promise specifically envisages Realty conducting a survey, a court would be more willing, in this case, to find that Realty had undertaken to do a survey in return for Simon’s promise. As noted above, a court will be anxious to uphold such a promise if possible. As ever, if Realty relies on Simon’s promise – which may be the case if they do a survey – then the court will normally try harder to find a binding contract. In the end, it is not certain that this third promise would be enforced in English law, though it probably would be, especially if Realty has relied.

The change in market price is strictly speaking irrelevant in all of the above, though it is possible that if the result was not clear cut, as in Case 13(c), a court might be influenced by the prospect of Simon getting a bad deal. On the other hand, price rises in land are so common that it is unlikely that a court would be greatly influenced by such an event.

ireland

There can be a problem in seeing the consideration for a promise when the promisee is not yet bound. The promise by Simon in each of the three cases cited would be classified in Irish law as a ‘firm’ offer, meaning one containing a promise not to revoke it for a period of time. Chitty55 points out that the mere fact that such a promise has been made does not prevent the offeror from revoking the offer within that period where the promise is unsupported by consideration.

In some cases consideration will be provided, for example, where the offeree pays or promises to pay a sum of money for the promise and so buys an option. Chitty suggests that it is also possible for a person, to whom a promise not to revoke an offer for the sale of property has been made, to provide consideration for that promise by incurring the expense of a survey.56

In the present case, Simon has made his promise in each case ‘without charging anything’. Therefore on the face of it the promise is unsupported by consideration and is consequently not binding and can be revoked before performance by Realty. However, the situation would probably be different if Realty does some act before revocation such as incurring the expense of conducting a study. In such circumstances an Irish court would probably follow the suggestion by Chitty57 and hold that Realty had provided consideration for Simon’s promise and thus rendered the promise binding.