Question

Halil wants to lease a commercial building in the capital of the Island Republic of Mirdita. Vuno owns prime commercial land in the heart of the city but it is empty. Halil enters into negotiations with Vuno for the following:

o Vuno to build a commercial building on Vuno's land for 300,000 dollars;

o Halil will then lease the building from Vuno when it is completed for 50,000 dollars a month for 3 years

Halil's solicitors draft contract and send it to Vuno's solicitors. But Vuno's solicitors believe that certain clauses in the contract still need to be negotiated between Halil and Vuno and that and that this re-negotiation and re-writing could take at least one month before everything is negotiated and the contract can be signed by both Halil and Vuno.

Halil then tells Vuno that "I cannot wait for your solicitors to re-write the draft contract. You need to start work and start building the premises straight away If you don't start straight away then this be too late for me and could jeopardize our deal. Don't worry, we have a deal. You build it and I will pay you and lease it from you. I will sign the contract when we negotiate everything and your lawyers have re-written it, no problem".

Vuno then starts building the commercial premises on his land. However, Halil also enters into negotiations with another person, Himzo, who already has owns a commercial building in Honiara, to lease that building from Himzo. Halil says nothing to Vuno about his negotiations with Himzo. 2 weeks later, Halil tells Vuno that he has found another building to lease and will not be going ahead with the contract with Vuno. Vuno protests against this saying that he has already spent a lot of time and money to date in building the premises.

But Halil says "So what? We never finished negotiations so we don't have a contract and we did not sign a contract, so we don't have a contract. It's not my problem".

Can Vuno rely upon the doctrine of promissory estoppel to enforce the debt or not?