Lease/Deal - 5 Checks (Copy)
Before you sign anything, check these five areas that protect value and control in option and lease deals for solar, wind and battery schemes. This is general guidance for landowners and their advisers. It complements, not replaces, legal advice on your specific transaction.
1) Letter of Authority
A Letter of Authority looks harmless, but it can set the path for the entire deal. Grid applications and offers are personal to the applicant and do not attach to the land. Early applicants still tend to secure the better offers, subject to meeting milestones. If you sign an LoA for the wrong party, you can find yourself tied to a developer you would not choose, or at risk of slipping back in the queue if you change horses later.
What to do
• Decide who you want to work with before granting any LoA.
• Make transparency a condition: regular grid status updates, visibility of applications and offers.
• Include a right for any grid offer to be novated back to you if commercial terms cannot be agreed.
• Time‑limit the LoA and state the permitted use clearly.
• Require the developer to comply with all grid milestones at their cost.
2) Liability, indemnities and contamination
Developers increasingly seek to cap liability and to narrow indemnities, sometimes drafting so that cover only applies after you prove negligence. That creates a two‑stage fight and can leave you exposed.
Principles to hold
• No cap for death or personal injury.
• Adequate insurance: specify minimum PL and EL limits and evidence on request.
• Fair contamination allocation: you provide a reasonable knowledge declaration about what you know or should know; the developer takes historic and unknown risks and is responsible for contamination it brings to or exacerbates on the site.
• Sensible caps elsewhere: set higher limits in the lease than in the option.
• Clear carve‑outs where caps do not apply, including fraud, wilful default and breach of confidentiality.
Practical tips
• Watch for wide exclusions of consequential or economic loss where this would undermine your ability to recover real losses.
• Tie insurance to indemnities and require policies to be maintained for the term plus a run‑off period.
3) Restoration security (the bond)
End‑of‑life obligations are significant. Panel, turbine and battery removal, cable extraction where required, ground reinstatement, drainage and replanting all add up. If the developer defaults at the end of the term, you need cash to hand, not promises.
What good looks like
• A hard‑cash or bank‑backed instrument in your name, not an insurer‑discretion product.
• Independent cost assessment at set intervals, with mandatory top‑ups, and a final review in the last year.
• Clear triggers for drawdown and a simple process to access the funds.
• Developer pays all costs of any third‑party determination of bond value.
• Bond to cover removal, transport, recycling or disposal, groundworks and making good access routes.
Red flags
• “At our discretion” insurance alternatives.
• No review mechanism.
• Complex drawdown conditions that delay reinstatement.
4) Grazing, BNG, carbon and agri‑environment schemes
Energy schemes can coexist with farming and environmental value. Handled well, these parallel streams can provide steady income without undermining the project.
Keep control
• Retain the rights to grazing, BNG units and carbon credits where compatible with the scheme and planning conditions.
• For solar, require the developer to deliver any scheme BNG, but keep carbon uplifts from changed land use with the landowner.
• Allow sub‑letting for sheep grazing if desired and specify the developer funds suitable handling facilities.
• Recovery for hedging, mowing and weed control should be at commercial contractor rates if you carry out the work.
• Specify stock‑safe design: safe cable heights, protected terminations and no low loops.
5) Professional costs, revenue rent and data
Disputes and cost creep often arise during construction and through the life of the lease. Clear rules on who pays and how income is verified will save time and money.
Lock down the basics
• Define responsibility and payment for access, surveys, licences, wayleaves, diversions and temporary works.
• Require make‑good for damage to tracks, drains, fences and field furniture.
• Set out metering access, data sharing and the right to audit turnover where a revenue rent applies.
• Agree the decommissioning bond’s mechanics and review timetable at heads‑of‑terms stage.
• Include a straightforward dispute resolution route that does not stall essential works.
Beyond the lease
Think about the whole project lifecycle: pre‑planning surveys, construction traffic and track design, habitat management, grid upgrades, data access, repowering options and end‑of‑life reinstatement. Build a governance rhythm with scheduled meetings, reporting and site walks. Specialist landowner advice helps you retain control without slowing good schemes.
How we help
RP Rural & Energy is an independent adviser acting only for landowners. We review heads of terms, options and leases, negotiate commercial points, and set up practical management so the deal works on the ground. We work across solar, wind and battery projects throughout the UK.
Get in touch
Website: rpruralandenergy.co.uk
Email: info@rpruralandenergy.co.uk
Phone: 00000 000000
This note is general guidance, not legal advice. Always obtain advice on your specific circumstances before entering into any agreement.