Got a promotion or option agreement on your desk?
A fixed-fee review and redline from a property lawyer with twenty years' experience — including ten years inside a major city council's planning division and a current strategic-land role.
You've been approached by a developer.
You own farmland, paddock, an old yard, or a bit of land that's near a village edge or settlement boundary. A promoter or a developer has sent you a 30-page document. It is called a Promotion Agreement, an Option Agreement, a Hybrid Promotion / Option, or a Collaboration Agreement.
It says it commits you to nothing — but it's still 30 pages of legal English you didn't write. There are caps on costs, deductions, top-up payments, run-off periods, planning windows, agreed minimum prices, exclusion zones. You don't know what's standard and what's the developer leaning on you.
You don't want to spend £3,000 on a London law firm. The family solicitor in town can do leases, but isn't really a land-promotion specialist. You want someone who's seen a hundred of these and can tell you in plain English what to push back on.
A clean redline, a short pushback note, and time to think.
Promotion agreement review
- Full mark-up of the draft against typical market terms
- Short plain-English note on the 5–10 most important pushback points
- Suggested redline language you can send back to the promoter's solicitor
- One follow-up call (up to 30 minutes) to walk through it
Typical fee: from £900 fixed, agreed in writing before any work starts.
Turnaround: usually within 24–48 hours of receiving the draft.
Option agreement & collaboration deals
- Review of option deeds and call/put options
- Heads of terms negotiation and review
- JV / collaboration agreements between landowners and promoters
- Exclusivity and lock-out deeds
Typical fee: from £900 fixed for a review; from £2,000 for a bespoke draft.
What this is not: the conveyancing or registered-land step at the end of the deal. That's reserved legal work and goes to an SRA-regulated conveyancer or property solicitor. We'll instruct or co-work with one — you keep one point of contact.
We've sat on both sides of the table.
Inside the council
Our founder, Dmytro Taran, spent nine years inside Kharkiv City Council's Urban Planning & Land Affairs Division, the last twenty months as Head of Division. Knowing how planning decisions actually get made matters when you're negotiating a planning-conditional agreement.
Inside a UK promoter
Dmytro also works as Land Promotion Manager at Montare LLP, a UK strategic-land developer in the South East. He reads these agreements every week from the promoter's side — and knows which terms they care about and which they will quietly drop.
20 years on property
More than three hundred real-estate and construction matters delivered to date. Property and land have been the through-line throughout.
Conflict-checked
Because of the Montare role, every new property enquiry is conflict-checked at first contact. If your counterparty or scheme touches the Montare portfolio, we'll tell you immediately and refer you on.
From "I got this letter" to "I've sent it back".
Send the draft
Email us the agreement, the cover letter, and any heads of terms or earlier correspondence. The first 20-minute conversation is free.
Fixed fee, in writing
We confirm scope, deliverables and price in writing. Most reviews are £900 to £1,500. Larger or bespoke deals quoted separately.
Redline and a phone call
You receive a marked-up agreement, a short pushback note in plain English, and a 30-minute call to walk through it.
Things landowners ask first.
Is the developer's offer "standard"?
Some clauses are market-standard. Others are leverage. Without a side-by-side comparison with two or three other live UK promotion agreements, you can't tell which is which — and the promoter is unlikely to volunteer it. That's the core of the review.
Do I have to sign anything to start a conversation with you?
No. The first call is free and you owe nothing if you decide not to instruct. If you do instruct, we sign a one-page engagement letter setting out scope, fee and confidentiality.
What if the agreement is already in negotiation and we're on draft 3?
Send all the drafts and the comments. We can pick up mid-stream, fixed-fee, with a short summary of where the negotiation has landed and what's still worth pushing back on.
Are you a solicitor? Can you do the conveyancing too?
No to both. Taran Legal is led by a foreign-qualified property and commercial lawyer working as an independent legal consultant — not SRA-regulated. The conveyancing step (registered-land transfers, charges, completion) is a reserved legal activity, and we instruct or co-work with a regulated conveyancer or property solicitor for that. You keep one point of contact with us; they handle the registration paperwork.
What's the typical fee?
A full review and redline of a promotion or option agreement is typically £900–£1,500 fixed. Larger deals (multi-party, hybrid promotion/option, complex collaboration) are quoted separately. Hourly rate available for open-ended negotiation support is £180/hour.
I'm in Surrey / East Sussex / Essex / Hampshire — is that OK?
Yes. Most work is done remotely; we're happy to travel within the South East for a face-to-face meeting if it's useful.
What about my farm tenant / sitting agricultural tenant?
Agricultural tenancy interplay with promotion agreements is one of the standard pitfalls. We'll flag it at the review stage and, where the tenancy needs separate attention, refer to or co-work with an agricultural-tenancy solicitor.
Five things to check on your promotion agreement
A short plain-English briefing on the five clauses that do most of the work in a UK promotion agreement. Download, read, come back when you have questions.
Ready to send us the draft?
First 20 minutes are free. Most reviews back within 24–48 hours.