In a Bay Area furnished sublease, the furniture is usually conveyed either by a bill of sale, by a licence to use for the term, or informally with no document at all, and which one applies determines whether you own an asset or are holding somebody else's disposal liability. Before signing, confirm in writing who holds title, what condition the furniture must be in at expiry, and whether removal at the end is your obligation. Inventory and grade the furniture during due diligence, because a floor of unusable furniture costs real money to clear and that cost belongs to whoever the document says it belongs to.
The Bay Area sublease market has been unusually deep for a while now, and a large share of what is available comes furnished. For a growing team that is genuinely attractive. Move-in ready, no furniture procurement cycle, no capital request.
It is also where a surprising number of decommissioning calls originate, about two years later, from a tenant who has just discovered that the furniture they thought was a perk is an obligation with a removal cost attached.
Three ways the furniture gets conveyed
Everything downstream depends on which of these your document actually says, and the three are routinely confused in conversation.
- Bill of sale Title transfers to you, usually for a nominal sum. The furniture is now your asset. It is also now your problem at the end of the term, and you can sell it, which is the upside nobody exercises.
- Licence to use for the term Title stays with the sublandlord. You use it, you maintain it, and you hand it back in a defined condition. The condition standard is the clause to read twice.
- Nothing in writing More common than it should be. The furniture is simply there. At expiry two parties discover they had different assumptions, and the one holding the space when the clock runs out pays.
What to check during due diligence
Treat the furniture the way you would treat any other asset conveyed with a property. Two hours of work here is the whole difference.
- Inventory it before you sign, not after Manufacturer, model, quantity, finish, and condition by zone. Photograph it. This is the baseline that a condition clause at expiry gets measured against, and without it the measurement is an argument.
- Grade it honestly Some of it is genuinely valuable and some of it is a tipping fee waiting to be charged. Panel systems and filing are heavy, low value on resale, and expensive to dispose of. Task seating from the last seven years is the opposite.
- Read the restoration obligations in both leases The sublease and the master lease. A sublandlord cannot give you better terms than they hold, and the restoration standard that ultimately applies is the one in the master lease. See reading a restoration clause.
- Establish who removes what at expiry In writing, per category. The single most expensive ambiguity in a furnished sublease is a floor of systems furniture that both parties believe the other is taking.
- Price the exit before you price the entry If you will owe a clear-out, get a number for it now, while you still have the option of negotiating who carries it. Ninety days before the end is the right time to execute. It is the wrong time to find out.
The part that is genuinely good news
If the furniture comes to you by bill of sale and it is commercial grade, you have been handed a real asset, and most subtenants never find that out. Task chairs, height-adjustable bases, benching, and matched systems from a well-kept San Francisco office carry meaningful secondary value. At the end of the term that value is a credit against your own move rather than a line on a disposal invoice.
It also means you can improve what you inherited. A furnished sublease rarely matches the way the incoming team works, and replacing a third of it with second life product at 40-60% below new, while selling what you displace, is a cheaper path to a workable office than accepting a layout designed for somebody else.
What the paperwork should say
| Question | What you want in writing |
|---|---|
| Who holds title | Named party, with a schedule of what is included |
| Condition at expiry | A defined standard, measured against a signed inventory |
| Removal obligation | Which party, which categories, at whose cost |
| Alterations | Whether you may replace or reconfigure, and what happens to displaced pieces |
| Master lease restoration | The actual clause, not a summary of it |
Looking at a furnished sublease right now? Send the inventory and both restoration clauses through the decommission intake and we will tell you what the furniture is worth and what the exit costs, before you are committed to either. If you are on the other side, subletting space you furnished, selling your office furniture covers what that inventory is worth on its own.