Promissory estoppel?

[Oneblindmouse]

Could anyone tell me what a Promissory Estoppel achieves if granted by a court please?

It is a very technical term which you understandably don't understand (given how you have phrased the question).

It is a defence in equity against a claim. It means that someone (party A) promised not to enforce their strict legal rights, someone else (party B) relied on that promise to their detriment, and it would be unconscionable to for party A to be allowed to resile from their promise.

If you are involved in a case that this has come up in then you really ought to get some proper legal advice.

@Collaborate thank you.
I understand what it means. What I am asking is what will it achieve if granted by a court. I have sought legal advice on the problem and they have suggested it as a way to approach the problem. The solicitor has not explained how achieving this will help , and takes around a week to answer queries. We don't want to instruct them to go ahead with this if it will not solve the problem.

It's not something that would be "granted" by a Court. A judgment might be given which states that you have a defence to a claim as a result of estoppel (could be promissory, could be another estoppel).

What's the legal issue? Generally, as stated above, estoppel is used as a shield, rather than a sword, so wouldn't usually give you a cause of action.

I have a thread about the issue and I should probably have posted this question on there. I will do so now. This is the original thread (never linked to a thread before but will have a go).Land Registry Restriction Removal

As the pp said it would help if you could give a brief indication of what this is about.

Estoppel claims can come up with, for example, family farms. The typical example is the parent tells the child "Stay here and work the farm and then, one day, when I'm gone all this will be yours". Then, on the death of the parent it turns out that the farm has been left to somebody else who never worked on the farm.

@Another2Cats here is a summary of the issue.

DS bought a house in 2019. His then partner (A) had lots of debt so couldn't be on the mortgage. House is in DS sole name.
A Discretionary Trust was set up listing their respective shares of equity when the house was sold in future. The Trust conditions were that both of them contributed equally to the mortgage, maintenance and home improvements.

A did not contribute to any of the above so DS paid everything himself. It was difficult as he believed when buying the house that the financial load would be shared with A.
Ten months after the house purchase A committed a serious crime and was jailed for at least six years.
DS now wants to sell the house but cannot as he would have to give a large sum to A which would mean DS could not afford to buy another house.
If A will not sign a Deed of Surrender DS cannot move forward with selling his property.

My understanding is that if one party has broken an agreement the other party is due compensation/recompense etc. What the compensation/recompense might be will differ in each case. In the example provided I think and IANAL, it might be a court signs the deed of surrender and your DS may need to pay A nothing or a more representative smaller sum.

This may help https://england.shelter.org.uk/professional_resources/legal/debt/debt_relief_orders/debt_relief_order_specialist_resources/debt_relief_orders_and_written_off_debts#:~:text=Promissory%20estoppel%20arises%20where%20one,under%20the%20law%20of%20equity.

As others have said, the court won't "grant" your son promissory estoppel. It is an argument designed to win your case, either by making A pay what she should have paid or, more likely, by reducing or removing her share of the property. I'm not saying it will succeed, but that is what the solicitor is suggesting.

@Harassedevictee and @prh47bridge thank you both. DS doesn't want to try to get A to pay what was originally promised and won't fight for that. All he wants is the ability to sell his house without paying any of the proceeds to his ex partner; given the fact that A paid nothing towards the house at all and caused DS so much stress and a great toll on his mental health. DS paid off A's debts and sent him money, clothes, etc. in prison for over 3 years. It is shocking that it is going to be so difficult to sort this out.