suitable cases
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In short
Law firms usually fund an office refit with an unsecured term loan for building works and asset finance for furniture, meeting room technology and equipment, often combined with a landlord contribution or rent-free period. Lenders focus on the firm’s profits after partner drawings and on matching the repayment term to the time left on the lease, because partitions and finishes have little resale value once installed.
This page is for law firms planning a refit: modernising a tired reception, reconfiguring floors after moving files to digital storage, or fitting out new premises after a move or merger. Smart Funding Solutions is a broker, not a lender: we approach lenders on our panel of 300+ that fund professional practices, from around £10,000 to £500,000+, with larger facilities available in suitable cases. For the full range of law firm borrowing, see our solicitor practice loans hub.
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A law firm’s premises do a particular job. Clients arrive anxious about a divorce, a bereavement or a dispute, and they judge the firm partly on the room they are shown into. Fee earners need to take confidential calls without being overheard. The firm must store original wills and deeds securely for decades. Those needs drive most refurbishments:
Space released by digitisation: once paper files and archive boxes move to scanned storage, whole rooms can become meeting rooms or be surrendered at lease renewal.
Hybrid working: fewer fixed desks and more bookable rooms, with better acoustic separation for video hearings and client calls.
Client-facing upgrades: private client, family and commercial practices often invest in reception and meeting suites to support higher fee work.
Access: a ground floor accessible meeting room and toilet, especially in period buildings where clients previously climbed stairs.
Secure storage: fire-rated strongrooms or safes for original wills, deeds and powers of attorney.
Lease events: a new lease that requires fitting out from shell, or a merger that brings two teams into one building.
What a refit actually costs to fund
Partners often budget for the visible items and miss the rest. A realistic funding request covers strip-out and making good, partitioning and acoustic treatment, mechanical and electrical works, data cabling, lighting and heating upgrades, flooring and decoration, furniture, meeting room screens and conferencing equipment, professional fees for a designer or surveyor, building control and, in older buildings, surveys before any work starts. VAT on the works has to be paid to contractors before a VAT-registered firm recovers it through its return, which creates a short cash gap covered on our page on VAT and tax funding for law firms.
Tax and building safety points
Much of a refit may qualify for capital allowances. Furniture, IT, AV equipment and many integral features such as lighting, heating and electrical systems can fall within the Annual Investment Allowance, whereas general building work such as partition walls and decoration often does not. The split affects the net cost of the project, so ask your accountant to review the cost plan before you commit. Our guide to asset finance and capital allowances explains how the finance route interacts with the claim.
Many law firms occupy buildings put up or altered before 2000. Before walls, ceilings or floors are disturbed, the person responsible for the building must know whether asbestos is present; the HSE explains who holds that duty to manage asbestos. A refurbishment survey can add cost and time, so build it into the budget and programme from the start.
Illustration: a two-floor refit
Illustration only, with hypothetical round numbers. A 30-person firm has scanned its archive and no longer needs its second-floor file store. It plans a £160,000 refit: £100,000 of building, acoustic and electrical work to create six meeting rooms and an accessible ground floor suite, £40,000 of furniture and conferencing equipment, and £20,000 of design fees and contingency. The landlord agrees a three-month rent-free period in return for a new ten-year lease without a break in the first five years. The firm funds the equipment through hire purchase, takes a five-year unsecured loan for the building work and fees, and pays the VAT on contractor invoices from its existing facility until it is reclaimed.
Costs and risks to weigh
Finance spreads the cost but adds interest and fees, and personal guarantees leave partners exposed if the firm’s income falls. The largest avoidable risk is borrowing for longer than the lease, so the firm is still repaying for a fit-out it has moved out of. Over-specifying is the other: a refit sized for growth that does not arrive leaves the firm paying for empty rooms. Alternatives worth testing first include a larger landlord contribution in exchange for a longer lease, phasing the work over two financial years, or spending on the case management and document systems that let the firm use less space; our page on law firm technology finance covers that route.
Underwriting
What lenders check on a law firm refit
01
Lease length
a lender will be uneasy funding a five-year loan for works in premises the firm can leave in three. Remaining term, break clauses and any landlord contribution all matter.
02
Landlord consent
licence for alterations, and whether the lease requires the firm to strip everything out at the end, which adds a future dilapidations cost.
03
Affordability
the firm’s profits after partner drawings, existing borrowing, PII premium funding and any partner capital loans.
04
A costed plan
contractor quotes or a cost plan, a payment schedule and a contingency. Lenders are wary of open-ended budgets.
05
The rationale
a refit linked to recruiting fee earners, surrendering space or winning higher value work is easier to support than one that is purely cosmetic.
Checklist
Documents for a refurbishment application
Contractor quotes or a cost plan, with a schedule of payments
The lease, licence for alterations or heads of terms for a new lease
Two to three years’ accounts and current management figures
Recent office account bank statements
Supplier quotes for furniture and equipment to be financed separately
Details of existing borrowing and asset finance agreements
Partnership, members’ or shareholders’ agreement and guarantor information
Side by side
Compare your options
How the main business finance structures work. Lenders set their own terms, so treat this as a guide to the questions to ask.
General information only. Every lender has its own criteria, and all finance is subject to status.
Matching the finance to each part of the project
Splitting the project by type of spend usually produces a cheaper and more flexible package than one loan for everything.
Part of the refit
Finance that often fits
Why
Building works, partitions, M&E, decoration
Unsecured term loan, or a secured loan if the firm owns property
No asset a lender can recover, so it is funded on the firm’s profits
Furniture, AV and meeting room equipment
Hire purchase or leasing
The items themselves support the finance and can be spread over their useful life
Design, fees and soft costs
Included in the term loan or specialist fit-out finance
Some lenders fund these within a wider fit-out facility
Short timing gaps, such as VAT on contractor invoices
Short-term loan or existing revolving facility
Cleared within a quarter once VAT is reclaimed
Unsecured term loan
The workhorse for most law firm refits. An unsecured business loan is assessed on the firm’s profits and bank statements, usually with personal guarantees from the partners or directors. It suits works that become part of the building. The trade-off is that the whole amount relies on guarantees rather than security.
Asset and fit-out finance
Specialist fit-out and refurbishment finance can fund a whole package through one provider, while asset finance covers identifiable items such as desks, seating, screens and conferencing systems. Our guide to soft asset finance explains how lenders treat items with limited resale value, which describes much of an office fit-out.
Secured borrowing where the firm owns its building
If the firm or partners own the office, a secured business loan against it can support a larger project over a longer term. Works that improve the building may also improve its value, which is not true when you refit a landlord’s property. If you are buying and refitting together, read our page on law firm office purchase finance, because the two are best planned as one project.
How we put the package together
We split your budget into building works, equipment and timing gaps, and suggest the finance that suits each.
We check the lease position and cost plan so lenders see a complete project.
We approach lenders on our panel and set out their terms, guarantees and drawdown arrangements for you to compare.
The lenders make their decisions; we coordinate drawdowns with your contractor’s payment schedule.
It is free to enquire; any broker fee is disclosed separately before you proceed.
What our clients say
I’d like to say a big thank you to Simon and the team for successfully assisting with the sourcing and placing of our most recent funding. Simon was able to secure a lend when others appeared to have run out of appetite to place business or source viable options. I would highly recommend Simon should you need to raise capital or finance for your business needs.
Solicitors’ practiceManagement teamGoogle review
FAQs
Questions clients ask
Can a landlord contribution replace borrowing for a refit?
Sometimes in part. Landlords may offer a capital contribution or a rent-free period, particularly on a new lease or a longer term, because a fitted-out, long-let office is worth more to them. The trade-off is a longer commitment to the building, so weigh it against the flexibility of funding the works yourself.
Should we pay dilapidations and refit costs from the same facility?
They are different costs. Dilapidations are a liability to your old landlord when you leave, while a fit-out is an investment in new premises. Lenders can fund both, but they will look at the total and at whether the new lease is long enough to justify the spend. Negotiating dilapidations early often reduces the amount to be funded.
Can a sole practitioner finance an office refit?
Yes, on the same principles, with affordability based on the practice’s profits and the principal’s personal position. Borrowing of £25,000 or less by sole traders and small partnerships can be regulated consumer credit, which brings additional protections.
How long does law firm office refurbishment finance take to arrange?
Unsecured refit funding for a law firm can be arranged within a few working days in straightforward cases, once the lender has accounts, management figures and a costed schedule of works. Packages that combine a term loan with asset finance for furniture and technology take longer because each part is assessed separately. Starting before you sign with the contractor avoids paying deposits from reserves while the funding is still being agreed.
Can we finance a refit of offices we rent rather than own?
Yes, most law firm refits take place in leased premises and are funded without any charge over the building. Lenders will want the lease to run comfortably beyond the loan term, because a firm that has to leave early still owes the balance, and they will check that the landlord has consented to the works. Unsecured lending and fit-out and refurbishment finance are the usual routes.
A solicitor partner buyout is usually funded by a term loan to the firm that repays the outgoing partner’s capital and undrawn…
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